Demanding extra regulation and oversight of the burgeoning military of e-bikes whizzing pell-mell by means of New York’s streets — and sometimes alongside its sidewalks — indignant metropolis residents turned out in power at a Metropolis Council listening to Wednesday to demand motion.
Council members on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee heard indignant testimony from annoyed residents at a packed listening to on efforts to require registration and regulation of electrically powered bicycles.
“Just as cars and mopeds are required to display license plates, so too should e-bikes and other e-mobility devices,” mentioned Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), creator of a invoice that may require town to run a licensing and registration program for the automobiles.
“The lack of oversight on e-mobility devices has made our streets less safe for everyone — pedestrians, [traditional] cyclists and even the riders [of e-bikes],” Holden mentioned.
E-bikes, which rose to prominence on metropolis streets through the COVID pandemic and at the moment are overwhelmingly utilized by supply staff and Citi Bike commuters alike, have develop into a hot-button difficulty amongst New Yorkers.
Numerous group teams and lawmakers have singled out the automobiles as harmful to pedestrians, shifting at car-like speeds in areas historically reserved for slower, pedal-powered bicycles.
Others have heralded them as the way forward for short-distance transit, providing a substitute for automobiles, which proceed to kill dozens of pedestrians within the metropolis annually.
All through the listening to, members of the general public packed the Council chambers, typically elevating their palms in silent applause or rejecting testimony with downward thumbs from the gallery.
Members of the general public packed the Metropolis Council chambers, typically elevating their palms in silent applause or rejecting testimony with downward thumbs from the gallery. (John McCarten / NYC Council Media Unit)
Deflecting, Ydanis Rodriguez, town’s transportation commissioner, mentioned that whereas his division took critically the necessity to implement site visitors guidelines on e-bikes, “reckless driving by motor vehicle drivers remains, by far, the biggest threat to pedestrian safety.”
“So far this year, 105 pedestrians were killed by car or [a] large vehicle, compared to only six killed in crashes with e-bikes, mopeds and standup e-scooters combined,” Rodriguez mentioned.
The commissioner needed to repeat the stat twice as some members of the general public jeered in response.
“I say this not to diminish the very real concern about pedestrian safety from these smallest devices, but to put these concerns in perspective,” Rodriguez added.
“Too many e-bike riders are dying on our streets,” he mentioned. “Too many pedestrians fear being hit by e-bikes and mopeds that are breaking the law.”
The commissioner agreed with lawmakers that work is required to curb e-bikes driving on sidewalks or operating purple lights, however argued that enforcement by the NYPD doesn’t require bikes to have license plates.
Ydanis Rodriguez, town’s transportation commissioner, is pictured — amid a sea of members of the general public giving thumbs-down indicators — through the New York Metropolis Council Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure listening to on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (John McCarten / NYC Council Media Unit)
The Police Division has for years ticketed riders of conventional bicycles for breaking site visitors legal guidelines, however NYPD spokesmen didn’t instantly reply Wednesday when requested what number of tickets have been issued to e-bike riders for site visitors infractions this 12 months.
Holden blasted Rodriguez for a Transportation Division “asleep at the wheel.”
“You saying a license would not make a difference is absurd,” the Queens councilman mentioned. “If red-light cameras work [on cars], they’ll work on an e-bike.”
Holden advised Rodriguez Wednesday that Mayor Adams had knowledgeable him in a non-public assembly earlier this 12 months that the mayor helps the invoice to require registration of e-bikes.
Holden subsequently referred to as it “puzzling” that Rodriguez will not be supporting the invoice.
Rodriguez replied that DOT backs “the intent” of the invoice, however not the invoice itself. He mentioned he’s dedicated to working with the Council on the matter.
E-bike supporters additionally turned out on the New York Metropolis Council Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure listening to on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (John McCarten / NYC Council Media Unit)
Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Adams’ chief adviser, was in attendance on the sitdown, as properly, the supply mentioned. Throughout that assembly, Lewis-Martin praised the Digital Car Security Alliance for arising with “solutions” and chided Transportation Options — which is against the registration invoice — for providing “nothing.” Members of each Transportation Options and EVSA had been additionally on the Sept. 5 assembly.
Liz Garcia, a spokeswoman for Adams, mentioned Wednesday she wouldn’t “get into every private conversation the mayor has with a Council member and whether he did or did not say something.”
However Garcia added that the mayor “has expressed support for the intent of the e-bike bill, and we will continue to work with the City Council on advancing a comprehensive response to this issue and making e-bike usage safer for everyone.”
Garcia mentioned the mayor additionally continued to assist measures that may regulate the delivery-app corporations that make use of tens of 1000’s of e-bike-riding couriers throughout town.
Final 12 months, the Adams administration previewed a plan to require these corporations to be licensed and meet minimal security necessities — an method Rodriguez supported on Wednesday.
“The third-party delivery apps should be responsible for mitigating the negative consequences created by their business model,” Rodriquez mentioned. “Their business model forces delivery workers to do whatever it takes, including running a red light or going the wrong way, to shave a minute or two off the delivery time.”
Janet Schroeder, a co-founder of the Electrical Car Security Alliance (EVSA), led supporters of efforts to require registration and regulation of e-bikes at a rally on Metropolis Corridor’s steps on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit)
In that very same interval, metropolis information present, two of the 103 pedestrians killed in 2023 had been struck by an e-bike or moped.
As of Tuesday, metropolis information confirmed 17 folks have been killed whereas driving e-bikes to this point this 12 months, whereas seven cyclists have been killed on pedal-powered bikes.
Theodore Parisienne for New York Each day Information
A 59-year-old lady making an attempt to cross Second Ave. at E. thirty eighth St. in Manhattan was rushed to Bellevue Hospital in important situation with a head damage after she was struck by an e-bike going the improper path in a motorcycle lane on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. The e-bike rider then fled the scene. After a prolonged interval in a coma, the lady recovered, but was left with lasting results from her damage. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Each day Information)
Distinct from electrical mopeds and bikes — that are already required to have a state license plate — electric-assist bicycles with pedals are allowed to experience in bike lanes citywide and legally handled the identical as their unpowered brethren.
Most authorized e-bikes are restricted to a 20 mph high velocity. Rental electrical Citi Bikes are slower, topping out at 18 mph, as required by town’s Division of Transportation.
The quickest and strongest e-bikes, identified within the trade as “Class 3″ bikes, are allowed to travel up to 25 mph on New York City’s streets and bike lanes — though many are capable of traveling faster. City law does not require riders to wear helmets, unless an e-bike is being ridden for commercial purposes, like delivery work, or is on one of the faster “Class 3” machines.
Initially Revealed: December 11, 2024 at 6:39 PM EST
