Mamdani on E-bikes: Regulate the Apps, not the Delivery Workers

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani weighed in on the issue of delivery e-bike safety when asked about how he would enforce laws, reports Dave Colon in Streetsblog NYC.

Mamdani asserted that “the way [to] make the streets safe for both delivery riders and pedestrians is to ensure delivery apps can't push riders to make unsafe decisions on the street,” putting the onus of safety largely on the companies who build the algorithms used by delivery apps. 

Although “Much this conversation around e-bikes and e-vehicles focuses on individual actions and infractions,” Mamdani said, he believes the focus should be on the systems that encourage unsafe labor conditions by pushing drivers to make deliveries as quickly as possible. “It is an algorithm that rewards the breaking of street safety regulations and one that hurts drivers, riders who actually follow the law, which would then take them more time. And so we have to ensure that there is regulation of these algorithms such that what is incentivized is following the law,” Mamdani added.

Street design can also make people using all modes of transportation feel safer, Mamdani noted. “Using the Queensboro Bridge as an example, the Assembly member said that moment the city finally allowed pedestrians to start walking on the span's South Outer Roadway was the moment everyone felt much calmer using the bridge.”