The Future of Transportation Has Arrived With Your Pad Thai

Hello, Patreon Friends: 

I've been following Baruch Herzfeld and the development of his start-up company, PopWheels since last May. This episode of The War on Cars is the result of more than a half dozen interviews with Baruch and the Bangladeshi delivery workers who are using PopWheels' e-bike battery-swapping system. Going in to this project, I thought I was going be nerding out on electric bikes, battery technology, and the delivery app business. Instead, I got a crash course on Bangladeshi politics, the U.S. immigration system, and the best ways to transport triplets around Brooklyn without a car. Keeping up with Baruch is a wild ride and we hope you enjoy listening. 

--Aaron

Baruch Herzfeld is the CEO and co-founder of PopWheels, where he is working to develop New York City’s first e-bike battery-swapping network. PopWheels aims to solve the growing problem of e-bike battery fires. The company believes that giving e-mobility users a quick, convenient, and safe way to recharge their batteries is absolutely essential to pushing gas-burning cars and trucks out of cities once and for all. But Baruch’s really big idea is this: He is betting that the light, clean, electric transportation fleet of the future is already up and running on the streets of New York City. And it isn’t being brought to us by Big Tech, Big Auto or Elon Musk, it is being driven by tens of thousands of immigrant e-bike delivery workers. What if there is a high-tech urban mobility revolution happening right under our noses, but we can’t see it because the people who are bringing it to our city are mostly invisible to us.

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LINKS:

Baruch Herzfeld’s battery-swapping company, PopWheels: Stop Charging, Start Swapping

Mayor Adams Launches Lithium-ion Battery-Charging Pilot for Delivery Workers to Safely Charge in Public, NYC.gov, December 5, 2023

When will NYC do something about e-bike fire deaths? Nicole Gelinas for the New York Post, November 19, 2023

F.D.N.Y. Commissioner Blames E-Commerce Giants in Deadly Battery Fires, by Michael Rothfeld for the New York Times, November 13, 2023

E-bike charging stations coming to NYCHA in wake of deadly lithium-ion battery fires, New York Daily News, June 25, 2023

Opinion: E-bike Battery Regulation Isn’t Anti-immigrant or Anti-worker. It’s Common Sense. By Baruch Herzfeld in City Limits, November 14, 2022

Brooklyn’s Bicycle Man Uses Two Wheels To Bring Hasids and Hipsters Together, by Nathaniel Popper for The Forward, August 29, 2009

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This episode was reported, produced and edited by Aaron Naparstek. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear.