Last month, New York City Councilman Erik Bottcher sent a tweet with a video in which Erik “showed off” on an electric tricycle with the American UPS logo, and introduced: In New York, UPS will Replace many traditional gasoline-powered trucks with this electric delivery van. The text section reads “Let’s see the future of New York Express! @UPS”. It is reported that this electric tricycle consists of a trailer and a detachable cargo area, which can be driven into the building, and loaded and distributed using a freight elevator.

In fact, it is understandable that the original intention of the city councillors: to alleviate the problems of traffic congestion, parking difficulties and urban environmental pollution in New York City. In the post-epidemic era, home delivery services in New York City have exploded, and all kinds of e-commerce merchants can’t wait to put their delivery network on everyone’s doorstep in New York City. According to statistics, 2 million packages are waiting for delivery in New York City every day. In this case, the streets are full of bicycles\delivery vans, and the streets become crowded. This also made the New York City government start to think, should it expand the bike lanes/bus lanes/sidewalks?

In fact, as early as 2019, before the epidemic, the New York City Department of Transportation launched a pilot program – let DHL, Amazon and UPS try to use semi-electric tricycles for express delivery, hoping to achieve: replace one electric vehicle with one trucks to solve the above problems.

At that time, a total of 100 electric tricycles were put into use, each valued at 80,000 US dollars. These tricycles are not restricted by the street, do not have to pay parking fees, and can use the bike lanes, which is a lot of benefits. However, this seemingly good plan was eventually shattered by reality.

The small electric tricycle has a limited carrying capacity, and can only load and transport 100 to 150 small and medium-sized packages at a time. The first batch of 100 vehicles put into operation can only handle 15,000 parcels per day, and the remaining parcels have to rely on freight trucks.

And if you go to and from the package point multiple times a day, it is definitely a nightmare for the courier! Not to mention the “rainstorm flooded subway stations” and “snow and knees” bad weather that is common in New York. Therefore, whether it is the problem of traffic congestion or parking difficulties, it still has not been solved.

However, the NYC Department of Transportation has no plans to abandon the plan, or it will continue in 2022. If the pilot is successful, the DOT may permanently change the regulations to encourage e-commerce and delivery companies to put more electric tricycles into use.

At that time, express electric tricycles less than 1 meter wide and 3 meters long can be parked on the sidewalk, as long as a 3 meter wide passage can be left for pedestrians. The Department of Transportation will also issue operating licenses for the cargo bikes, with more than 2,500 express electric tricycles expected to be registered by 2026.

I wonder if you, who live in New York, have such complaints?