NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – Ride-sharing startup Revel is returning its mopeds to the streets of New York City with new safety measures in place a month after the service was shut down following three deadly crashes this summer in the city.
Under the new rules, riders will have to go through a host of safety measures before they can drive the mopeds.
That starts with a 30-question quiz about how to ride safely and some of the new punishments riders face if they don't.
Riders will have to get a perfect score on the quiz twice before they can unlock their accounts.
Another big safety issue was helmets—each scooter had one, but there was no way to ensure riders were wearing them.
The app now forces riders to take a selfie with their helmet on. Those photos are reviewed, and if the selfie isn’t of the rider wearing a helmet, they’ll get a seven-day suspension.
Asked whether someone could take the selfie and then take the helmet off, Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said, "The theory is once you put the helmet on and taken the picture you're most probably not going to take it off."
In addition, the onboard GPS will track riders. They’ll get a seven-day suspension if they drive the wrong way down a one-way street or through parks.
Those suspensions will turn into a permanent ban after any subsequent offenses.
The mopeds exist in a kind of regulatory gray area. They can only go up to 30 mph, so rules around motorcycles don’t apply. The same goes for figuring out how to operate them; that learning curve may have played a role in the string of injuries and deaths earlier this summer that led to a ban.
Revel told the Wall Street Journal it will take about two weeks to get their 3,000 mopeds back onto the streets.
Revel had been getting popular before this summer's accidents. It all comes as subway ridership stays low and people search for other ways to get around the city amid the pandemic.
Seventeen percent of Revel crashes in the city this year involved first time riders.
If protocols aren't followed the city will suspend Revel again.