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Changes since congestion pricing started in New York

(www.nytimes.com)
437 points Vinnl | 11 comments | 13 May 25 10:43 UTC | HN request time: 0.827s | source | bottom
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RhysU ◴[14 May 25 15:34 UTC] No.43985805[source]▶
Congestion isn't limited to cars.

My pregnant wife was hit yesterday in SoHo in broad daylight by a delivery driver on an e-bike. He ran a redlight. He hit her in a crosswalk. She was wearing a bright orange dress. She was not on a phone or listening to music. She went flying ass over teakettle. We spent 6 hours in the ER yesterday evening to make sure our unborn baby was okay. Fortunately, everyone is OK despite her being banged up.

The goddamn lawlessness of electric bikes is a consequence of NYC implicitly encouraging their illegal use. Meanwhile, I get to pay $9 MORE to drive my licensed, registered, insured vehicle on increasingly narrow roads filled with increasingly negligent 2-wheeled asshats because it's the preferred business model.

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1. Vinnl ◴[14 May 25 19:59 UTC] No.43988577[source]▶
Oof, that sucks. Glad that delivery driver wasn't in a car though! Could've ended much worse.
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2. SoftTalker ◴[14 May 25 21:21 UTC] No.43989357[source]▶
Anything could be worse. Doesn't mean it's an excuse for bad behavior.
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3. RhysU ◴[14 May 25 21:52 UTC] No.43989588[source]▶
Yeah, just imagine. I did. For hours yesterday evening I imagined.

Had a car killed my wife or unborn child, there would have been a legal trail and insurance.

Had the e-bike killed my wife or unborn child, there was neither. I doubt I could ever find the killer of the unborn child if the baby died later due to injuries-- there's neither license nor registration on an e-bike.

Pushing powered transportation into the unregulated, uninsured space is madness.

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4. mvid ◴[14 May 25 22:13 UTC] No.43989732[source]▶
You would likely be unhappy if you saw the outcomes of almost all vehicle manslaughter cases. It’s the easiest way to kill someone and get away with it consequence free
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5. vkou ◴[14 May 25 22:50 UTC] No.43989993[source]▶
The perpetrators of most vehicular homicides face little to no consequences.

You'd have to be an utter asshole (like a kid totaling three cars in a year, all going 70-100+ mph on urban streets), or the world's dumbest criminal (motorcyclist out on parole running a red, killing a pedestrian, fleeing the scene, and ditching the motorcycle in a field) for killing someone with a car to be more than a 'whoopsie daisies, at least nobody important got hurt'.

In my town, just last year, a cop running down a young woman when she had right of way in a crosswalk, while doing 74 mph in a 25 mph zone at night, with no sirens, got a $5,000 fine for it.

That's how much the life of a grad student is worth.

---

Look, I'm all for traffic enforcement, but anyone who thinks that bikes are the big problem on the road is nuts.

6. ◴[15 May 25 01:51 UTC] No.43991076{3}[source]▶
7. RhysU ◴[15 May 25 09:45 UTC] No.43993371{3}[source]▶
This can change.

Having been a juror on a civil trial against the MTA, I assure you that the New York public is perfectly willing to hold people accountable for injury.

Drunk driving was reduced over my lifetime [1] by calling attention to it (e.g. MADD), shaming the practice, lowering BAC thresholds, and increasing enforcement.

Similar approaches could be done for pedestrian injury by vehicles. Sure, it takes more time (and does not scam $9 from my pocket in the meantime) but public behavior can be changed.

[1] https://www.responsibility.org/alcohol-statistics/drunk-driv...

8. Vinnl ◴[15 May 25 11:15 UTC] No.43993811[source]▶
Yeah two things are true:

Reckless behaviour in traffic should be prevented, and

The same reckless behaviour is more dangerous when performed in a car. (People rarely actually get killed by an e-bike. It happens all the time with cars.)

9. Vinnl ◴[15 May 25 11:47 UTC] No.43994008[source]▶
Was absolutely not intended as an excuse for bad behaviour. I just care about not throwing the baby out with the bathwater: just because someone on an e-bike displays bad behaviour, it's still preferable to have people switch from cars to e-bikes.
10. JambalayaJimbo ◴[15 May 25 22:34 UTC] No.44000051[source]▶
>Had the e-bike killed my wife

That’s ridiculous. How many e-bikes do you think caused fatal accidents last year in the US?? Are you legitimately scared of this happening?

11. immibis ◴[16 May 25 11:31 UTC] No.44004089{3}[source]▶
In March 2024 in Berlin, an elderly man sped down a bike lane, murdering a woman from Belgium and her 4-year-old child: https://apnews.com/article/germany-road-accident-belgium-1d3...

The punishment: His driving license was revoked: https://www.berlin.de/generalstaatsanwaltschaft/presse/press...

Germany has a reputation as strict and bureaucratic, and yet, it's apparently still legal to murder people with your car.