New York finally legalizes electric bikes and scooters:
New York's status as a stubborn holdout against electric bikes and scooters appears to finally be over. Included in the state's tentative budget agreement reached on April 1st is a provision that would legalize throttle-based bikes and scooters, which would effectively end the City of New York's unfair and frustratingly long-running crackdown on immigrant delivery workers.
The budget language almost exactly mirrors a bill that passed the New York State Legislature last year but was inexplicably vetoed at the last minute by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It changes state law to legalize e-bikes and scooters but would give localities the ability to decide for themselves how to regulate the vehicles. Throttle-based e-bikes favored by delivery workers would be legal, and dockless scooter services like Bird and Lime would need to be permitted by municipalities before launching. Scooters would stay illegal in Manhattan, though the city could eventually overrule that provision.
It's undoubtedly a huge win for delivery workers and immigrant rights groups
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by takyon on Sunday April 05 2020, @01:02PM
Try going downhill.
The roads must be relatively barren, right? Time to scoot on out and get the virus.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 05 2020, @01:12PM
Electric Bikes and Scooters should remain Schedule 1: With no transportation benefits and a high rate of addiction.
Did you know that Electric Bikes and Scooters abuse leads to Electric Bikes and Scooters treatment classes being #1,
far higher among established methods of transportation like the good old trusty automobile?
Electric Bikes and Scooters - not even once!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 05 2020, @03:10PM
I guess pedestrians have no product to sell, as they use their God given legs for locomotion, not some machine to be sold or rented. Therefore they can't form a business lobbying group with money to theow around.
(Score: 3, Funny) by crafoo on Sunday April 05 2020, @04:21PM (2 children)
It's going to suck being a pedestrian in NY.
It brings back images of those early 1900s film footage reels with buggies, horses, model T's, and pedestrians all are swerving around across multi-lane dirt-and-shit covered roads barely missing each other.
Do everyone else in the USA a favor and ban helmets inside NY city.
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday April 05 2020, @05:55PM
Ban on helmets and other protection gear makes a lot of sense to me.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday April 06 2020, @12:35PM
Pedestrians are top of the travel ecosystem in NYC. Drivers are next, cyclists are last.
Cyclists have bike lanes now, though. Some of them are shared, which means they are non-functional because drivers think they're lanes meant for double parking. Some of them are protected and separated by a curb or wide no-parking strip; those work as intended. The only friction point between cyclists and pedestrians now is intersections, with cyclists who don't honor traffic lights, and pedestrians who lead off the curb in the bike lanes while glued to their smartphones. Both those parties get what they deserve then.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 05 2020, @04:24PM
They can have their $80 take-out burgers delivered by e-scooter, while they're waiting to die.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 05 2020, @06:19PM (1 child)
"Throttle-based e-bikes favored by delivery workers would be legal, and dockless scooter services like Bird and Lime would need to be permitted by municipalities before launching."
as if private business is any business of the government. fuck new york.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 05 2020, @06:31PM
Great, I'll start my aborted fetus grill immediately.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by inertnet on Sunday April 05 2020, @07:34PM (2 children)
They can scare the shit out of you. You expect old people on bikes to go 5 mph, but on e-bikes they effortlessly fly by at 20 mph, smiling at all the braking motorists.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 05 2020, @09:38PM
As opposed to when driving at 20mph nice and safe in the middle lane of the freeway?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 05 2020, @11:16PM
We don't need ebikes for that, our elderly here in Oz already scoot around in 4 wheeled e-carts terrorizing folks.
Anyway, I just don't why there's so much resistance legalizing ebikes/escooters - we have the same situation here in NSW where our antiquated road laws technically prohibits them - anything not pedal assisted requires a driving license, so e-scooters and e-skateboards, are technically illegal, pedal assisted e-bikes are fine, because you need a license but the road transport don't have a process to issue license for them so you can't get one. However that doesn't stop retailers all selling them and lots of people using them and the authorities turning a blind eye, but the fucking politicos still refuse to legalize them.
What they should really do though is not just legalize them but put in clear enforceable rules like ensuring they have to slow down to 5km/h or some number when closing in on pedestrians if they're on shared sidewalks, etc.
Out public transport, trains and buses, into the city are way over-crowded, we have good infra. dedicated for bikes, lots of people staying within 10km, and that is a lot of people in Sydney, don't really need to take mass movers. Everything is there except the legal fineprint.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2020, @01:28AM
Bike messengers have developed their own subculture and also spun off some serious athletes, like former Olympian Nelson Vails. Allowing electric assist might ruin it for actual bikies, so much for that training ground for future athletes...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Vails [wikipedia.org]
I watched him once on the Carson CA velodrome, a very special human. His upper legs were about as big around as my waist (~30 inches) and those legs were spinning the pedals so fast they were a blur, over 3 revs/second (cadence about 200 rpm).
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Monday April 06 2020, @12:42PM
Justifying this move as "a win for immigrants!" is silly. It's a win for all New Yorkers. Bikes are hands-down the best way to get around the city. You can bike from one end to the other in an hour and a half on a regular bike (for some values of $ONE_END_TO_THE_OTHER). It's faster than a subway you have to make transfers in, and faster than a car that's mired in traffic on the West Side Highway or FDR drive. E-bikes would greatly improve on that, and their mass adoption would take a lot of pressure off NYC's other transportation options. The city is hillier than people realize, and that prevents many from biking. The Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge, for example, is about 500 feet higher than the Manhattan side.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday April 06 2020, @12:51PM
As the ambient hysteria in New York City has grown over the last three years I have occasionally commented to my wife that when the cataclysm hits the only ones who survive will be the Central American delivery guys on e-bikes: drivers will instantly go nowhere; pedestrians won't be able to get far enough, fast enough; regular cyclists won't leave their families behind; but Central American delivery guys will be able to take their wives, five kids, and full BBQ sets on their e-bikes just like they do on sunny weekends to Prospect Park.
Washington DC delenda est.