Two bridges too far: NYC bans Revel mopeds from East River spans over ‘safety concerns’

They shall not cross.

The city has requested Revel to hit the brakes on its mopeds crossing the Manhattan and Queensboro bridges decrease than two months after the Brooklyn-based scooter-sharing agency opened the East River spans to its tons of of shoppers.

“We’ve been thrilled to see so many riders Reveling responsibly over the bridges,” reads a Sept. 17 e-mail from Revel to its prospects. “Sadly, we’ve acquired uncover from the New York Metropolis Division of Transportation that we have now to close entry to these two bridges. Because of this reality, transferring forward Revels received’t be allowed on each crossing.”

The company on July 21 let riders “unlock” the two bridges after clocking 25 miles of driving safely on the blue battery-powered two-wheelers.

“Now you haven’t any excuse to not go to your good good friend all through the river,” be taught the e-mail on the time.

DOT’s Revel moped moratorium switch shuts off the one two accessible connectors for Revel riders between Manhattan and Brooklyn or Queens.

The transportation agency not at all accredited scooter journeys all through the Brooklyn or Williamsburg Bridges — which can be moreover run by city — or the state-operated Hugh Carey (Brooklyn-Battery) Tunnel, Queens Midtown Tunnel and RFK (Triborough) Bridge. 

The Vespa-like vehicles excessive out at 29 miles-per-hour and the company talked about throughout the announcement that riders should maintain in the very best lane and that those who didn’t actually really feel cosy going at excessive speeds should steer clear of the bridges, the place the rate limit is bigger at 35 mph.

A DOT spokesman talked about the corporate requested Revel to reverse this protection citing “safety points” regarding the rental mopeds colliding with totally different vehicles on the bridges — acknowledging that drivers “sometimes” break the rate limit — along with the issue of Revelers deciding on to scoot illegally down the pedestrian or bike paths on the spans. 

“Safety is our excessive priority, and as part of our working relationship with Revel, we communicated safety points regarding the protection change the company had made,” talked about the DOT’s Brian Zumhagen. “The speed limit on these two spans is 35 miles per hour, website guests sometimes strikes faster, and there aren’t any shoulders on the spans. As a Revel moped can’t journey faster than 28 mph, there’s a hazard for crashes with faster transferring vehicles.”

“Revel prospects may select to illegally use the bike and pedestrian paths on these spans to steer clear of automotive website guests on the precept spans, making a extreme safety hazard to cyclists and pedestrians,” the DOT rep added. “Due to this, we requested Revel to reverse the protection, and they also complied. We look forward to persevering with to work with Revel and totally different e-moped firms to ensure the safety of their riders and all avenue prospects.”

Amid a development in new Revel prospects via the summer season season of 2020, three riders crashed and died on the blue scooters and the company shut off service for a month sooner than launching with further safety measures, along with a obligatory 21-question quiz and a helmet selfie riders ought to take sooner than they are going to roll.

A Revel spokesman declined to the touch upon the file previous the consumer e-mail, nonetheless well-known that no incidents with the scooters led to the ban and that personally-owned mopeds can nonetheless legally use these roadways.

Fourteen minor bridges keep open for Revel riders, such as a result of the Pulaski Bridge between Brooklyn and Queens, the Roosevelt Island Bridge, and several other different spans all through the Harlem River between northern Manhattan and the Bronx.