Electric Bike or Electric Motorcycle?

Every evening, untold thousands of New Yorkers get dinner delivered by electric bike riders, but those vehicles are technically illegal. NYPD officers have been ticketing deliverymen even though lunch at NYPD HQ gets delivered by e-bikes.

The root problem is definition: when is a bike not a bike? When does a “power-assisted bike” become a moped, motorscooter, or motorcycle? And when do electric 2-wheeler riders need operator licenses? As with e-commerce, ridehail, Airbnb, and consumer drones, lawmakers are fighting a rearguard action after technology got well ahead of regulation, and it’s hitting New Yorkers where they eat. Ironically, NYC says it will let UPS make deliveries by ebike.

More:

“Electric Bikes Are Blurring The Line Between Bicycles And Motorcycles,” Matt Brown, Jalopnik

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Uber’s Flying Taxis

“Uber has unveiled plans for a flying taxi at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The ride-sharing company on Tuesday showed off a full-size mock-up of the electric plane concept vehicle created with South Korean carmaker Hyundai, as it seeks to fly above traffic rather than add to it.”

— “Uber reveals plans for flying taxi to bypass road traffic congestion,” Joanna Partridge, The Guardian

Related:

“Uber, Hyundai Team Up On Flying Cars. Will Landing Portals Be Standard For Office Buildings By 2040?” Dees Stribling, Bisnow

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Rolling Art of India

Heavy trucks are central to India’s economy, but they’re more than logostical necessities. They’re works of art. a Vox video.

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When You Tear Down a Freeway

Here’s what happened when they tore down highways in Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle.

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Police: No Scooters at the Capitol

Bird, Lyft, Skip, Spin and Jump. No that’s not a new Olympic field event, those are the companies inflicting dockless electric scooters on pedestrians in the District of Columbia. But not at the Capitol, says US Capitol Police spokesperson Eva Malecki:

“The proliferation of electric scooters and other motorized devices for rent has become a safety and security concern for the Department. They should not be parked and/or left unattended on Capitol Grounds.”

“We have been working to better educate users of the restrictions for using and/or parking scooters on Capitol Grounds as well as the various companies that make them available to the public.”

“Scooter commuters of Capitol Hill, take note,” Katherine Tully-McManus, Roll Call

Updates:

“Eleanor Holmes Norton says let them scoot!” Clyde McGrady, The Hill

“Transportation lawmakers race scooters in House office building,” Rachel Frazin, The Hill

Related:

“Overnight e-scooter ban and complaint line proposed in DC,” Zeke Hartner, WTOP

Paris clamps down on electric scooters as law of the jungle rules,” Forrest Crellin, Reuters

“River patrol pulls e-scooters from bottom of Willamette River,” KATU

“US cities are joining forces to figure out what the hell to do with all these scooters,” Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge

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Uber Ahoy!

Uber Boat has launched in Mumbai. It’s a splashy way to avoid the city’s horrible traffic jams. Uber Boat already operates in Istanbul and Croatia.

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Ghost Bikes

 “Ghost Bikes,” a short documentary by Ethan Brooks.

Related: GhostBikes.org

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Uber Makes Traffic Worse

You can call Uber and Lyft from your phone and get a ride. Smooth, right? But with all those rideshare vehicles picking up and dropping off fares, city streets are more congested than ever. Video from Streetfilms.org.

More:

“How to Fix New York City’s ‘Unsustainable’ Traffic Woes,” Laura Bliss, CityLab

Update:

“A new study says services like UberPool are making traffic worse,” Faiz Siddiqui, Washington Post

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NYC: In a Hurry? Get On a Bike.

” … a huge share of taxi and bike-share trips cover comparable distances in New York City. In 2014, nearly 34,000 trips were taken using the Citi Bike system per day, while more than 400,000 trips were made by taxi. About 55 percent of the taxi rides spanned less than two miles; so did the average bike-share trip.”

“On average, the researchers found that taxis hailed within range of a Citi Bike station were a slightly faster option than grabbing the rental bike. But when travel distances were shorter, and at times when roads were more likely to be congested, the difference in travel times dropped. On weekdays, more than half of trips shorter than 3 kilometers (about 1.8 miles) went as fast or faster on Citi Bike than in a cab. Citi Bike’s advantage is stronger as trips cover less distance: between 20 and 36 percent of weekday trips shorter than 2 kilometers (about 1.2 miles) went faster on rented spokes than in a backseat.”

— “In New York City, Bike Share Is Faster Than Cabs When It Matters,” Laura Bliss, CityLab

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Rush Hour

“Rush Hour,” a short film by Fernando Livschitz.

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