Demanding extra regulation and oversight of the burgeoning military of e-bikes whizzing pell-mell via 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,” stated Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), creator of a invoice that might require the 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 stated.
Metropolis Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) is pictured throughout the New York Metropolis Council Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure listening to on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (John McCarten / NYC Council Media Unit)
E-bikes, which rose to prominence on metropolis streets throughout the COVID pandemic and are actually overwhelmingly utilized by supply employees and Citi Bike commuters alike, have grow to be a hot-button difficulty amongst New Yorkers.
Quite a few neighborhood teams and lawmakers have singled out the automobiles as harmful to pedestrians, transferring 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 an alternative choice to 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, usually 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, usually elevating their palms in silent applause or rejecting testimony with downward thumbs from the gallery. (John McCarten / NYC Council Media Unit)
Deflecting, Ydanis Rodriguez, the town’s transportation commissioner, stated that whereas his division took critically the necessity to implement 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 stated.
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 stated. “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 working pink lights, however argued that enforcement by the NYPD doesn’t require bikes to have license plates.
Ydanis Rodriguez, the town’s transportation commissioner, is pictured — amid a sea of members of the general public giving thumbs-down indicators — throughout 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 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 visitors infractions this yr.
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 stated. “If red-light cameras work [on cars], they’ll work on an e-bike.”
Holden informed Rodriguez Wednesday that Mayor Adams had knowledgeable him in a non-public assembly earlier this yr that the mayor helps the invoice to require registration of e-bikes.
Holden subsequently referred to as it “puzzling” that Rodriguez just isn’t supporting the invoice.
Rodriguez replied that DOT backs “the intent” of the invoice, however not the invoice itself. He stated 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 nicely, the supply stated. 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, stated 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 stated the mayor additionally continued to assist measures that might regulate the delivery-app firms that make use of tens of 1000’s of e-bike-riding couriers throughout the town.
Final yr, the Adams administration previewed a plan to require these firms to be licensed and meet minimal security necessities — an strategy Rodriguez supported on Wednesday.
“The third-party delivery apps should be responsible for mitigating the negative consequences created by their business model,” Rodriquez stated. “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 knowledge present, two of the 103 pedestrians killed in 2023 had been struck by an e-bike or moped.
As of Tuesday, metropolis knowledge confirmed 17 individuals have been killed whereas driving e-bikes thus far this yr, whereas seven cyclists have been killed on pedal-powered bikes.
Theodore Parisienne for New York Each day Information
A 59-year-old girl making an attempt to cross Second Ave. at E. thirty eighth St. in Manhattan was rushed to Bellevue Hospital in essential situation with a head damage after she was struck by an e-bike going the incorrect course in a motorbike 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 journey in bike lanes citywide and legally handled the identical as their unpowered brethren.
Most authorized e-bikes are restricted to a 20 mph high pace. Rental electrical Citi Bikes are slower, topping out at 18 mph, as required by the 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 Printed: December 11, 2024 at 6:39 PM EST
