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
A first full fleet inventory led to 70 fewer vehicles, fewer take-home cars and new accountability for crashes. Experts say New York’s deficit-ridden cities should audit their own.
DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn declined to make any firm commitments on Tuesday when pressed on the program’s start date.
“The federal government is using subterfuge to waste the judge’s and MTA attorneys’ time and all of our money,” one attorney and advocate fumed.
A Staten Island judge ruled against the city’s Victory Boulevard bus lane project. Plus other news.
A first full fleet inventory led to 70 fewer vehicles, fewer take-home cars and new accountability for crashes. Experts say New York’s deficit-ridden cities should audit their own.
DOT should revoke parking placards issued to non-profits that rack up excessive speed-camera or red-light violations.
