Wednesday’s Headlines: Top of the Pops Edition

They’re popping off!

PopWheels, a Brooklyn-based battery swap company hell bent on solving the city’s lithium-ion battery fire crisis, unveiled the first of what it says will be a growing network of battery-swapping locations in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday.

The swap location differs from the city’s battery-charging cabinets, like the ones in the DOT’s pilot program. Now, for just $75 per month, workers can swap out empty batteries for safe full ones at charging cabinets within PopWheels’s network – eliminating the need for them to own and transport their own batteries. Through Uber’s partnership, the first 50 delivery workers who trade in old batteries will be able to access six free months of PopWheels services. 

“Delivery workers are essential to our city, and we are committed to building public infrastructure to make their trips as safe as possible,” Baruch Herzfeld, co-founder of PopWheels, told our Sophia Lebowitz at the kickoff. “E-bikes are the future of urban mobility, and with our accessible, cheap network of certified batteries and public charging stations, delivery workers no longer have to keep batteries at home.”

When the company builds out a network of such cabinets, it says it will serve an 3,000 workers by the end of the year (each cabinet can serve 35 to 40 workers.)

This swap station comes as structure fires linked to lithium-ion batteries in New York City have surged by 53 percent in the first three months of 2025 (but there have been zero deaths, down from one in the same period last year).

— with Sophia Lebowitz

In other news:

• The big news? Mayor Adams will finally give the South Outer Roadway of the Queensboro Bridge to pedestrians, ending a needless delay for more “review” of the six-year-old project. (Gothamist after the amNY handout)
• The Post completely ripped off followed our seminal coverage of a class-action suit to get the NYPD to follow the law allowing cyclists to pass though a red light on a “Walk” signal.
• The Post also followed our seminal coverage of the Parks Department’s failure to maintain a critical piece of the Hudson River Greenway, which is only the country’s busiest bike path.
• EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin continues his revenge tour against the first two words of his agency’s name. (NY Post)
• Awful carnage on Long Island. (NYDN)
• The Times did a primer on the NJ Transit strike.
• Speaking of which, first they came for Shakira and I said nothing. But now they’re coming for Beyoncé. (Gothamist)
• Like Streetsblog, amNY covered Attorney General Letitia James’s suit against the Trump administration over its efforts to tie transportation funding to immigration compliance.