Local elected officials are pushing back against the DOT’s e-scooter program’s expansion into northeastern Queens.
Council Members James F. Gennaro(D24) and Sandra Ung (D20) are calling for the end of the program in their respective districts. The program, which expanded to northeastern Queens neighborhoods this summer as part of the expansion of the DOT’s Bronx e-scooter pilot program, has been met with pushback from community members across north and southeastern Queens neighborhoods involved in the expansion.
Launched on June 27th, the program covers 20 square miles—from Flushing in the north to Springfield Gardens in the south—and is part of a long-term contract between the city and three participating e-scooter companies.
On Friday, Aug 30th, Council Member Gennaro released a statement calling on the DOT and Mayor Adams to end the program in District 24. Gennaro, who presides over the neighborhoods of Kew Gardens Hills, Fresh Meadows, Hill Cress, Pomonok, and parts of Jamaica, said that his constituents have been calling his office with quality-of-life complaints related to the e-scooter program. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – e-scooters have no place in our community. Not only do they pose a major hazard to its operators and pedestrians, but they are also often left haphazardly on sidewalks and streets, creating dangerous obstacles on our sidewalks.” Gennaro wrote in his statement.
Gennaro told QNS that the scooters also pose a challenge for disabled pedestrians and seniors.
“They’re a trip hazard. They are certainly an impediment to the disabled community that are trying to get by the sidewalk to try and navigate the sidewalks in in wheelchairs or walkers, he said. “It’s only a matter of time before someone gets badly injured, either tripping over scooters or someone riding a scooter into a person or knocking them down.”
He also called on the Adams administration and the DOT to terminate the program in his district immediately. “All my constituents are looking at me to try to do something to relieve our communities of what I see as a menace,” he said.
Gennaro said that business owners in his district are concerned about the e-scooters blocking access to their establishments and impeding foot traffic. He said he spoke to a local dry cleaner owner who claimed customers had tripped due to e-scooters blocking their pathway on the sidewalk.
“They’re carrying their dry cleaning …and they don’t expect to have like a large object just laying on the sidewalk. So I have a dry cleaner, indicating that people have tripped and fallen,” Gennaro said.
Business owners in Council Member Ung’s district also have first-hand accounts of their run-ins with the e-scooters.
John Golden, owner and operator of Martin A. Gleason Funeral Homes, said that over the past few weeks, there have been anywhere between 5 and 7 scooters parked in front of his Nothern Blvd location. “People can’t walk the sidewalk in front of Northern Blvd. in front of the funeral home. They don’t want to be stepping over scooters on the way into the funeral home,” he said. Golden said he’s called 311, but it’s led to a dead end, prompting him to call Council Member Ung’s office to address the issue. His business, which is located at 149-20 Northern Blvd, is on a busy commercial corridor in Flushing.
Golden also said that, at times, the improperly parked scooters are an obstacle. “Sometimes they block the driveway. Going out with a funeral, we’ve got to move the e-scooter to get the hearse out of the driveway. It’s just something that’s not a good thing to have,” he said.
Council Member Ung echoed similar complaints on how the e-scooter program has impacted the quality of life for her constituents in downtown Flushing.
“I have seen a lot of these e-bike e-scooters not being parked at the corral, which they are supposed to in downtown Flushing,” she told QNS. “In one part of downtown Flushing, it is literally just blocking the sidewalk in terms of the parking corral itself,” she said. Ung’s district encompasses Flushing, Mitchell-Linden, Murray Hill, Queensboro Hill, and Fresh Meadows.
Ung said that she doesn’t see the need for the expansion in her district as downtown Flushing is a transportation hub with access to over 20 bus lines, the 7 train, and LIRR.
Prior to the program coming to Flushing, Council Member Ung voiced her concerns through a letter to DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez last July and in multiple meetings with the DOT. “I honestly just speak for my district and how I feel. Every district is different, but I just really feel like this was not needed in our district,” she said. “However, they did it regardless of my constant protest,” Ung said the Flushing Business Improvement District and Community Board 7 were also against the program.
In May, Ung held a press conference with local community leaders opposing the e-scooter program. At the press conference, Ung said Flushing’s dense environment and ongoing congestion conditions were why the plan would be detrimental to the community.
Ung says she personally has come across e-scooters interrupting the flow of pedestrian traffic when she walks to her office in downtown Flushing. “At PS 20, for example…there’s a corral around there. However, people don’t really park it in the corral; they park it outside the corral, leaning against the fence to the playground,” she said.
She added that the DOT needs to hear her constituent’s feedback on the program. “They really need to hear what the constituents who are living in the community[are saying]. I think it’s really important to have that conversation,” Ung said.
According to the DOT, within the first two months of the program, riders have completed nearly 230,000 trips, with the average trip in Queens being just over 1 mile, and the majority of the trips start and end in the same Council District. Additionally, the agency said it is actively working on creating more designated parking corrals and updating operational zones to address concerns from residents. No riding and no parking zone installations were also included based on community input.
The DOT told QNS that the agency would be making adjustments based on “the feedback we’ve heard to support this well-used, safe, and environmentally sustainable option to get around.”
Residents looking for additional no-parking or no-riding zones or parking corrals can email scooter.share@dot.nyc.gov with their locations and rationale, and DOT will review them.
