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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsREVOLT OF THE DELIVERY WORKERS
The Willis Avenue Bridge, a 3,000-foot stretch of asphalt and beige-painted steel connecting Manhattan and the Bronx, is the perfect place for an ambush. The narrow bike path along its west side is poorly lit; darkened trash-strewn alcoves on either end are useful for lying in wait. All summer, food-delivery workers returning home after their shifts have been violently attacked there for their bikes: by gunmen pulling up on motorcycles, by knife-wielding thieves leaping from the recesses, by muggers blocking the path with Citi Bikes and brandishing broken bottles.
Once you go onto that bridge, its another world, one frequent crosser said. You ever see wildlife with the wildebeest trying to cross with the crocodiles? Thats the crocodiles over there. Were the wildebeests just trying to get by.
Lately, delivery workers have found safety in numbers. On a humid July night, his last dinner orders complete, Cesar Solano, a lanky and serious 19-year-old from Guerrero, Mexico, rode his heavy electric bike onto the sidewalk at 125th Street and First Avenue and dismounted beneath an overpass. Across the street, through a lattice of on-ramps and off-ramps, was the entrance to the Willis, which threads under the exit of the RFK Bridge and over the Harlem River Drive before shooting out across the Harlem River. Whatever happens on the bridge is blocked from view by the highway.
Several other workers had already arrived. The headlights of their parked bikes provided the only illumination. Cesar watched, his arms crossed, as his older cousin Sergio Solano and another worker strung a banner between the traffic light and a signpost on the corner. It read WE ARE ON GUARD TO PROTECT OUR DELIVERY WORKERS.
Snip
https://www.theverge.com/22667600/delivery-workers-seamless-uber-relay-new-york-electric-bikes-apps
This is a very good read, long, but very good.
CurtEastPoint
(18,622 posts)Pepsidog
(6,254 posts)underpants
(182,632 posts)Recreational riders. There are parts of the city where its rampant.
blm
(113,019 posts)Frustrating, because I was completely immersed.
LonePirate
(13,409 posts)Its roughly 3/5 of a mile. Very easy to patrol on foot or bike for the NYPD.
Lars39
(26,107 posts)to the bike path
cars are the money makers. The bike paths need their own set of cameras. And police not knowing these bike thefts are felonies? Good grief
Extraordinary article about their circumstances.
bucolic_frolic
(43,064 posts)Maybe they could lure some PD traffic onto the bridge if they installed a Dunkin' Donuts
Wednesdays
(17,321 posts)That'll guarantee a huge police presence!
cinematicdiversions
(1,969 posts)Heck half of English literature from the 1st half of the last millennium is about highwayman.
BidenRocks
(826 posts)for some plainclothes law enforcement.
onethatcares
(16,163 posts)cracking down on sellers of untaxed cigarettes.
Probatim
(2,504 posts)law enforcement isn't necessarily always friendly. Time and time again, cyclists are threatened, assaulted, injured, or killed by careless drivers or drivers whose days are ruined that they have to wait 5 seconds to pass you in a safe manner. And time and time again, the driver of the motorized vehicle gets a free pass.
Add that the riders in this story are mostly minorities/POC and you can easily see why there is no police presence on this bridge.
I don't usually paint with such a broad brush, but I've had multiple instances of threats and harassment while riding on the berm of the road or in county parks and have had no success when the police have been called.
Treefrog
(4,170 posts)Thanks for posting it.