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Testimony of Noah Budnick, Deputy Director, Advocacy, Transportation Alternatives to the New York City Council Transportation Committe Hearing on Introductions 24 and 58, Regarding Businesses Which Employ Commercial Cyclists
Cycling News T.A. Launches "Working Cyclists" Program Safety education for food delivery cyclists and couriers
The image of cyclists as sidewalk riding maniacs who bully and threaten pedestrians poisons political support for cycling. Unfortunately, it has become a New York City stereotype, just like demented cab drivers. In neighborhoods like the Upper East and West Sides, persistent problems with pedestrian-unfriendly cyclists, many of them in a rush to deliver food, has created considerable enmity towards all cyclists. It has also contributed to the city council's endless attempt to ratchet up the penalties for cycling offenses, and distracted lawmakers and the public from the far more dangerous problem of reckless motor vehicle drivers. In 2002, the city council once again raised the penalty for cycling on the sidewalk, though it did not increase any penalties for driving or parking on sidewalks, or hitting pedestrians in crosswalks. People's aggravation with sidewalk cycling also fuels opposition to cycling projects and makes city agencies and elected officials more wary of supporting cycling improvements.
In an effort to improve bicyclist and pedestrian safety and improve the image of bicyclists, T.A. has launched the "Working Cyclists: Safety education for couriers and food cyclists" campaign. The goal is to get bicycles off sidewalks and reduce the number of bicycle-pedestrian crashes, injuries and near misses. As part of this campaign, we are working on getting businesses to take responsibility for the actions of their working cyclists.
The Working Cyclists campaign fills an education void. Most working cyclists, many of whom are new immigrants, receive zero safety training from their employers. Few employers are familiar with the New York City laws that pertain to working cyclists.
T.A. is working with city council members, the NYPD and community boards to develop materials and target businesses to increase safety. This summer, T.A. developed trilingual, English-Spanish and English-Chinese safety classes, manuals and posters that teach working cyclists and their employers the laws of bike riding
in New York City. Over the fall, T.A. will teach safety classes to businesses identified by elected officials, the NYPD, community boards and the public.
The project will initially focus on Midtown Manhattan and the Upper East and West Sides, where sidewalks are jammed with pedestrians and the dangerous behavior of many working cyclists is a chronic problem.
As enmity toward bicycle messengers has eased in recent years, many New York pedestrians have discovered a new bicycle bête noire — food delivery cyclists. Although data aren't available, the number of such cyclists appears to be at an all-time high, as prepared foods grow ever more popular. Speed is paramount in food delivery, since customers look for their meals to arrive quickly and oven-hot. Not surprisingly, then, many delivery cyclists surpass even commercial bike messengers in flouting the law; wrong-way cycling and riding on sidewalks are particularly common, especially in neighborhoods like the Upper East Side, where car gridlock is endemic. Many riders elect to use the sidewalks for short-haul deliveries rather than risk riding against traffic on busy avenues.
In this climate, City Council Member Charles Millard has had little trouble obtaining co-sponsors for his bill authorizing police to confiscate commercial bicycles ridden on sidewalks. (Other bills in Millard's package would intensify enforcement against cars parked in bike lanes and red light-running cabbies.) Although cycling traffic on sidewalks is onerous, one notes that, as in other crackdowns on cyclists, simple education hasn't been tried first.
At the start of 1993, Transportation Alternatives and the City DoT were preparing to distribute multi-lingual leaflets targeting Chinese delivery cyclists, who by acculturation often ride against traffic. Signs identifying restaurant ownership of delivery bikes might also bring community pressure to bear against dangerous riding. Over the long haul, cracking down on dangerous motorists and discouraging driving in general would make the streets safer for everyone while making it easier for cyclists to stick to the roads.
The Price of Delivery (The Brian Lehrer Show: Friday, 06 June 2008
Shih-Ching Tsou and Sean Baker , co-directors of Take Out , talk about their film which chronicles a day in the life of an illegal immigrant struggling to pay off his smuggling debt.
For $1.75 an hour, they put up with abusive employers, muggers, rain, snow, potholes, car accidents, six-day weeks, and lousy tips. Not anymore.
By Jennifer Gonnerman
On Broadway on the Upper West Side, the ballet of the deliverymen has begun. Armed with pizza boxes and plastic bags, men on bicycles zip by, one after another, dodging taxis and Town Cars, SUVs and the M104. Every night, it’s the same clashing of horns and bike bells, the same frenzy of pedaling and panting and sweating. Between West 59th and West 115th Streets, the number of places that offer food delivery now totals close to 275.
The deliverymen run the gamut from boys to older men, from fit to flabby, but there are a few things they share in common: They are virtually all immigrants—many from China—and most of them speak little or no English. Among the neighborhood’s most experienced deliverymen is a 25-year-old Chinese immigrant named Justin. For the last seven years, he has been speeding around the streets of Manhattan delivering food for five different restaurants. Now he works six days a week at Ollie’s Noodle Shop & Grille on the corner of Broadway and 84th Street.
...In New York’s expanding service economy, deliverymen occupy a position near the bottom—earning less than doormen, security guards, nannies, maids, tailors, taxi drivers, and trash collectors and working in far more treacherous conditions. They work long hours and cover huge territories, often in inclement weather, dodging perils like potholes, taxi doors, and tow trucks (one of which killed a deliveryman last year)—all the while hoping they don’t get robbed along the way. And they do this for pay that is often less than the minimum wage.
But that may be about to change. Since last fall, some 70 Chinese deliverymen—including Justin and his co-workers at Ollie’s—have filed lawsuits against five Manhattan restaurants. Never before have so many restaurant deliverymen joined together to battle their bosses. It’s the Year of the Chinese Deliverymen—the year they decided to revolt.
This article discusses the Disney-Pixar merger and its implications for Apple and the future of online media delivery. As a result of the merger, Steve Jobs solidified himself as one of the most powerful executives in the continuing convergence of media content and online delivery, especially as movie studios now look to extend their digital reach.
Apple stands to benefit from the ability to distribute Disney’s animation studio’s content as well as its array of broadcast networks, namely ABC and ESPN. However, video media has been available online in the form of Pixar short films and more recently since the merger, Disney animated shorts.
As Jobs has already proved the viability of the online delivery of music, video-on-demand makes sense as the next step in rounding out the iTunes platform. By now gaining access to Disney’s video content, it makes developing the video on demand stage easier. Before, Apple was dependent on apprehensive third parties for content, specifically the record labels who doubted the viability of a legal download market. Apple needed large scale support because iTunes would only be successful if there was a large collection of downloadable music. In contrast, the dynamics of video on demand are different in that Apple can start with Disney and add more networks further down the road.
If Apple pursues the video content road, it will likely replicate its revenue model with online music. The majority of Apple’s money is made on sales of iPods, not on sales of legal downloads. Thus, Apple’s strategy was to drive consumer demand for its iPod devices through the access to digital music media. In this vein, Apple will most likely launch a new device, most probably a home entertainment center, to deliver its online video content.
Importance to Thesis:
This article helps support my third argument, which is that Apple has become the example of how media companies should adapt to technological change. By developing the preferred user interface for access to online media content, Apple has positioned itself not only as a technology company, but now as a major player in the media industry. Where 5 years ago Apple wasn’t even involved in media, it now controls the future of content delivery. Thus, by seeing the peer-to-peer phenomenon as an evolution in consumers demanding online media content (both music and video), Apple has put itself in the position to take advantage of the this technological evolution.