Eric Adams bikes to work on second day in office: ‘On the road again!’ (A.K.A The NY Bike thread)
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Biking in New York City Is 25 Times More Dangerous Than in Vancouver, Study Finds
The study by the International Transport Forum shows some cities have virtually eliminated cyclist deaths. Others, not so much.
www.vice.com
Biking in New York City Is 25 Times More Dangerous Than in Vancouver, Study Finds
The study by the International Transport Forum shows some cities have virtually eliminated cyclist deaths. Others, not so much.
By Aaron Gordon
October 17, 2022, 11:20am
CREDIT: EDUCATION IMAGES / CONTRIBUTOR VIA GETTY
A cyclist in New York is 25 times more likely to die than a cyclist in Vancouver and is about as likely to die as a cyclist in Auckland or Buenos Aires, according to a new study by the International Transport Forum, an intergovernmental organization.
“Cities should do more to protect pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycle riders on their streets,” the report found. “Every minute, someone in the world dies in urban traffic. Local governments are at the forefront of efforts to prevent these needless road deaths.”
The study analyzed road fatality rates in 32 benchmark cities in Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries from 2010 through 2020 to see how many hit the goal of halving their road fatality rates during that time. Only Warsaw hit the target, reducing road fatalities by 56 percent, but Edmonton (49 percent), Barcelona (48 percent), and Oslo (45 percent) came close. New York City reduced road fatalities by 19 percent during that time, which is not nothing—especially since the United States as a whole was one of only two countries, Colombia being the other, in the dataset where road fatalities increased nationwide during the decade—but still fell in the bottom fourth of the cities studied because road fatalities have been generally declining in major cities across the world.
But the most revealing statistics in the report concern bicycle safety. The report generously frames the “large differences between cities” as “room for progress.” A less charitable but equally true framing is that some cities are politically willing and able to take street space away from dangerous private vehicles and design them for safe and comfortable cycling on a massive scale. That strategy works: Some cities have born the fruit of that strategy by having fewer of their residents die while biking. Other cities willfully ignore that strategy or roll it out at a glacial pace.
In this tale of cities, two are especially noticeable. On the one hand is Vancouver, which according to the study had an average of just five cycling fatalities per billion passenger trips from 2016 to 2020. On the other is New York City, which had 123 fatalities per billion passenger trips over the same period. In between are cities like Copenhagen (19 per billion trips), Paris (34), and Buenos Aires (85). Even worse than New York is Bogotà with 223 fatalities per billion trips, highlighting the city’s mixed reputation for both encouraging a robust cycling culture and having to deal with notoriously aggressive drivers.
As the report notes, the solution to this problem is annoyingly simple. The section immediately following these statistics describes an experiment with flex posts—plastic structures that form a semi-permanent barrier between cyclists and cars—in the Camden district of northwest London. After the flex posts were installed, there was a 70 percent increase in cycling in both directions along with a 50 percent reduction in the number of crashes and the severity of their injuries. Flex posts are not as effective as completely separated bike lanes with hardened barriers but they are cheap and easy to install. Other proven successful measures the report recommends are citywide speed limits of 30 kilometers per hour (18 miles per hour) where cars, pedestrians, and cyclists mix as well as automated speed enforcement. It also recommends “reallocating road space in dense urban areas” to more pedestrian and bike-friendly modes, therefore making cities safer.
A cyclist in New York is 25 times more likely to die than a cyclist in Vancouver and is about as likely to die as a cyclist in Auckland or Buenos Aires, according to a new study by the International Transport Forum, an intergovernmental organization.
“Cities should do more to protect pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycle riders on their streets,” the report found. “Every minute, someone in the world dies in urban traffic. Local governments are at the forefront of efforts to prevent these needless road deaths.”
The study analyzed road fatality rates in 32 benchmark cities in Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries from 2010 through 2020 to see how many hit the goal of halving their road fatality rates during that time. Only Warsaw hit the target, reducing road fatalities by 56 percent, but Edmonton (49 percent), Barcelona (48 percent), and Oslo (45 percent) came close. New York City reduced road fatalities by 19 percent during that time, which is not nothing—especially since the United States as a whole was one of only two countries, Colombia being the other, in the dataset where road fatalities increased nationwide during the decade—but still fell in the bottom fourth of the cities studied because road fatalities have been generally declining in major cities across the world.
But the most revealing statistics in the report concern bicycle safety. The report generously frames the “large differences between cities” as “room for progress.” A less charitable but equally true framing is that some cities are politically willing and able to take street space away from dangerous private vehicles and design them for safe and comfortable cycling on a massive scale. That strategy works: Some cities have born the fruit of that strategy by having fewer of their residents die while biking. Other cities willfully ignore that strategy or roll it out at a glacial pace.
In this tale of cities, two are especially noticeable. On the one hand is Vancouver, which according to the study had an average of just five cycling fatalities per billion passenger trips from 2016 to 2020. On the other is New York City, which had 123 fatalities per billion passenger trips over the same period. In between are cities like Copenhagen (19 per billion trips), Paris (34), and Buenos Aires (85). Even worse than New York is Bogotà with 223 fatalities per billion trips, highlighting the city’s mixed reputation for both encouraging a robust cycling culture and having to deal with notoriously aggressive drivers. As the report notes, the solution to this problem is annoyingly simple. The section immediately following these statistics describes an experiment with flex posts—plastic structures that form a semi-permanent barrier between cyclists and cars—in the Camden district of northwest London. After the flex posts were installed, there was a 70 percent increase in cycling in both directions along with a 50 percent reduction in the number of crashes and the severity of their injuries. Flex posts are not as effective as completely separated bike lanes with hardened barriers but they are cheap and easy to install. Other proven successful measures the report recommends are citywide speed limits of 30 kilometers per hour (18 miles per hour) where cars, pedestrians, and cyclists mix as well as automated speed enforcement. It also recommends “reallocating road space in dense urban areas” to more pedestrian and bike-friendly modes, therefore making cities safer.
The report also underscores the fallacy of the popular assumption that U.S. road deaths are rapidly increasing because of various effects due to the pandemic. In fact, road deaths continued to fall in most of the cities studied during 2020, according to the report, by an average of four percent.
EXCLUSIVE: NYCHA Backs Down From Banning E-Bikes on its Property
This controversy has been extinguished.
nyc.streetsblog.org
EXCLUSIVE: NYCHA Backs Down From Banning E-Bikes on its Property
NYCHA appears to have backed down from an e-bike ban. File photo: Noah Martz
T
his controversy has been extinguished.
The city is backing down from a contentious policy proposal that sought to bar e-bikes anywhere on New York City Housing Authority property, a move officials said was necessary after a spate of deadly infernos attributed to faulty lithium-ion batteries, but one that was nonetheless blasted by delivery workers and their advocates who claimed residents would have to choose between a job and a roof over their head.
Sunset Park Council Member Alexa Aviles, whose district has a high population of delivery workers, told Streetsblog this week that after extensive feedback, proposed alternatives to an outright ban, and even a demo explaining the necessity of e-bikes and the batteries that power them, the agency will not move forward with its proposed blanket ban in and around its nearly 500,000 residents.
“I think they heard all of those pleas and they decided that they certainly needed more time to really think about life on the campuses and learn more just even about e-bikes,” Aviles said. “So to their credit they decided they would not move forward with a rule change. They absolutely needed to learn more. What does real robust [charging] infrastructure look like on NYCHA campuses?”
The Housing Authority had quietly proposed the rule change in June, giving residents only weeks to comment. The agency then extended the comment period until September after backlash, and is now backing down entirely, telling Streetsblog in a statement that it is looking to come up with better, safer solutions.
“There is no new rule in place and therefore, no date for implementation,” said NYCHA spokesperson Rochel Leah Goldblatt. “We are continuing our technical research and meeting with experts and stakeholders to determine the best course of action moving forward. The safety of our residents is our priority, and we are working with our partners in the city to provide safe homes to our residents.”
Aviles still acknowledged the danger of lithium-ion batteries, especially those that are cheaply made or sold second-hand, but said that prohibiting e-bikes entirely would not have stopped people from using them, and would have punished the workers whose livelihoods depend on them.
“Obviously the safety concerns are serious, NYCHA has experienced deaths because of the lithium-ion batteries. But they realize there is a lot to learn and they really need to think about their infrastructure,” she said.
Instead, Aviles and several of her colleagues, including Council members Gale Brewer of Manhattan and Oswald Feliz of the Bronx offered other recommendations, like issuing rules on the storage and safety of batteries, rather than all electric bicycles, hosting special disposal events for e-waste products like batteries, and barring the sale of batteries that are not so-called certified batteries, meaning they comply with nationally recognized safety standards, like Underwriters Laboratories (UL). Aviles’s office clarified after initial publication of this story that she is not fully in support of the UL-certification proposal because UL doesn’t certify many of the batteries that workers use.
And delivery workers say NYCHA made the right decision — especially in light of the announcement earlier this month that Sen. Chuck Schumer and the city are teaming up with Los Deliveristas Unidos, a collective of app-based delivery workers, to create new charging stations out of retrofitted newsstands.
“This is the right thing, we have to create solutions … we have to adapt to the future,” said Gustavo Ajche, a delivery worker and union leader.
The Council’s Committee on Fire and Emergency Management will hold an oversight hearing on Oct. 28 on e-bikes and lithium-ion battery fire safety.
Fires from exploding e-bike batteries multiply in NYC — sometimes fatally
October 30, 20225:00 AM ETHeard on Weekend Edition Sunday
New York City is on track to experience twice as many e-bike-related fires this year compared to last. Above, the remains of a fire in January in a Bronx apartment.
FDNY
NEW YORK — Four times a week on average, an e-bike or e-scooter battery catches fire in New York City.
Sometimes, it does so on the street, but more often, it happens when the owner is recharging the lithium ion battery. A mismatched charger won't always turn off automatically when the battery's fully charged, and keeps heating up. Or, the highly flammable electrolyte inside the battery's cells leaks out of its casing and ignites, setting off a chain reaction.
"These bikes when they fail, they fail like a blowtorch," said Dan Flynn, the chief fire marshal at the New York Fire Department. "We've seen incidents where people have described them as explosive — incidents where they actually have so much power, they're actually blowing walls down in between rooms and apartments."
A fire in Brooklyn in April was traced to a faulty e-bike or e-scooter battery that ignited and gutted two houses.
And these fires are getting more frequent.
As of Friday, the FDNY investigated 174 battery fires, putting 2022 on track to double the number of fires that occurred last year (104) and quadruple the number from 2020 (44). So far this year, six people have died in e-bike-related fires and 93 people were injured, up from four deaths and 79 injuries last year.
In early August, a 27-year-old Venezuelan immigrant, identified as Rafael Elias Lopez-Centeno, died after his lithium ion battery caught fire and ripped through the Bronx apartment where he was staying. Carmen Tiburcio, a neighbor, said Lopez's aunt told her he had tried to escape through the front door, but the bike was in the way. Instead, he took refuge in the bathroom, where he tried to fill up the bathtub with water to protect himself from the flames. But the smoke got to him, she said.
"He didn't make it," Tiburcio said. "His lungs were very bad."
Another danger to delivery work
Many, if not most, of the fires in New York involve e-bike batteries owned by restaurant delivery workers, who work long shifts, traveling dozens of miles a day."The bikes tend to get beat up, subjected to the elements," Flynn said. "They're not really made for our streets."
The longer the batteries are used, the more time it takes to fully recharge them, and it can take up to 8 hours. That in turn makes it harder for owners to keep on eye on their batteries the whole time they are plugged in, which is key for safety.
E-bike batteries are made up of numerous "cells," each a bit larger than a AA battery. If they are damaged and leak fluid, they can easily combust.
FDNY
In addition, new batteries are costly, and the temptation to opt for a less-expensive refurbished battery for much less money is great — especially for couriers who make an average of $12.21 an hour after expenses, according toa survey by Los Deliveristas Union, an advocacy and membership organization.
Several e-bike owners interviewed by NPR in New York City said they were aware of the risks batteries posed, and took measures to reduce them.
"A lot of guys have four, five, six bikes in their apartment and they swap out chargers for different bikes when it doesn't belong to that bike," said Rafael Cardanales, who lives on the Lower East Side. "You can't just use any charger, you know."
Musfiqur Rahman said that when he first got into the delivery business, he bought two new Arrow brand batteries — for $550 each. He did it specifically to avoid fires.
"As far as I know, this brand never get involved in this kind of incident," the 27-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant said.
The FDNY says most batteries are so destroyed by fire when they inspect them that they can make no conclusions about which brand is safer than another.
The FDNY has begun posting videos on social media warning about the dangers of recharging lithium ion batteries.
Living in close quarters
E-bike related fires have occurred elsewhere, such as London, San Francisco, Michigan and South Florida. But nowhere does concern for them appear to be as high as in New York, perhaps because of the prevalence of apartment living — and also the prevalence of ordering take-out.While restaurants sometimes store bikes overnight for employees, fewer people are now working for particular restaurants and many more for themselves, using apps like Door Dash or Uber Eats to connect with customers. And these couriers often don't have any other place to store and recharge their e-bikes except in their apartments.
That, in turn, creates a fire hazard not just for the workers, but also for their neighbors. This summer, the New York City Housing Authority proposed banning e-bikes and batteries from its 2,600 buildings. But the proposal created an uproar, and officials have not gone through with it.
An estimated 65,000 food couriers work in New York City. The vast majority use e-bikes or e-scooters to get around.
Matthew Schuerman/NPR
City councilmembers have proposed their own solutions. One bill, for instance, would ban the sale of used batteries within city limits. Another would require all batteries to be sold to be approved by a national testing service, such as Underwriters Laboratories. Mayor Eric Adams recently announced he would direct $1 million to create hubs for delivery workers with charging stations and other amenities — though they would likely be used during the day and not provide overnight charging.
Councilmember Gale Brewer, who sponsored the legislation that would outlaw the sale of used batteries, says she recognizes that new batteries could be prohibitively expensive to delivery workers.
"They do, you know, God's work, so to speak, because New Yorkers like to have food delivered," she said. "So now the question is how do they get the new batteries that are not going to cause fires?"
snippet:
Bronx Scooter Pilot to Become Permanent — And Likely Expand - Streetsblog New York City
The universe (of scooters) is expanding.
nyc.streetsblog.org
At Media Roundtable, DOT Commissioner Tells NY'ers to Think Twice Before Getting a Car or Driving
DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez shares recent efforts to make public transportation more safe and accessible to residents.
bkreader.com
At Media Roundtable, DOT Commissioner Tells NY’ers to Think Twice Before Getting a Car
DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez shares recent efforts to make public transportation more safe and accessible to residents.
by THAO NGUYEN NOVEMBER 22, 2022
Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez gives DOT updates. Members of the DOT. Photo: Thao Nguyen for the BK Reader.
New York City is heading toward a car-free future, according to the vision of its commissioner, Ydanis Rodriguez.
On Nov. 17, at a media roundtable with BK Reader and other outlets, the NYC Department of Transportation commissioner highlighted efforts made to promote safe and sustainable transportation around the city.
“My goal is to continue making NYC not only the one that has the largest transportation system in the whole nation, but also to be the one that is the safest for the 8.6 million New Yorkers and for the 48 million visitors that have already come to the city by this time,” Rodriguez said.
Members of the DOT. Photo: Thao Nguyen for the BK Reader.
By November, Rodriguez and his team had reached 1,500 miles of bicycle lanes, making NYC the largest urban bicycle network in the country. The number includes the recent Schermerhorn Street redesign with 1.2 miles of protected bike lane.
“We feel that building more greenways, building more bike lanes, making Citibikes more affordable will continue to educate our people on the importance of using a bike,” he said.
“Getting a bike is not a luxury. We aim to build a healthy city and change the car ownership culture at the same time.”
Rodriguez added, the agency is working with Bike New York, Citibank and the NYC Council to make bikes affordable city-wide.
Rodriguez also urged New Yorkers to think twice before getting a car or driving.
“People believe, ‘I have a car, the street belongs to me,’” he said. “You don’t pay for the street. The street is public access, and we have to share the street. New York City is only 350 square miles, so before anyone decides to buy a car, they should know that this is not a place that has a lot of land.”
Graphs and projections at the media roundtable on Nov. 17, organized by the DOT. Photo: Thao Nguyen for the BK Reader.
This echoed the NYC DOT’s current proposed plan to redesign Grand Army Plaza to promote pedestrianization and cycling while reducing car traffic.
In response to the growing number of cyclists breaking traffic laws, the commissioner reported that the DOT is working with the New York City Police Department for enforcement, educating the public on legality and building more infrastructures such as signage.
Additionally, to make NYC streets safer, DOT equipped 1,200 priority intersections, where 55% of pedestrian fatalities and 79% of pedestrian injuries happen, with safety toolkits.
“New York City is a model for Vision Zero cities across the country, and these efforts show this administration is committed to that,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said he and Mayor Eric Adams aim to improve 200 more intersections by the end of the year.
Other efforts included open street hours for Halloween on 34 Avenue; a push for a permanent Open Restaurants program; acceleration of the critical Brooklyn Queens Expressway Central project; completion of a 3.4-mile stretch along 21st Street in Queens; restoration of national medallions along Avenue of the Americas and a reminder for drivers to be responsible when driving at night as the day gets darker earlier.
The NYC DOT media roundtable was an attempt for Rodriguez, the first-ever Latino commissioner, to reach different communities that make up the city, he said.
“This city is the only place where 35% of New Yorkers are recent immigrants born and raised in a different country,” Rodriguez said.
“We need to inform those communities about what we’re doing. It’s important to build that relationship between city agencies and the people.”