E-bike Registration Bill May Pose Challenges for Delivery Workers
City Council members seem to agree on the need to regulate e-bikes, but are unsure about the best way to do it.
A bill that would force owners to register electric bikes and mopeds with the Department of Transportation is still waiting for a hearing, a year after it was introduced by Queens Council Member Robert Holden, even though 27 of his colleagues have co-sponsored it.
While there is no standard timeline for a bill to receive a hearing, a Council spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the “bill is going through the Council’s legislative process.”
Along with registration, the proposed legislation would also require license plates for e-bikes and other motorized vehicles. Holden wants authorities to be able to identify e-bike users and hold them accountable if they run a red light or injure a pedestrian.
“All you have to do is look around New York City to see people riding these e-bikes and mopeds,routinely disregarding every traffic law in New York City,” Holden said.
But some transportation advocates and elected officials are concerned that the legislation could lead to inequitable enforcement and have disproportionate repercussions for delivery workers of color.
Using criminal court summons data from the New York Police Department, the non-profit organization Transportation Alternatives found that 92% of tickets issued to cyclists in 2022 were to people of color.
But Holden rejects that argument. “I’m trying to bring law and order to our streets, I’m identifying a problem, and they’re bringing up race,” he said.
In an email to Labor New York, Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Worker’s Justice Project, an advocacy group for low-wage immigrant workers, said that she finds the bill troubling. She said that it would create “additional hurdles for low-income New Yorkers who are forced to buy their own equipment to make a living.”
An essential tool for New York City’s delivery workers, e-bikes are powering people’s hunger for quick food delivery. In a CNN interview, Guallpa said that an estimated 80 percent of the city’s 65,000 delivery workers rely on e-bikes. According to a 2021 study by her organization, most of them are immigrants and people of color.
Guallpa believes the bill overlooks the root causes of the issues it seeks to address. “The growing dependency on e-bikes and mopeds is fueled by the demands of multi-billion dollar food delivery apps,” she explained. These apps “recklessly widened delivery radiuses without notice, forcing delivery workers to travel longer distances to fulfill orders as soon as possible.”
Enforcement of the proposed rules could increase interactions with the police. Jackson Todd, a former organizer and researcher with Los Deliveristas Unidos, a New York City-based collective that’s partnered with the Worker’s Justice Project, said that some delivery workers, especially if undocumented, could be wary of having to show an ID to the police.
But Holden wants workers to follow the rules. “They’re living in this underground society, and they’re probably working off the books, which is they’re not paying taxes,” said Holden. “That’s not good for anyone. I don’t have sympathy if they’re telling me they don’t want to get ID cards.”
As a possible solution, Bronx Council Member Oswald Feliz suggested requiring the e-bikes to be registered under particular delivery apps instead of by individual workers. That way, companies would be held responsible if their workers feel the need to use the devices in ways that are unsafe for themselves or pedestrians.
“Whatever we do,” said Feliz, “we need to make sure we do it in a way that will not have any unintended consequences that could potentially harm the workers, especially those that could be undocumented.”
While also expressing concerns about enforcement, Brooklyn Council Member Sandy Nurse, a former delivery worker herself, said that the city needs to find “ways to provide accountability for when harm is done.”
Nurse thinks the bill should be part of a larger effort, including building more protected bike lanes and ensuring delivery apps and restaurants pay workers enough so they don’t need to rush to make deliveries.
Nurse and Feliz highlighted that they have sponsored the bill because they have noticed a rapid growth of e-mobility devices and also a rise in pedestrian safety concerns from their constituents.
They underscored that a hearing for the bill will allow for more conversations about how to regulate e-bikes in a way that protects pedestrians and delivery workers alike.
Guallpa sees other tangible steps to addressing street safety, such as creating safer and equitable micro-mobility infrastructure in the city, and educating delivery workers about traffic rules.
“Street safety is workplace safety for New York City’s 65,000 app-based food delivery workers,” Guallpa stated. “And we are committed to working with city and state leaders to make New York City’s streets safer for all.”
