LETTER: Hoboken’s e-bike delivery task force was pointless at best

In a letter to the editor, Hoboken resident Kevin Davis gives his point of view on why the city’s e-bike delivery task force was pointless at best.

Dear Editor,

Residents of Hoboken might be surprised to find out that Mayor Bhalla effectively disbanded his own E-Delivery Task Force last week via an email from his business administrator, Jason Freeman.

In Hoboken, when our mayor wants to silence discussion on a problem he does not intend to solve, the common practice is to create a task force. This strategy allows the mayor to appear proactive, diverting criticism of his inaction.

He used this tactic with the Homeless Task Force, which no longer meets, and now he has done the same with the E-Delivery Task Force.

The purpose of the task force wasn’t to solve the problem of delivery bikers on the sidewalk; it was to placate public anger ahead of his congressional run.

If Mayor Bhalla truly cared about this issue, why didn’t he attend a single meeting of his own task force?

The task force failed because it didn’t have a clearly defined mission and was comprised of groups with conflicting interests:

1. Bike Advocates: Groups like Bike Hoboken opposed the ordinance without proposing effective alternatives to regulate delivery bikers. Their insincere call for enforcement of existing laws, which aren’t being enforced, was not a solution.

2. Bhalla Administration and Council Allies: Unlike bike advocates, the Bhalla administration members and their council allies aimed to undermine critics. All Bhalla’s critics on the council voted for the current ordinance, and all his allies voted against it.

The task force was packed with the mayor’s supporters, leaving only a few dissenting voices like mine and those of Council members Presinzano, Ramos, and Russo.

3. Hoboken Police: The police leadership considered the ordinance unenforceable and suggested amendments that would weaken it, such as removing numbers from vests and making unlicensed delivery biking a secondary violation, enforceable only if another infraction occurs.

Currently, Hoboken’s sidewalks, particularly on Washington Street, see hundreds of violations daily, with only a few being ticketed. The HPD’s lack of enforcement of existing bike ordinances raises concerns.

Given the conflicting interests within the task force, it was doomed to fail. Its purpose seemed more about derailing Councilman Presinzano’s ordinance than implementing it.

Under this administration, the city won’t enforce the E-Delivery ordinance that went into effect on June 1st, ultimately disappointing residents who demanded action on the issue.

Kevin Davis
Hoboken resident