When Is It A Mobility Device?

 Today I’d like to address an issue in a comment I intended to publish but accidentally deleted.

The commenter took issue with my post from the other day. In it, I showed e-bikes parked in bike parking rack next to a sign warning riders not to do so at the risk of losing said e-bikes. 

The commenter believed the sign is discriminatory. As he/she pointed out, e-bikes are mobility devices, just like walkers and wheelchairs, for people like him/her who have disabilities.

The point about e-bikes being mobility devices is one I hadn’t previously considered, and is certainly valid. That said, I am probably not alone in my inability to tell which of those parked e-bikes was being used by someone who has trouble walking more than a block vs. the ones some teenager was joyriding with his girlfriend on the back. Perhaps some sort of sticker or decal would help.

That leads to the larger question policy makers in many jurisdictions are tackling: How, exactly, can e-bikes be legislated fairly?

While I have cursed out joyriders and “cowboy” delivery workers who sideswiped me and I probably won’t ever admit “defeat” and start riding an e-bike unless it’s totally impossible for me to ride a regular bicycle, I have nothing against e-bikes per se. If anything, I would rather see someone ride one rather than drive an SUV to work, school or shop. Also, I recognize—and have stated in previous posts—that delivery workers , nearly all of whom are male immigrants (at least here in NYC) may have few, if any, other ways of feeding themselves or their families besides bringing pizzas and quesadillas to folks who are too tired to use a microwave after a long day of making money off the very countries those delivery workers came from. 

About that last scenario: Just as I suggested a sticker or decal for people with disabilities, perhaps there could be another for delivery workers. Or, better yet, there could be a special license or permit, as there is for commercial vehicle drivers. Of course, one potential problem with that overlaps with that of registering e-bikes themselves: Some delivery workers are undocumented and therefore don’t want to risk “outing” themselves. I can understand: Even US citizens are sometimes reluctant, for any number of reasons, to engage with government bureaucracies.

And then there is the question of what, exactly, is an e-bike. Most jurisdictions define them, if they do, by whether the bikes have pedal assists or throttles, or by maximum speed. Even with regulations, too many machines that are within an inch or two of being a full-on motorcycle and are “flying under the radar.” I see them all the time in bike lanes, even the ones secluded from automobile traffic.

But those wannabe Harleys, I suspect, aren’t the ones used by the commenter I accidentally deleted. Nor are the legitimate e-bikes from share services like Lime. I think the commenter might’ve been upset (rightly) over being lumped together with them. So, even if policy-makers come up with fair and equitable regulations, signs like the one I saw would need to be re-written. Whether or not it was intended, the bias was certainly perceivable in that sign.

Foliage Before The Storm

 This, fifteen minutes before the edge of a hurricane pushed wind and dumped rain on us:

All About Parking

In New York City, it’s always about parking.

It’s one of the ostensible reasons for opposition to bike lanes: Drivers complain the green strips take away “their” spaces and traffic lanes.

Turns out, people with cars and trucks aren’t the only ones who can’t find places to leave them when they’re not driving.

In spite of the warning, e-bikes have filled one of the two rows of bike racks by the Staten Island Ferry terminal. Critics of dockless bike share systems have at least one piece of evidence here.

But it also raises a valid question: Is it better to leave e-bikes and scooters in a rack where they don’t belong than in the middle of a sidewalk or other public passageway? At least those racked e-bikes aren’t making life for people with mobility issues more difficult. Still, if I had to park my bike and there were no free spaces in that rack, it might be more than an inconvenience—say, if I had somewhere to be.

I will, however, put things in perspective. Here is the biggest “parking” problem at the terminal—and throughout the city:

Some would say, “They should go to the shelters.” I have known a few people who’ve spent time in them. While a few say the shelters offer services and “you can get your life back together” in them, even they admit the shelters often turn people away because they’re overcrowded or simply can’t handle the problems some homeless  people face. The overcrowding, along with some residents’ mental health issues and sheer despair and desperation, leads to theft, fights and worse. So it’s almost understandable, at least to me, that some people would “park” an elbow’s width away from the cyclists like me—and thousands of tourists—who stream by every day.