Two months after New York State legalized e-bikes and e-scooters, the City Council passed a bill, on June 5, 2020, to create a pilot program for the operation of shared electric scooters to exist for a duration of no less than one year and no more than two years. Earlier this year, NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) announced the East Bronx as the program’s pilot zone and selected three companies, Bird, Lime and Veo, to participate in the pilot project, starting with 3,000 e-scooters. Why NYC DOT chose an area that lacks biking infrastructure is so confusing.

 

NYC DOT proposed 24 e-scooter corrals which are not yet fully installed, according to the agency, along a stretch of Pelham Parkway. E-scooters are allowed on streets with speed limits no greater than 30 mph and which have usable bicycle lanes. They can’t be ridden on sidewalks.

 

Pelham Parkway has no bike lanes, and the speed limit was recently reduced from 30 mph to 25 mph on Pelham Parkway from White Plains Road to Stillwell Avenue, since it was identified as one of the roadways that has some of the highest crash rates in the City. This should come as no surprise to many of the residents of Pelham Parkway who have not only heard of these crashes but witnessed many of them as well.

 

So, where can these e-scooters be ridden legally and safely, I and others asked the DOT. Their response was that Pelham Parkway has a greenway that is accessible to bicyclists and hence, e-scooters.

 

Our greenway path is accessible to bicyclists alongside pedestrians, runners, walkers, joggers, children playing, mothers with strollers, seniors, the disabled community, and pet parents. Our path is not dedicated nor reserved for bicyclists and is unmarked for such sole use. Our unmarked path measures between 9 and 10 feet wide and is too narrow for an e-scooter to travel safely side by side within the path.

 

Additionally, there is NO signage or lights directing riders to yield or stop for pedestrians who may be crossing through the Parkway on several of the crossing paths, from north to south or vice versa. Instead, there are yellow signs in our greenway prohibiting the use of motorized or electric bikes, scooters and ATVs.

 

Friends of Pelham Parkway, founded in 2017, is made up of residents and volunteers that care for our greenway through advocacy, clean-up events, tree care and planting. Our concerns are the insufficient number of park enforcement patrol officers and their inability to enforce, since they can’t chase after these motorized or electric bikes or scooters without endangering others on the greenway. Also, we can’t support a pilot program that has not been carefully planned, had minimal community outreach, no announced launch date and while several questions remain unanswered. DOT should have addressed all this before the pilot zone and corrals were chosen.

 

NYC Parks prohibits the use of e-scooters on Pelham Parkway Greenway, and I don’t expect them to change the rules to permit the pilot program to operate in their area. Parks may not listen to our concerns, but they are risk averse due to potential liability. It is NYC Parks, not the three companies participating in this pilot program, that will be held responsible and liable when, and not if, an accident occurs resulting in severe injuries and even death.

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As an environmental group that advocates for equity in park maintenance and environmental justice with the park’s tree planting, we support alternative transportations. E-scooters have a short lifespan, are disposable and not recycled, which makes them not that eco-friendly. Instead of DOT supporting venture capitalist-fueled toys, they should expand the Citi Bike program that prioritizes the wealthiest parts of our city.

 

Also, as a county that is the unhealthiest in the entire State, we should encourage physical activity instead of displacing people off the parkway with e-scooters. In short, we ask NYC DOT to focus on making our streets safe for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers and keep the problems on the streets out of our greenway.

 

Roxanne Delgado is the founder of the community group, Friends of Pelham Parkway.

 

Editor’s Note: Norwood News published an overview of the e-scooter roll-out as part of our May 13 Neighborhood Notes feature section. Our print edition at the time also included whatever details of the initiative were available at the time.