Bike-Riding Deliveryman Facing Charges After App Directs Him Into Lincoln Tunnel
WEEHAWKEN, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A bicyclist delivering food who ended up riding through the Lincoln Tunnel was following directions from a phone app, Port Authority officials said.
As CBS2's Dave Carlin reported, the signs are clear: bicycles are not allowed in the Lincoln Tunnel, but a food deliveryman took the low road anyway, attempting to pedal from Manhattan to New Jersey.
The 26-year-old Jersey City man, Hicham Oulhint, was intercepted by Port Authority police on the New Jersey side of the tunnel around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
According to Port Authority spokesman Joseph Pentangelo, the man was taking a suggested route on his phone app when he entered the tunnel.
In New York City, it's not rare to see delivery people on bicycles on sidewalks, or going the wrong way on a street, but what you rarely see is a bike delivery person inside the Lincoln Tunnel.
"It would scare me of course, because I'm driving, I wouldn't want to hit him," driver Jasmin Gonzalez said.
"It's stupidity! Everyone knows you can't ride a bike in the Lincoln Tunnel," one man said.
Bicycles are prohibited in the Lincoln Tunnel.
Oulhint told officers he was working for Uber delivery food, and set a course in his GPS for Chelsea, but instead of staying in Manhattan he took a very wrong turn through the tunnel to New Jersey.
Pentangelo said the man showed officers the app which supported his claim.
The incident didn't cause a major traffic disruption.
Juvani Richardson is also a deliveryman for Uber Eats.
"It's dangerous, you could get killed, you could get killed," he said, "I never go through the Lincoln Tunnel."
But is he buying the GPS excuse?
"Not actually because he knows you can se you before you went to the Lincoln Tunnel on the boards that it's not for bikes, you can actually see that," he said.
Pentangelo said the man has been issued a traffic summons for trespass.
Friends say he moved to Jersey City from Morocco less than a year ago, and said it seems he's been working too hard and may have been tired.
"Maybe it's a mistake, he doesn't know what's going on," Abraham Agaom said.
Uber says its Eats app is set so you can't even order food if it requires delivery across a tolled bridge or through a tunnel. The ride sharing company says Oulhint's delivery privileges were immediately revoked.
He did not return repeated calls from CBS2 requesting comment.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
