The city is giving landlords the ability to generate some extra cash by installing outdoor battery charging stations in front of their buildings and charge a fee for bikers to access the amenity.
The Department of Transportation on Monday launched an application process for building owners to install e-bike battery charging and swapping cabinets on public sidewalks outside of their properties.
The idea is for landlords, or their ground-floor retailers, to offer tenants and the delivery workers most city eateries rely on, greater access to outdoor e-bike battery charging, instead of risking lithium-ion batteries sparking deadly fires inside businesses and apartments.
In 2024, lithium-ion batteries ignited 279 fires and killed six people, FDNY data shows. The fires are tied to the city’s delivery economy boom and its workers’ reliance on inexpensive, uncertified electric bikes and mopeds. DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in a statement that the effort seeks to make safe charging infrastructure more accessible to curb fire safety concerns, while giving private property owners the perk of monetizing public space to better serve their tenants. “We need to do our part to ensure charging is safe and accessible,” said Rodriguez.
Building owners can charge bikers a fee to access the cabinets, but the Transportation Department hasn’t worked out potential restrictions for such fees, according to the agency. One e-bike cabinet company, the Berlin-based Swobbee, that the city is partnering with to add the infrastructure on sidewalks says it plans to charge a maximum of $2 a day for an unlimited number of battery swaps.
A landlord or ground-floor tenant in a building with an eatery, shop or community space, or with five or more apartments, can apply for permission to bolt the skinny, vending-machine size metal cabinets to the sidewalk, which are lined with lockers that store and juice up batteries. Building owners interested in applying can contact DOT to obtain a permit at revocableconsents@dot.nyc.gov.
6 comments:
Well, isn't that capitalism for ya. Socialism for the rich and capitalism for everyone else.
Yea right, what stupid people.
These overworked bike battery's will burn right through these metals cabinet partitions and ignite each other, take out cars and windows in seconds from the 3000 degree heat involved You can dump the whole eyesore in a swimming pool and it still burn through the bottom and into the ground.
Two 100 watt hour battery's going off at once is an arc furnace, 3 or more of them is a nuclear meltdown. ...Forget if an electric car goes off.
Why don't they just this plan electric crematorium's
Complete ignorance pushed by the TA Zealots...
Why?
More like complete ignorance pushed by you.
When a fire happens and it takes 5 days to put out who will say the air is good? Then you close it down after the damage has been done.
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