By Andy Newman
New York Times, February 11, 1998
NEW YORK -- Renewing a decade-old push to regulate commercial bicyclists, city lawmakers are considering a bill to require messenger services, restaurants and other firms that deliver by bicycle to carry $50,000 in liability insurance coverage per cyclist -- twice the legal minimum for taxis and privately owned cars.
The bill, the subject of a hearing at the City Council's Transportation Committee Tuesday, also mandates that commercial bicyclists wear helmets, and requires their employers to buy a special license that could be revoked if riders did not wear helmets.
The license, which would cover any number of bicycle messengers or deliverymen, would cost a company $200 for two years.
Supporters of the bill said it was desperately needed to provide a measure of accountability to a group that often seems to operate under its own laws.
But several owners of larger messenger companies predicted that the law would only force more cyclists to work for fly-by-night firms that flout the law. And pro-cyclist advocacy groups called the insurance requirements absurd. They said that bicyclists are responsible for only a small fraction of traffic accidents, and an even smaller fraction of traffic accidents that cause serious injury or death.
The City Department of Transportation had made a push in 1987 to have commercial cyclists and their employers licensed, but the proposal died in the City Council.
The new bill, sponsored by Councilman Noach Dear, the Transportation Committee's chairman, is a response to increasing complaints by some residents, and an accident last November in which a 68-year-old man died on the Upper West Side after being hit by a restaurant deliveryman illegally riding on the sidewalk.
The bill also increases the maximum fine for a commercial bicyclist who rides without an identification plate, or without a shirt or jacket bearing his employer's name, to $250, from $50. The fines to the employer for such infractions would also increase to the same amount. The law requiring commercial cyclists to carry identification is generally ignored by riders and rarely enforced by police, messenger company officials said.
Stephen Athineos, a former courier who now owns his own service, Mother's Messengers, on East Third Street, told the committee that in a business where the average courier switches jobs every few months, it was nearly impossible for companies to control their employees' conduct.
"Say I tell one of my guys, 'If you break the law, you're fired,' " he said."That's not a threat to a bicycle messenger. Thirty seconds later you're working somewhere else. And now you have my ID plate so if you get stopped for something I get in trouble. All you're going to do with this is drive the honest registered companies out of business."
But Dear said his intent was not to put anyone out of business. "It's to establish some controls," he said.
As for the insurance requirement, Dear said, "I want it to be commensurate with today's times -- someone gets hurt, what the hospital costs are, what it costs for medical rehabilitation and pain and suffering. I want that all included." When asked why bicyclists should carry more insurance than taxis, he replied, "Maybe we should look to raise cab insurance."
Several messenger company owners at the hearing said they felt like they were being unfairly singled out.
"We're the ones to pick on," said Jeffrey L. Rosenblum, the owner of Elite Couriers, which employs 40 riders. "The couriers have no political pull."
| main | articles | laws | zines | report | 10-9 day |
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at messvilleto@yahoo.com