Whoooosh! A pedestrian steps off a curb, and a bike zips by—barely missing him. In New York City, cheap, non-polluting electric bicycles are loved by environmentalists and the workforce that relies on them. But for folks on foot, the quiet, quick vehicles are a menace. Fed-up NYC officials are promising a crackdown. The e-bike party may soon be over.
Under city law, e-bikes are legal to own and sell. But riding them on the street can lead to a fine of up to $500. That’s big bucks for workers who operate delivery bikes on 6,000 miles of NYC roadways. Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that businesses whose employees use e-bikes are subject to fines too.
“Electric bikes are illegal to operate on city streets, and [business owners] need to be held accountable,” says city spokesman Austin Finan. “We’re going after businesses that look the other way and leave their workers to shoulder the fine.”
The new e-bike policy will no doubt prove popular with some New Yorkers. Many complain that the bikes—which look and handle like regular bicycles but can reach speeds of 20 mph or more—are often driven recklessly.
But it’s bad news for delivery workers like Clemente Martinez, who spends up to 12 hours each day on his e-bike.
“It’s not fair because people like me do depend on them,” says Martinez. He came from Mexico to the United States almost 15 years ago. He’s worked as a deliveryman almost all that time.
E-bikes make a tremendous difference for the delivery workforce, says Do Lee. The advocate for delivery workers says many are middle-aged or older. They drive for hours and put in numerous miles to meet the demand for quick delivery.
“They couldn’t do their jobs without electric bikes,” Lee says.
Even so, police enforcement against e-bikes is mounting. In 2017, police confiscated almost 1,000 of them—up several hundred from the year before.
Following rules that seem unjust is difficult. Yet Romans 13:1 says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.” How should an employee in this case respond?
Attorney Elizabeth Jordan says NYC restaurants almost expect workers to own bikes and to maintain them.
“They have to have these bikes in order to get these jobs,” she says. She worries about how increased anti-e-bike policies will affect low-pay laborers. “We think that even though the policy has the intention of going after the restaurants, it will fall on the backs of the workers.”
