Delivery Workers Struggle With City’s Rules for Electric Bikes
Abul Ekrim is a Bengali immigrant who works at a Papa John’s in Queens, delivering pizzas on his bike. On a busy day, he can make as many as 30 deliveries. It’s hard to get so many orders to people on time, so he relies on his electric bike and, he admits, he occasionally breaks a few traffic rules.
“I’ve gotten lots of tickets by the police. When I’m in a hurry during a delivery, or I’m rushing to make a delivery on time, I get pulled over by the cops,” Ekrim said. “The fine can be big.”
Valerie Mason lives on the Upper East Side, where many people order food for delivery. At night, she says the streets are filled with workers dropping off orders. She is in constant fear that someone on an electric bike will injure her or one of her neighbors.
“There an incredible number of bikes running around,” Mason said. “People are afraid, and rightly.”
Some of those bikes are prohibited by city regulations, but delivery workers — many of them Latino or Chinese immigrants — insist they need them for work. And they are the ones who more often face fines or other punishment, even though business owners are supposed to be responsible, under current commercial-bike law.
Thomas Chan, the city Police Department’s Chief of Transportation, testified in January that in 2018, NYPD issued more than1,000 electric bike summonses (which can carry a fine of up to $500), and an additional 1,362 e-bike moving violations, according to The Gothamist. The summonses were given to people for riding an illegal electric bike, whereas the moving violations refer to traffic infractions, like riding on sidewalks, or failing to stop at red lights.
By contrast, 164 businesses received electric bike summonses, which carry a fine of $100 for first-time offenders, and up to double for second-time offenders.
Ekrim received both a summons and a violation last year. “I got two really big fines — one was $375 and the other was $425 — and I ended up having to pay both of them.” He said that’s the price he pays to make deliveries on time.
This type of cycling frightens some city residents. Mason, president of the East Seventy-Second Neighborhood Association, said people in her neighborhood often have concerns. “When somebody steps out into the crosswalk, they should be able to feel confident that a motorized bike or car is not going to come in the opposite direction and mow them down.”
Ekrim purchased his throttle-controlled bike for about $1,000 three years ago. A throttle at the handlebar allows Ekrim to activate the electric mechanism of the bike without pedaling.
But throttle-controlled bikes are illegal in New York City, even as they are common among delivery workers. They were available before pedal-assist electric bikes — which activate the electric mechanism by pedal — and are often cheaper than other electric bikes.
Both can go at comparable speeds. However, some cyclists say that activating the electric mechanism with a throttle is easier than having to pedal to achieve the same speed.
Many delivery workers work long hours, getting off around 1 a.m., and spend most of the day cycling, so their jobs make it difficult to follow current laws, said Josh Bisker, founder of NYC Mechanical Gardens Co-op.
“By virtue of the work you do, you have to break all the laws. By virtue of the work, you’re poor entering wealthy places, you’re nonwhite entering white places,” said Bisker, 31. “To do the thing you have to do, you have to put yourself in the position of transgression.”
Electric bikes became popular with delivery workers about a decade ago, and not just because they’re faster. For older workers, electric bikes offer release from the strain of constant pedaling.
Ben Kallos, city councilman for District 5 which includes East 72nd Street where Mason lives, said he often sees electric bikes going the wrong way, or speeding, or on sidewalks. He blames employers who push delivery workers to make a quota.
“This city needs to be much better about writing violations to the businesses,” Kallos said. “If they were getting tickets and they knew that they could be shut down if the delivery cyclists disobeyed too many laws, they might recalibrate and say, ‘Take fewer runs, take more time.’ ”
Many restaurants don’t employ the delivery workers, instead relying on third-party services like GrubHub or DoorDash. These companies often hire people as independent contractors rather than as employees. That gives the services — and the restaurants — more leeway to avoid responsibility for their workers.
There is little data that suggest these bikes are more dangerous than others. According to the city, 89 pedestrians have been injured by cyclists this year. However, the data do not indicate how many of those the bikes were electric. There have been no reported deaths due to electric bikes.
The issue has also drawn the attention of some state legislators.
“In most situations, the restaurant or store is not the employer. There needs to be a wholesale re-evaluation of wages, insurance, liability, throughout the industry,” State Sen. Liz Krueger said in an email to Transit New York. “Employers should not be allowed to order their workers to violate any laws. The exploitative working conditions of delivery riders need to be addressed but legalizing dangerous behavior that they are being forced into by their employers won’t help them or make our roads safer.”
