Where would New Yorkers be without a great leader like Bill de Blasio to protect them from the scourge of … electronic bicycles?
After saving New York from unlicensed dog walkers, de Blasio takes aim at prompt food delivery. https://t.co/xsR9aHPevO
— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) October 24, 2017
More from Slate:
Though technically illegal to use in New York state, the battery-powered bicycles have helped the city’s more than 50,000 bicycle deliverymen keep pace with perennial demand for take-out food and surging requests for deliveries of groceries and consumer products. The bikes are perfectly suited for the demands of the job: They facilitate affordable, rapid transportation of lightweight goods through a metropolis with virtually no remaining streetspace, without generating exhaust or noise.
On Thursday, de Blasio announced the nation’s largest city would start fining restaurants in addition to operators, expanding and formalizing a style of broken-windows policing favored by the NYPD, which has confiscated 900 e-bikes this year. His justification? E-bikes are “just too dangerous,” the mayor said at a press conference.
How dangerous are they? Nearly 70 pedestrians (and 13 cyclists) have been killed by cars, trucks, and buses in New York City this year. No one has been killed by a bicycle. As for e-bikes in particular? The NYPD has no data on e-bike accidents or complaints. Nor does the city have any information about how the crackdown affects restaurants or riders. De Blasio was acting on instinct: The crackdown began when a local cyclist, Matthew Shefler, called into his radio show to complain.
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such a dick move
— Erin ? Ryan (@morninggloria) October 24, 2017
Totally.
Makes me wish for the good old days when they just took bribes….
— Anthony Barone (@NicoloMac) October 24, 2017
"How's that sex assault clearance rate, Mayor?"
"Look! A rogue delivery man! Send all available officers after him!"
— Chris O'Connor (@ChristopOConnor) October 24, 2017
https://twitter.com/Herodotustoday/status/922832011290644483
The kind of shit would get any other mayor in any other city run out on a rail pic.twitter.com/xteT2syVwe
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) October 24, 2017
But Bill de Blasio is no ordinary mayor.
So glad he's focused on the real issues. What a joke? And amazingly he's going to be re-elected.
— Salty Austere Patriot ?? (@Thrill504) October 24, 2017
https://twitter.com/DanFosterType/status/922834852206006272
https://twitter.com/minervas_muse/status/922840350607241216
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