April Herms of Workers' Justice Project testifies on Class 3 ban and trade-in
April Herms supports removing unsafe devices but says banning Class 3 e-bikes without a feasible trade-in program will leave workers without legal devices, and proposes motor alterations instead.
Hi, thank you so much.
I'm April Herms.
I'm the Deputy Director at the Workers'Justice Project.
We organize and advocate for the more than 70,000 delivery workers on the streets of New York City.
I'm here today to testify about Intros 244, 985, and 2361, the proposed legislation to ban the sale and use of Class 3 e-bikes, along with a trade-in program.
Workers'Justice Project strongly supports the overall goal of the bills before the Council today of removing unsafe and illegal devices from our streets, slowing down the top speeds of illegal e-bikes, banning the sale of Class 3 devices, and holding delivery apps accountable.
We estimate that tens of thousands of workers currently use a legal Class 3 device, and banning their use without a feasible trade-in program will leave these workers without a legal device that they can use to make a living.
Getting Class 3 devices off the streets will require a well-planned, fully-funded program to enable delivery workers and other Class 3 owners to safely and affordably transition to new devices.
We do not believe the trade-in program legislation currently before the Council can feasibly accomplish this.
Last year, we partnered with DOT on the e-bike trade-in program targeting unsafe batteries and the 2 million program.
program traded in a total of 400 bikes at an approximate cost of $5,000 per bike.
To trade in 20,000 Class 3 e-bikes would cost the city $100 million, assuming it's even feasible to source that many bikes, and convince delivery workers to switch from their trusted bikes to the new ones.
We faced a lot of skepticism in that.
Our proposed alternative is for the council to fund a transition program that would alter the motors of existing legal Class 3 bikes so they could not go faster than 20 miles per hour and provide speedometers to delivery workers so they know how fast they're going.
This would cost a fraction of the cost of a full bike trade-in program and will allow delivery workers to keep their trusted bikes they know can withstand the rigors of a 12-hour delivery shift and would also enable the city to fund small businesses, bike shops,
to provide these alterations.
Instead of banning the tools that delivery workers depend on to work, we should focus on the underlying goal, reducing e-bike speeds.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Lihia?