Could four-wheeled e-bikes help replace freight trucks in New York?

Yellow cabs, slice shops, and…electric cargo bikes?

Pedal-assisted mini-trucks could soon be a more common sight on New York City streets under a recent proposal from the city’s Department of Transportation. The agency has suggested a new rule that would allow golf cart-sized electric quadricycles as a way to slash the number of delivery trucks clogging up city streets.

Companies like UPS and Amazon have been testing these types of last-mile delivery vehicles in the city over the last couple of years. For them, the fleets have the potential to better navigate the always-challenging last-mile stretch of their supply chain in dense urban areas, while also making headway toward carbon emission goals.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams agrees: “These pedal-assist cargo bikes will help New Yorkers get the items they need while reducing carbon emissions and traffic congestion—and getting dangerous trucks off our streets,” he said in the announcement last month.

Concerns abound: There’s plenty of debate, though, on how exactly this push should play out. That was evident in a virtual public hearing on the proposal last week, the New York Post reported. Some cyclists worried that cargo quads will make bike lanes more dangerous, while freight industry leaders said the rules would kill existing bike-and-trailer rigs in use right now.

“Sadly, today’s proposed regulations by DOT, if enacted, would take yet another government-created cudgel to our fragile yet growing local (and national) cyclemobile industry,” Revolution Rickshaws founder Gregg Zuman said on behalf of the newly formed New York Cyclemobile Association in one public comment ahead of the hearing.

The trickiest mile: The proposed changes come as the country’s biggest city is more broadly rethinking how companies cover that last leg of the supply chain between hubs and apartments, amid a big surge in e-commerce shipping since the onset of the pandemic.

Before Covid-19 hit, only 40% of all city deliveries went to residential customers, the NYC DOT said in a presentation earlier this year. Now, that number is around 80%, and 90% of all freight deliveries are handled by trucks.

The city is also testing the use of micro-hubs, or “designated curbside or off-street locations” where goods can be transferred from trucks to smaller and more sustainable options like hand carts and cargo bikes for the final length of the supply chain, the DOT said in an April announcement.

“New Yorkers are receiving more deliveries than ever before, and we are pursuing creative ways to make these deliveries cleaner, safer, and more efficient by reducing the number of delivery trucks on our roads," NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in the spring announcement.