Tech:NYC Digest: November 7

Tech:NYC Digest: November 7

November 07, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

We’ll be glued to general election results tonight – if you haven’t cast your ballot yet, get to your polling site by 9pm! 🏃

  • In today’s digest, Citi Bike’s bet on post-pandemic transit, revisiting the rules for subway etiquette, and the effort to wall up Manhattan’s East side to prevent future flooding.

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  • By noon today, about 217,000 NYC residents had shown up to polling sites for the general election – but more than a third of those were counted during the early voting period. (Gothamist)

    • The low turnout was largely expected, in the absence of large statewide and national races this year.

    • Here’s a roundup of the races to watch – here in NYC and across the country – as results trickle in tonight.

  • Those living in the city in 2012 remember the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy. Now New York is being proactive to avoid the effects of a future storm. To protect the east side of Manhattan from flooding, the city’s Dept. of Environmental Protection is walling up the waterfront with giant steel gates. (Curbed)

    • The East Village is a historic flood plain, a fact made clear to New Yorkers when the river flowed three blocks inland during Sandy. The city is also working to elevate East River Park to take on the force of water during storms.

  • If you saw a bright green liquid oozing from a manhole near the World Trade Center yesterday, it wasn’t toxic sludge or a promotion of Wicked on Broadway. The fluorescent substance was instead something much more mundane: dyed water to help environmental authorities detect leaks within the system. (ABC 7)

In other reading:

  • Does Anyone Know How to Behave on the Subway Anymore? (New York Times)

  • These massive new sculptures in NYC are made entirely out of canned goods (TimeOut New York)

  • Why Coney Island’s Luna Park is opening for winter for the first time in its 120-year history (NBC New York)

Citi Bike, which has grown to become the largest bike share program in the country, plans to double its electric bike fleet by the end of 2024 and pilot two charging stations. The transportation network, which is owned by Lyft, also plans to electrify more bike docking stations in the coming years. 

Driving the news: The expansion was made possible by a new city rule lifting caps on the number of electric bikes Citi Bike can have in its fleet. Citi Bike is now allowed to electrify half of its New York fleet, compared to the 20% cap in place prior.

  • This matters because out of all rides in the system, e-bikes now represent 46% of them, up from about 14% in 2020. Those numbers indicate that interest in e-bikes as a more regular transportation option skyrocketed during the pandemic while subway rides still felt unsafe to many New Yorkers.

  • That interest has persisted: 2023 has already set an annual record for Citi Bike rides, with two months still left in the year. As of Oct. 29, there have been 30.7 million rides in New York.

“Citi Bike is a popular, sustainable, and reliable way to get around the city — millions of New Yorkers choose to use Citi Bikes each month,” said Transportation Alternatives executive director Danny Harris. “To meet our city’s climate goals, continuing to shift New Yorkers out of cars and onto bikes is key.”

Yes, and: With more bike usage comes the need for infrastructure to support it. Public transit advocates say more charging stations and protected bike lanes are crucial to making e-bikes accessible and to pushing New York toward a more sustainable future.

  • Beyond Lyft’s investment into more e-bikes, the city plans to expand the Harlem River Greenway into the Bronx with the help of a $7.25 million grant.

  • The Adams administration has also completed and launched bike infrastructure projects in East New York in Brooklyn, Soundview Avenue in the Bronx and Third Avenue in Manhattan. 

  • Following a successful pilot in the East Bronx, the e-scooter provider Lime is also expanding service to Queens in 2024. 

Lyft describes e-bikes as a game changer for New York, and its ridership data is the proof in the pudding. 

  • “Riding an e-bike makes the Big Apple feel small, helping riders cross bridges and travel longer distances in less time without breaking a sweat,” said Caroline Samponaro, Lyft’s vice president for micromobility and transit policy.

In other reading:

  • We spent a week letting AI bots handle our emails and meetings. It didn’t go as planned (Fast Company)

  • Why big projects fail – and how to give yours a better chance of success (Harvard Business Review)

  • The AI audit has arrived, according to new KPMG report (Morning Brew)

  • Daytona, a NYC-based platform for managing environments where coders can develop software, raised $2 million in pre-seed funding. 500 led the round and was joined by Tiny.vc, Silicon Gardens, Darkmode VC, Firestreak Ventures, and a group of angel investors.

  • Polimorphic, a NYC-based startup designed to digitize paperwork for local governments and constituents through AI, raised $5.6 million in funding. M13 led the round joined by Shine Capital and Pear VC.

  • November 14: In-person: New York Enterprise Tech Meetup, with BetterCloud founder David Politis and Work-Bench general partner Jessica Lin. Hosted by Work-Bench. Register here.

  • November 14 – 15: In-person: 2023 Urban Tech Summit, with NYC chief climate officer Rit Aggarwala, Kelvin CEO Marshall Cox, Brooklyn Navy Yard CEO Lindsay Greene, Near Space Labs CEO Rema Matevosyan, and others. Hosted by Cornell Tech. Register here.

  • November 15: Virtual: State of Fundraising Briefing, with AlleyCorp general partner Marshall Porter, Stellation Capital managing partner Peter Boyce II, Carta head head VC and accelerator business development Ryan O’Conor, and Tech:NYC president Julie Samuels. Hosted by Tech:NYC. Register here. 

  • November 20: In-person: Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg speaker series, featuring Rho co-founder and CEO Everett Cook. Hosted by Tech:NYC, Bloomberg, and Cornell Tech. Register here.

  • December 8: In-person: Nonprofit TechCon, with BetaNYC executive director Noel Hidalgo, Queens Deputy Borough President Ebony Young, and others. Hosted by City & State. Use code TECH23 for 50% off tickets here.

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