Transportation between Brooklyn and Queens is pretty bad

From CityLab:

One might think that getting from Brooklyn to Queens—or vice versa—would be easy.

For one, they’re physically connected to each other; they share the same landmass—the start of Long Island, but not technically Long Island. Secondly, they’re New York’s two biggest population centers. And finally, of the five boroughs, they’re both major drivers of population and job growth in the city right now.

But unless you own a car—which most New Yorkers do not—it’s strangely hard to get from one borough to the other. By subway, residents must seek out train lines at the ends of each borough, before backtracking. Bus routes are notoriously circuitous and slow. Both systems are a result of the spoke-hub model, designed at a time when Queens was comparatively pastoral and Brooklynites largely headed into Manhattan for work. So much so that even in 2018, it’s a common refrain in New York City mass transit that if you’re going between the two boroughs, you’re either going through Manhattan, or not going at all.

That’s what made The Great Cross-Borough Mobility Mode Challenge (that was my name for it, at least) on this steamy Tuesday morning during rush hour a bit more interesting.

Just after 8:30 a.m, seven participants simultaneously left a starting point in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and hopped onto their assigned means of transportation: subway, bus, Citi Bike, Uber, UberPool, taxi, or electric moped. Their goal? Pass this goofy made-up finish line—which had a sign, green tape, and all—outside of the Court Square Diner in Long Island City, Queens, where myself and a handful of other transit-beat reporters were waiting beneath the shadows of rapidly rising condos and subway tracks.

The race was put on by Revel, a shared electric moped company that recently premiered in north Brooklyn. The point of the stunt, beyond snagging some media attention, was to highlight the fact that traveling during rush hour between Brooklyn and Queens sucks. And it only stands to get worse once the L train goes offline for 15 months in April of 2019, dispersing hundreds of thousands of riders onto overburdened stations and roads. The big question: Which of these shared-mobility services, old and new, performs best under pressure?

And they wonder why we own cars here...

Now we're getting e-bikes

From PIX11:

On July 28, riders in some areas will be able to test E-bikes with motors that help them ride.

This is part of the expanded bikeshare program. During the month of July, the Rockaways and Coney Island will see bikes that can be rented without a docking station.

Later in the month, Staten Island's North Shore and the Fordham Section of the Bronx will also be a part of the program.

During this test time, the city says it will be evaluating "companies’ compliance with pilot requirements around data accessibility and user privacy."

JUMP Bikes, which was born in New York City, will bring the first e-bikes to Staten Island and the Bronx.

Lime Bike and Citi Bike are also participating in these test areas.

Should these bikes be banned?

From the Times Ledger:

Officers from the 112th Precinct are serious about cracking down on two-wheeled vehicles in Forest Hills and Rego Park, but one variety remains out of their jurisdiction: There are still no laws governing the use of electric bicycles in New York City.

At a Community Board 6 meeting earlier this month, Capt. Ralph Forgione announced that officers have been vigilant in ensuring that motorcyclists and moped drivers who ride in the 112th Precinct have the proper documentation.

But one area where police cannot write tickets for lacking insurance or a valid license is with electric-assisted bicycles.

Instead, the 112th has to write tickets for infractions it would normally give to cyclists, like riding against traffic or riding on the sidewalk.

Residents have long complained that the bikes, which are powered by electric batteries, quietly zip around the neighborhood and pose hazards for pedestrians.

The law regarding the bikes is unclear in Queens, since the city and state do not regulate the vehicles.

But a bill is currently in the state Senate that would bring the electric-assisted bikes in line with federal regulations, and those regulations would treat the vehicles like normal bikes as long as they go under 20 mph and use less than 1,000 watts of power.

Unlike bicyclists, riders of the vehicles would need to be 16 years or younger and wear a helmet.

But Goldberg said the law should regulate the machines instead, many of which he said operate on less than 700 watts but can reach speeds of up to 50 mph.