App-Based Mopeds Coming To Manhattan, Free For Healthcare Workers

UPTOWN, MANHATTAN — Brooklyn-based moped company Revel is bringing its fleet of electric vehicles to Manhattan for the first time to help healthcare workers get around during the coronavirus pandemic, the company announced Thursday.

Revel, which lets users sign up for rides on the mopeds via their app, will open a service area from 65th Street to the top of Manhattan and let riders use the mopeds to get to several hospitals in the bottom half of the borough.

The ride-sharing app previously was only available in parts of Brooklyn and Queens, an area that it expanded last week partly in response to the need to get healthcare workers around during the coronavirus pandemic. The Manhattan rides, like those in the outer boroughs, will be free for healthcare workers.

“During this crisis, we want to do everything we can to help New York City recover, and right now, that means helping health care workers get to work safely,” said CEO and co-founder Frank Reig. “We encourage everyone who is not an essential worker to stay at home, but we are here to support those that are desperately needed at work.”

The Revel expansion comes as New York City is under a statewide stay-at-home order, which only allows essential services, like hospitals, to stay open. There were more than 20,000 coronavirus cases in the city as of Wednesday evening.

The moped company said that hundreds of healthcare professionals had signed up to use the mopeds since they launched the free ride option in the outer boroughs last week.

They have also upped cleaning measures for the electric vehicles and equipment, like helmets, used to ride them, because of the coronavirus pandemic, Revel said.

In Manhattan, the Upper Manhattan service area will stretch over Mount Sinai Medical Center, Lenox Hill Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Service areas will also be set up in smaller slices around the Javits Center, Bellevue Hospital Center, Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital, Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Healthcare System, and NYU Langone Tisch Hospital.

(Provided by Revel).

The mopeds cannot be used to travel from Brooklyn or Queens to Manhattan or vice versa, the company said. Riders cannot end their rides outside of the service area, though they can pause their ride as long as the Revel is parked legally.

To receive free rides, employees of any health care provider can visit Revel’s website and upload a photo of their employee ID cards.

The expansion was welcomed by both elected officials and doctors who say they can use them to get around more easily.

"We're all working day and night shifts, covering colleagues who are sick, forgoing time off and extra hours doing our best to care for our patients," said Dr. Moshe Miller, a physician at Maimonides Medical Center. “Your scooters allow me to shorten my travel time to work and make it so I don't have to worry about the cost of transportation. A shining example of what companies can do to help out in unconventional ways.”