Wednesday’s Headlines: Scooter Day in the Committee Room

Yes, that’s a James Joyce reference, but people will be getting very e-motional at City Hall today, thanks to a package of bills aimed to legalize e-scooters and e-bikes. Streetsblog will be there in force, so come back to the ‘blog early and often. One prediction: This is going to play out badly for our side, as every two-bit reporter in town starts interviewing old ladies who claim they’re always being hit by cyclists and scooters when, in fact, they are very frequently being hit by cars.

Here’s the news:

  • Just as Streetsblog hit “publish” on what we thought was a big scoop that Councilman Rafael Espinal’s e-scooter bill would include provisions to legalize e-bikes, too, Politico’s increasingly legendary Dana Rubinstein and the Times’s J. David Goodman published theirs too! Both had great details about the bills, so we tip our hats.
  • The Post, the News, Gothamist and amNY also got in on the coverage.
  • Local news played it as a major “safety” issue, as is if scooters are killing drivers or something. (CBS2) (Just as we predicted!)
  • The Times also looked at the issue of old people hating cyclists, recycling the tired canard, “I almost got hit by a bike!” Memo to mainstream media: Cyclists “almost” get hit by cars 20 times per day. And more than 150 have been killed by cars in this city so far this year — none by cyclists. Hey, Times assignment desk, how about a story on that? The story did quote TransAlt’s Marco Conner saying it best: “There is a false picture that has been painted of cyclists pitted against pedestrians, whereas both cyclists and pedestrians are vulnerable road users. And Doug Gordon took the whole thing down in yet another perfect tweet.

https://twitter.com/BrooklynSpoke/status/1067479638799196160

  • Oh, people complained about the fare hike at the first of several MTA public hearings. (NYDN, amNY)
  • That upstate man who ran over seven people, killing one, in Chinatown on Monday is out on bail and still has his license. (NY Post)
  • The Times had a solid story about people who bike to the airport for business travel. It included some praise for the Port Authority for its “Bicycle Master Plan” — but Amy Zipkin’s piece failed to point out that the Port Authority shut down a major access road for cyclists after a van driver killed an airport worker making his daily commute on his bike, as Streetsblog’s David Meyer reported.
  •  The city is still doing business with rogue carting companies that kill. (NYDN)