PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Philadelphia city councilman wants to regulate food delivery services that use e-bikes.
Councilman Jay Young said he gets constituent complaints, especially from Center City residents, about e-bikes speeding on sidewalks carrying delivery bags.
“They go pretty fast,” said Young. “They shouldn’t even be in bike lanes, technically, but often they’re on sidewalks.”
In two bills, Young proposes a license for the bike riders, and a registry for delivery companies to enter employees who use e-bikes so they would be ultimately responsible should anything happen during rider deliveries.
“We want to make sure these third parties who are making billions of dollars off these workers at least inform them of what the rules are when they’re riding these e-bikes,” said Young.
Young’s bills were among 30 introduced at the council session, giving council a busy agenda before its summer recess.
Several of the bills advance Mayor Cherelle Parker’s affordable housing HOME Initiative and Council President Kenyatta Johnson said he’ll try to get those fast-tracked so they can pass before summer recess.
“I do support the mayor’s effort of reaching 30,000 homes and those pieces of legislation are part of that process and so for us to be successful we do want to make sure we keep moving the train forward,” he said.