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Upper West Siders are fighting a “preposterous” city plan to install an e-bike charging station for delivery workers in an already chaotic intersection. Crank Driven Electric Bikes
The “deliverista hub” is planned for the public plaza between Broadway, West 71st and 72nd streets, and would include a spot for workers to rest and charge the batteries for their e-bikes.
Opponents of the proposed site say the three entry points to the plaza are already packed with cars, subway commuters and cyclists, and the lithium batteries for drivers’ e-bikes pose the risk of fires — which the city Fire Department has also warned the public against.
“You don’t need a Ph.D. in architecture or urban planning to see in one moment that this would be very very dangerous. We just can’t understand it,” Katina Ellison, co-leader of the West 71st St. Block Association, said about the plan she called “preposterous.”
The hub is part of a pilot program introduced in October 2022 by Mayor Adams and Sen. Chuck Schumer, which seeks to repurpose empty newsstands into charging and rest stations for the city’s growing delivery driver population.
The Broadway hub would be the first of its kind in the Big Apple.
This month, the West 68th, 71st, 72nd, 73rd and 79th street block associations, the NYC E-Vehicle Safety Alliance and other community groups have renewed their efforts against the plan, by writing elected officials and passing out flyers in protest.
“This complex, dangerous and overcrowded intersection is not suited for [the hub] and will endanger pedestrians, cyclists and subway riders,” the coalition’s flyer states.
A Change.org petition against the hub has amassed nearly 1,300 signatures to date.
E Bike Power The city Parks Department, however, is “committed to ensuring that any Deliverista Hub designs are safe for everyone including delivery workers, pedestrians and commuters,” a spokesperson said. “We are listening to the concerns from the community, and will present more formal design plans to the community board once they are ready.”