If E-Bikes Are the Future, Why Are They Illegal?
The War on Cars
The War on Cars, LLC
4.9 • 937 Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2018
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From coast to coast, electric-bikes are having their moment. But a New York City Police Department crackdown on delivery cyclists who rely on e-bikes to do their jobs has some wondering if a double standard isn't at play. At a time when big companies are jumping on the e-bike bandwagon, are the immigrant men who deliver food being unfairly punished? We discuss the murky laws surrounding e-bikes and what the future has in store with Helen Ho of the Biking Public Project.
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EPISODE NOTES:
The Biking Public Project (Tumblr)
"One Man's Fight to Regulate E-Bikes in His Neighborhood" (WNYC)
Who really gets fined when the police crackdown on e-bikes? (Gothamist)
Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek and Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1.
Questions? Suggestions? Complaints about how much we curse? Email us! thewaroncars@gmail.com.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | All right, welcome everybody to the war on Cars, where we agonize over transportation modes |
| 0:15.4 | as if they were of vital moral importance, because they are. |
| 0:20.3 | They are of vital moral importance. I'm Sarah Goodyear and I'm here with my co-host, |
| 0:25.0 | Sarah Napersack, and Doug Gordon. |
| 0:28.0 | Hello. And we're going to be talking about electric bikes this time, |
| 0:31.0 | e-bikes, because e-bikes kind of encapsulate everything in a weird way. |
| 0:35.8 | Yeah, they're about immigration and class here in New York and elsewhere. |
| 0:40.0 | And policing and labor issues and... The future... and |
| 0:45.0 | the future of urban mobility about transitioning cities away from |
| 0:50.0 | gas burning exhaust spewing cars to something smaller and |
| 0:54.3 | cleaner and more efficient and who wouldn't want that well who wouldn't |
| 0:58.6 | who wouldn't want that it turns obviously better yeah i hate to be the bear of bad news, but like all good things there are people who don't like electric bicycles. |
| 1:08.6 | No. No, yeah, you hear a lot of complaints from people about e-bike riders delivering food going the wrong way and |
| 1:15.2 | running red lights and so there are a lot of people who would just rather that they go away, |
| 1:19.2 | that they be banned entirely, that restaurants don't rely on them for delivering their food. |
| 1:24.0 | We actually this week have a new sponsor. It's one of those restaurants. |
| 1:28.0 | Yeah, it's one of those restaurants. |
| 1:30.0 | Yeah, take a listen. |
| 1:31.0 | Are you hungry? Don't want to leave your apartment and you hate bicycles? |
| 1:36.0 | Then call Al's New York diner. At Al's we deliver food the old-fashioned way instead of five guys on those e-bikes we got one |
| 1:46.0 | guy and he's in a car that's right one guy one car and that's Al's New York diner. |
| 1:54.0 | And if you order right now, you'll get the Al's guarantee. |
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