The latest streets and transportation news from Streetsblog NYC.
TGIF! We have one thing to celebrate (and another to shake our fists at) on this hazy Friday morning:
Sophia Lebowitz learned that the City Council will vote Monday on a package of bills to regulate the app-based delivery industry. One of these includes a bill that will finally close the “Instacart loophole,” where workers for grocery delivery apps were not included under the city’s restaurant-centric minimum wage law that went into effect in 2023.
We first reported on this back in November, paying special notice to how this impacted the city’s primarily French speaking Black immigrants.
Our video coverage won the Streetsblog team a Deadline Club Award for digital video reporting earlier this year. Watch the video here, starring Sophia Lebowitz and edited by Emily Lipstein.
Also in today’s news: Citi Bike riders are pissed about the 15mph speed cap that’s been implemented on the bike-share company’s e-bikes. Riders told Streetsblog summer specialist Jonah Schwarz that they’re now unable to safely accelerate to move out of the way in dicey car traffic situations, since the bikes don’t seem to speed up enough, no matter how fast riders pedal.
Related: If any Streetsblog readers have a wheel-on smart bicycle trainer that they’d be willing to loan or donate to our team for an upcoming video experiment… please email emily@streetsblog.org
The top cop’s decision came even though the NYPD’s patrol guide prohibits both excessive force and bars officers from parking on the sidewalk.
The urbanist journalist doesn’t think QueensWay will prevent the city and state from installing rail in the future.
Intercity bus companies already pay to use city curbs. A modest increase could help give passengers a better place to wait.
The mayor faces heat from Streetsblog-reading reporters. Plus other news.
The administration offers a 104-page vision statement that’s a bit hazy on the specifics.
