UberEats Deliveryman on Bicycle Using GPS Rides into NYC’s Cars-Only Lincoln Tunnel
The machine made him do it.
Further proof that the proliferation of GPS has actually made us a little dumber: Police in New Jersey stopped an UberEats deliveryman on a bicycle during rush hour this week after he followed the company's map app into New York City's cars-only Lincoln Tunnel, a key link between New York and New Jersey and one of the busiest tunnels in the country.
According to the New York Post, 26-year-old Morocco native Hicham Oulhint had just moved to the area seven months ago, and this was his first week on the job for Uber's food delivery service. He got lost when trying to pick up a Fresh Direct grocery order for a customer in Manhattan on Tuesday and ended up pedaling straight into the 1.5-mile long tunnel, which has two travel lanes, an emergency walkway...and absolutely no shoulder.
A Port Authority spokesman told Gothamist that officers stopped the frightened deliveryman as he emerged on the other side in New Jersey, where he told them his phone had led him into the tunnel. Though sympathetic to his experience—it was rush hour, and he reportedly spent the entire crossing being tailgated by an angry bus driver—they still slapped him with a summons for trespassing.
Oulhint immediately hopped back on a train to New York and later finished his delivery, but UberEats apparently didn't take too kindly to his detour and removed him from their service. Still, he's taking the whole experience in stride.
"We learn from mistakes. I should have been paying attention," he told the Post.
