*record ebike-related deaths and fires

If this was the 1910s, one could write an article about "record car-related deaths" and declining "horse-related deaths" and it would mean very little beyond that more people are using cars and less are using horses.

This micromobility movement has been severely affected by these no name duct-taped batteries. Both my apartment building and work's office forbid e-bikes and e-scooters on site due to risk of fire, no exceptions. Even if some solution comes out that prevents these dangerous batteries from being used, it's going to take years (if ever) for these rules to relax.

I'm not from NYC and don't know much about the ebike usage there so I found this podcast episode[0] interesting. It covers a business that is doing ebike battery swaps as a way to reduce these charging fires. The battery swap business is one of the ones involved in the 'Charge Safe, Ride Safe' mentioned in the article.

Along the way though it covers some really interesting aspects of who's using the ebikes (refugees) along with who runs the battery swap company (a hasidic Jew) which I also found pretty interesting since it's a quintessentially NYC story.

0: https://thewaroncars.org/2024/01/16/the-future-of-transporta...

both the source and contents of this article are 100% predictable by reading only the headline.

this is trash reporting.

> when you look at those taped-up batteries, you see that they are refurbished

EV cars and buses will be like that in couple of years. Look how old busted Toyotas are maintained. Look how MTA maintains subway network, some parts are literally 70 years old!

Compared to cars and motorcycles? More e-bike usage means more e-bike accidents - that's just arithmetic. And e-bike usage soared.

This is scaremongering without those comparisons. The tell here is that somehow e-bike usage in NYC is being blamed on "Democrat" lawmakers. Historically and in most style guides, they are called "Democratic" lawmakers - dropping the "ic" is a right-wing media thing.