Pols, food delivery service providers clash over proposed e-bike regulations

Bronx Council Member Oswald Feliz speaks at the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection hearing at City Hall on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024.

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The New York City Council chambers were split over legislation from a Bronx council member presented during a committee hearing on Jan. 31, which would require delivery workers to have regulated e-bikes at the expense of their employer.     

Sponsored by Bronx Council Member Oswald Feliz, Introduction T2024-0072 would require any powered mobility device used by food service delivery workers to meet local standards — but at the responsibility of the third-party services the workers deliver for, like DoorDash, Uber Eats and GrubHub.  

Feliz — who represents the areas of Fordham, Belmont, East Tremont, West Farms, Van Nest, and Allerton in the 15th Council District — spoke in support of his legislation during the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection on Jan. 31, doubling down on his assertions that stricter regulations would make delivery workers’ jobs safer. 

“My bill will require that delivery app companies provide a safe, certified e-bike to delivery bike workers that don’t have one,” Feliz said. 

Particularly, the council member said he’s concerned about e-bike fires caused by their lithium-ion batteries — noting that he is worried a lack of e-bike safety regulation could make “one of these fires escalate to the fire that we saw in Twin Parks.” The Twin Parks North West residential fire killed 17 people, including eight children, in Fordham in January 2022.   

Lithium-ion battery fires have been the culprit of a multitude of residential and structural fires since micromobility devices like e-bikes and e-scooters have become popular in recent years — which have killed and injured Bronxites and residents of other boroughs. The fires have resulted in everything from blanket bans on micromobility devices to legislation put forward by…