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The Suspect: DC Electric Power Bicycle |
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The culprit: Electric Motor on a delivery bike outside of Happy Family Chinese Restaurant |
So, in my recent post about Ollie's Restaurant (Read it HERE) I referenced my issue with psycho suicide restaurant delivery cyclists, or as I like to refer to them, "Terror Cyclists", who ride the wrong way against traffic, run through red lights, ride on the sidewalk, and generally cause a hazard and a freaking nightmare for everyone, particularly in our hood, The Kitchen.
It would appear I am not the only one who has taken notice, as there has been a flurry of articles in recent weeks and months in my beloved NY Post (Read them: HERE and HERE), as well as in other news outlets about this subject, however, as I pointed out in my Ollie's post, not one of them has yet to mention the fact that many of the delivery bikes now have Electric Motors attaching to their delivery bikes (and which also propel these things up to 20mph), which also happen to be currently 100% illegal, without exception in NY State for use on the orad. While there was a bill passed in the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate in January, 2010 to legalize the use of electric motors on bicycles (they must be pedal assist), as of today, it does not appear that the Bill has become law and gone into effect (Read the Bill HERE).
Regardless of the Bill, and even if it were to become law, the fact is that its illegal to ride any bicycle on the sidewalk, let alone one with any kind of motor. How is it that no one else is reporting on this fact?
This all got me pretty annoyed and got me sleuthing. I looked high and low on the web for the same motors I saw, which are rather small, compact, and unusual, and almost all on the nearly 100 bikes I have seen over the last few months are identical, however, I was unable to find the exact same ones anywhere. That is, until I started walking around the hood, and on my way up 9th Avenue the other day, what did I see? Gotcha! DC Electric Power Bicycle, which is located at 454 9th Avenue, between 35th and 36th Streets (no website). And what might you ask is so significant about this shop? Well children, they just so happened to have bicycles inside the shop with the exact same motors and were working on one outside on the sidewalk with the exact same motor as well, which looked suspiciously like a delivery bike (black tape all over it). Coincidence? I think not. Also, is it just me, or is the name of this place completely grammatically incorrect (as is this sentence)?
While I cannot confirm or say for sure if this is the place that is supplying and repairing all of the terror cycles, I am going to call them a prime suspect, and in fact my only suspect at this point.
There is virtually no information about this shop on the web, other than a web address that is not operational, thought there is an email address (see below), which I will happily supply you all with as well as encourage you to email them and ask them to not provide these motors to restaurants and deli's, though technically they should not be supplying them to anyone, as they are illegal for use in New York State on the road.
And lets be clear before all the tree huggers and greenatics start bombarding me with emails; I care about the environment, and I love clean air, and having electric powered bikes would be a great idea, however, I like my legs and my life more, so don't be a socio-political dick and freak out about it - its about safety and common sense. And until its legal AND regulated and somebody in our broken government can get these restaurants and bodegas to comply (which wont be easy), I say get them the hell off the road; OUR roads.
Here's a thought, give the NYPD Traffic Cops (who often don't appear to do very much, though I will save that for another post) the authority to ticket bicyclists and scooters (I am not sure if they can currently do that), and free up the real cops who most certainly have bigger fish to fry.
And one last thing; I'm thinking the next Steven Slater or Breffny Flynn style vigilante attack could be on an Electric Powered Bicycle delivery guy after one of them carelessly recklessly knocks into the wrong guy on the sidewalk (like one of the hundreds of very large construction workers). I'll betcha its coming soon to a sidewalk near you...stay tuned.
DC Electric Power Bicycle
454 9th Avenue
NY, NY 10018
212.695.7348
No Website
ffccmotor@yahoo.com
