![\"Cyclist](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC_7439.jpg\" "\\"Mamdani")
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An e-bike rider on Delancey Street in January 2026.<\/p>\n
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n
Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s office announced on Wednesday that the NYPD<\/a> will discontinue before the end of this month its practice of slapping bicyclists and e-bike riders with criminal summonses for minor traffic violations.<\/p>\n On March 27, the NYPD will abandon the policy and replace it with the same civil summons process used for drivers accused of low-level traffic infractions, City Hall said.\n<\/p>\n \u201cEvery New Yorker on our roads, whether driving or biking, deserves to be treated fairly,\u201d the mayor said in a statement. \u201cBy ending criminal summonses for low-level traffic offenses, we\u2019re ensuring cyclists and e-bike riders \u2014 including those who deliver our food and groceries \u2014 are treated like others on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n The practice Mamdani is rolling back was established last April by his predecessor<\/a>, former Mayor Eric Adams, and current NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whom Adams appointed and he retained. Tisch said at the time\u00a0and has\u00a0continued to insist that<\/a>\u00a0the policy was a \u201cquality-of-life\u201d measure intended to address community complaints about unsafe e-bike rider behavior.<\/p>\n Mamdani also announced a raft of measures designed to address the \u201croot causes\u201d of the dangerous e-bike riding that the criminal summonses were purportedly intended to stem. Those include establishing a city Department of Transportation-run safety training program for bike-mounted delivery workers, a partnership with Citi Bike-owner Lyft to discourage unsafe riding, and introducing City Council legislation to regulate how delivery-app companies.<\/p>\n \u201cIn partnership with the City Council, we\u2019ll strengthen safety standards, hold app companies accountable, and expand training for delivery riders,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cThis balanced approach supports riders while protecting pedestrians and motorists \u2014 and moves us closer to making our streetscape the envy of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the legislation Mamdani said he would introduce is a measure to mandate app companies provide DOT with real-time trip data on \u201cdeliveries, worker penalties and safety incidents,\u201d as well as another allowing the city to establish delivery safety standards and regulate the penalties firms impose on workers.<\/p>\n The risks cyclists ran<\/p>\n Under the ending policy, cyclists would have to appear in criminal court for low-level offenses, such as running red lights or failing to halt at a stop sign. Those who decline to show up in court risk being hit with a bench warrant for their arrest.<\/p>\n Although the NYPD mostly issued criminal summonses to e-bike riders, many cyclists also faced criminal charges, according to published reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bicycling advocates, who fiercely opposed the policy, celebrated its demise on Wednesday.\n<\/p>\n \u201cFinally, Mayor Mamdani is ending the previous administration\u2019s wrongheaded and bizarre targeting of New Yorkers on bikes,\u201d said Ben Furnas, executive director of the group Transportation Alternatives.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re happy that criminal summonses are finally ending for bike riders, and the era of punishing bike riders criminally, while just giving drivers traffic tickets for the same infraction, has come to an end,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n