This is Street Wars, a weekly series on the battle for space on New York’s streets and sidewalks.
Jimmy Cho could ride a wheelchair, but wheelchairs are slow.
He could also ride a standup scooter, but he prefers to sit.
Fortunately, he owns a blowtorch.
Thus he combined the front half of an electric scooter (handlebars, front wheel, motor, battery pack) to an old wheelchair (padded seat, handrails, nothing special).
The result is a vehicle that defies classification. It’s still a wheelchair, kind of, and Cho can navigate sidewalks. But because it’s zippy, he can keep pace with traffic on busy Manhattan avenues.
“It’ll go 45 miles an hour,” he said. “So it’s dangerous.”
Cho’s favorite place to take his hacked-together jitney is someplace busy, like Herald Square. There he can lounge around, smoke cigarettes, pop wheelies, and look with pity upon the doleful masses still using archaic conveyances like “electric Citi Bikes” and “feet” to move around.
“Look at all these people, walking like cave men,” said Cho, 42, from Brooklyn. “Now you can ride your furniture!”
He’s right, of course. Never in the course of human civilization has there been a moment like this. Want a standup scooter that’ll do 90 miles an hour with a titanium frame to “absorb vibrations and torsion phenomena?” Excellent. Want to ride a tiny electric chopper, or a tripod with wheels, or a suitcase? Hey, friend, you do you.
Of course, the sudden profusion of electric vehicles has created conflicts. Many people go on bridges and in bike lanes with their new electric vehicles, including some varieties that are not allowed. With so many new types of transportation, all going different speeds, often on sidewalks and paths designated for pedestrians and bicycles, some people view New York City’s modern streetscape as “a nightmare.” Safety advocates, including the NYC E-Vehicle Safety Alliance, are pressing for more regulation, including legislation requiring riders of electric bikes to register their vehicles and get licenses.
But this sudden profusion of vehicular abundance also should bring a little celebration.
For now — and only now! Like, in the last four years! — any New Yorker with a few hundred dollars can choose with such exactitude the type and model of transportation device that best meets their particular needs. We spent some time on the streets, chatting with people who move around the city in unique, personalized ways.
Christina Iwinski, 35, Upper West Side, Begode T4 electric unicycle
People who ride electric unicycles know how precarious they look. Riding one requires a person to lean forward with the most delicate part of their body — their face — and pray for the best.
For all the apparent risk, however, Christina Iwinski says she chose an electric unicycle for its safety. Her son was born with serious immune deficiencies, so she feared riding the subway, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. She also feared walking home from work through Central Park after dark.
So she bought what is known as a monowheel — essentially a wheel with footrests that is mysteriously steered by subtly leaning. It’s light enough to carry and small enough to tuck away in her apartment. She learned quickly that many pedestrians, plus The New York Post, view her as a pariah.
“People yell at us all the time, and that’s really odd to me,” Iwinski said. “The danger comes from all the drivers. On this I have total control, and I’m always paying attention.”
Luz Morales, 42, Queens, Ceetle Pro EA10C seated scooter
Luz Morales gets around on one of the smallest new electric vehicles available. With 900 watts of power, equivalent to a small microwave, and a top speed of 15 miles an hour, her little gray scooter embodies transportation minimalism.
Yet its impact on her life is huge. Ever since she emigrated from Ecuador in 2020, Morales has worked from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. washing dishes in a Manhattan restaurant. She always rode the bus to work from her apartment in Queens, which took 70 minutes each way.
Her little scooter cut her commute in half. That enabled her to get a second job, packaging food at Kennedy Airport from 8 p.m. till 2 in the morning.
“It’s very practical,” she said of the scooter. “I sleep when I can.”
Prince Robinson, 24, Williamsburg, homemade electric skateboard
His little electric skateboard could never handle it. Instead, the skateboard is for after work.
“I wasn’t really going anywhere,” Robinson said, as he rolled slowly up the Williamsburg Bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn. “I was just hanging out. This calms me down.”
His skateboard is a vintage type, with a prominent tail and a front chipped from too many nose grinds. Its belly carries a small motor and battery, which a friend bolted together for free.
“I could get a new one,” he said. “But I really like this old-school vibe.”
Thien Tran, 47, Middle Village, Queens, Dualtron Storm standup scooter
For most of Thien Tran’s 47 years, if he wanted to go anywhere, he took a bus or a train. On weekdays, that works fine. But on nights and weekends, M.T.A. service ebbs, and Middle Village resembles a transit desert. His seven-mile commute to his job in Gramercy Park becomes an hourlong ordeal.
A couple of years ago, Tran bought a Dualtron Storm, an electric scooter made by a South Korean company called Minimotors. It has dual shocks — front and rear — two headlights, turn signals, a horn and a fingerprint lock. It cost $4,500 new. It weighs 110 pounds, goes 30 miles an hour, and chopped his weekend commute to 15 minutes.
“Now I’ve got this, forget about the bus,” said Tran, who works as a building handyman.
Eric Edwards, 37, Chelsea, hand-built electric scooter
When he went shopping for an electric scooter, Eric Edwards couldn’t find any he liked. Most were too slow, he said. All were too ugly.
So he built his own. Starting with a frame built in China, he added a large battery, a high-output electric motor, a brown saddle and a big round headlight. The result is more like a classic motorcycle, and roughly as fast.
“The look I’m going for is ‘1945 cafe racer,’” he said. And he kind of nailed it. “I can go onto the freeway!”
Maddy Novich, 41, Harlem, Riese & Müller cargo bike
As befits a cycling influencer with more than 14,500 Instagram followers, Maddy Novich owns lots of bikes. One weighs 120 pounds — more than she does — and can fit all three of her children in the front, like a wheelbarrow.
But her favorite bike to ride is a zippy Riese & Müller. Made in Germany, and with prices starting at $12,700, it comes with two batteries, front and rear suspension and a carbon fiber belt instead of a chain. She can ride around New York at 28 miles an hour carrying a full load of groceries, a child or two, plus work stuff. (In addition to her social media profile, she’s a criminologist and a sociology professor at Manhattan College.)
“I use it for grocery shopping, getting to my kids’ doctors appointments, taking my daughter to swimming lessons, going out on date night,” she said. “Public transit in New York City is amazing, but you are still beholden to their schedules, their delays. This makes commuting fun.”
Marvin Briceno, 42, Fernhay eQuad cargo bike
As he travels from the warehouse of DutchX, a delivery company, in East Harlem to the co-ops of Central Park West, Marvin Briceno feels like he’s in a one-man parade. Everywhere he goes, people stop and gawk at his vehicle.
Called an eQuad, it’s the platypus of delivery vehicles.
The driver sits in a clear plastic cab with a roof and windshield for protection from the rain, but no doors. Inside the cab are pedals, handlebars and a battery pack, like an electric bike. Out back is a metal box filled with groceries, like the world’s smallest semi truck. Cost: $16,750.
The vehicle, which is considered a cargo bike by the company that makes it, is owned by DutchX. It may be the world’s cutest delivery vehicle.
“Everybody loves this thing,” he said. “And I like it because I get more packages, more tips, more money.”
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