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Commentary By Nicole Gelinas

Adams’ E-bike Boondoggle Aids Delivery Apps but Does Nothing for Public Safety

Cities, Public Safety New York, New York City

Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

For four years, Big Tech has exploited New York City’s immigrant workforce as food-delivery apps turn a blind eye to the fact that the people who labor for them as “independent contractors” rely on substandard, potentially deadly e-bikes to do their jobs.

Now, City Hall is rewarding this irresponsible corporate behavior by subsidizing it, spending taxpayer money to do what the employers should do: give workers safe equipment.

New York City has become a more dangerous and disorderly place since 2020, in part due to the exponential proliferation of commercial e-bikes.

That year, as the pandemic created more demand for food deliveries from cooped-up New Yorkers, the state and the city legalized these motorized two-wheeled vehicles.

But the state and city did nothing to ensure workplace safety — or public safety.

On workplace safety: by the city’s estimate, “tens of thousands” of delivery workers use commercial e-bikes to bring food to Gotham residents.

Many work for apps such as UberEats and Grubhub.

Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post

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Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal. Follow her on Twitter here.

Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images