Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Release #13-09
Seth Solomonow/Nicole Garcia, DOT (212) 839-4850
Deanna Davis, delivery.com (917) 232-2432 (mobile)
NYC DOT And Delivery.com Team Up To Deliver Safety Equipment To 1,500 Commercial Bicyclists
delivery.com to provide bike lights, bells and retro-reflective vests to be distributed citywide
Education continues before DOT enforcement of commercial bicycle laws starts in April
New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan today announced that the City has teamed up with delivery.com to equip 1,500 commercial cyclists with free retro-reflective vests, bells and bike lights, strengthening the City’s ongoing efforts to make the streets safer for everyone using them. The safety kits, part of SaferHood, DOT and delivery.com’s joint safety initiative, will be distributed directly to delivery cyclists at the agency’s ongoing multi-language commercial bicyclist forums. DOT held a series of 17 forums last year to educate business owners and delivery cyclists on bike safety laws, also giving out more than nearly 2,000 safety equipment kits, and the agency has distributed 75,000 helmets to all New Yorkers. Since July, DOT’s new six-person team of inspectors also have visited 3,530 businesses that employ delivery cyclists to inform them of existing legal requirements to provide helmets, well-equipped bikes, upper body apparel such as vests and ID numbers to delivery workers, and that they hang a bicycle safety poster for employees or face fines ranging from $100 to $250. The Commissioner joined Jed Kleckner, CEO of delivery.com; Letizia Manfredi, Director of Operations, Serafina; Michael Buckley, President, Gramercy Wine Cellars; Sarita Ekya, owner, S’MAC; Mangesh Shah, Owner, Village Farm and Grocery and Marsilio, General Manager and Beverage Director, Spice Group at Union Square to unveil the SaferHood-branded safety gear.
“Safety is everyone’s business, so it’s significant when the private sector steps up to the plate in the public interest,” said Commissioner Sadik-Khan. “New Yorkers want their deliveries in a New York minute but the businesses that employ bike riders need to be as up to speed safety as they are on making fast deliveries.”
“In a city where food, groceries and wine can be at your doorstep in moments, we empower the neighborhood economy by equipping our merchant partners with the right tools for making safe and speedy deliveries,” said Jed Kleckner, CEO of Delivery.com, which connects neighborhood residents with 4,000 New York City merchants through online ordering, and which operates in more than 50 cities. “Our goal with the SaferHood program is to make it simple for our business partners to be successful while supporting the DOT’s objectives to keep our crowded city streets safe.”
DOT has found 57% of inspected businesses already complying with the bicycle safety poster requirement and there are a growing numbers of delivery cyclists wearing the appropriate equipment visible on New York’s streets. Enforcement will start in April under the revised administrative procedures passed by the City Council and signed into law by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in October, also requiring that commercial bicyclist complete an online safety course that covers traffic and commercial bicycle laws.
A new series of eight forums in Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn is being scheduled to distribute the 1,500 SaferHood kits provided by delivery.com and to help bring even more businesses and their delivery cyclists up to speed on safety rules. Each forum is tailored to educate and underscore for businesses and commercial bicyclists the equipment that must be provided and used, as well as to answer questions about delivery bicycling laws. DOT previously held 17 forums from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to the Upper East Side in Manhattan and is also in the process of scheduling forums in the Bronx. NYPD will continue its ongoing enforcement against individual delivery cyclists who ride on the sidewalk or against traffic, who disobey signs and signals or who do not wear a helmet, among other traffic infractions. For more information, and for a complete list of upcoming commercial bicycling forums, go to nyc.gov/dot.
- Brooklyn Delivery Cyclist Forum
Thursday, February 21, 2013, 3 pm
Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), Studio D/Theater
421 Fifth Avenue (near 8th Street) - Manhattan Delivery Cyclist Forum
Tuesday, February 26, 2013, 3 pm
Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association
62 Mott Street (between Canal and Bayard) - Queens Delivery Cyclist Forum
Tuesday, March 5th, 2013, 3 pm
Queens Library, Flushing Branch
41-17 Main Street (between 41st Avenue and 41st Road)
community Partner: Downtown Flushing Transit Hub BID - Manhattan Delivery Cyclist Forum
Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 3 pm
Center for Architecture
536 LaGuardia Place (between 3rd and Bleecker) - Queens Delivery Cyclist Forum
Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 3 pm
Estrella Latina
39-07 104th Street (between 39th and Roosevelt Avenues)
community Partner: 82nd Street Partnership - Manhattan Delivery Cyclist Forum
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 3 pm
Pace Student Union
1 Pace Plaza (at Spruce Street and Park Row) - Thursday, March 21, 2013, 3:30 pm
Manhattan Delivery Cyclist Forum
Hospital for Joint Diseases
301 East 17th Street
community partner: Manhattan Community Board 6 - Manhattan Delivery Cyclist Forum
Thursday, March 28, 2013, 3 pm
United Palace Cathedral
4140 Broadway (between West 175th and 176th Street)
community partner: Manhattan Community Board 12
Commercial Cyclist Safety Poster
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