E-yikes!
The city is ending its crackdown on e-bike drivers — amid lefty concerns the charges could harm migrant delivery workers, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration announced Wednesday.
Starting March 27, the NYPD will no longer issue criminal summonses to e-bikers and cyclists for traffic offenses, such as blowing stop signs or illegally zipping along city sidewalks, City Hall officials said.
The Mamdani administration that the NYPD will no longer issue summonses to e-bikers and cyclists for traffic offenses. Helayne Seidman for the NY Post
“By ending criminal summonses for low-level traffic offenses, we’re ensuring cyclists and e-bike riders — including those who deliver our food and groceries — are treated like others on the road,” Mamdani said in a statement.
Instead, two-wheeler traffic violations will be handled with civil summonses just as motorists are for similar offenses, he said.
The e-bike rollback is Mamdani’s latest move to protect delivery workers, a group largely consisting of immigrants whom he argues app companies have exploited.
The effort sunsets the criminal crackdown championed under former Mayor Eric Adams, as a response to widespread frustration with e-bike riders heedlessly speeding down city streets and bike lanes.
Many left-wing City Council members had long opposed the crackdown, fearing it could lead to drivers losing their licenses or, for those in the country illegally, to possibly being deported.
“Ticketing cyclists more aggressively than drivers never made sense. Kudos to the Mamdani administration for reversing this,” Councilman Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) posted on X after Wednesday’s sudden announcement.
Mamdani said that two-wheeler traffic violations will be handled with civil summonses just as motorists are for similar offenses. Robert Miller for NY Post
“It is important that everyone follow the rules of the road – but a delivery worker missing a stop sign shouldn’t get swept up in deportation proceedings.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a holdover from Adams’ administration who hasn’t been shy about her differences with the new mayor, has repeatedly defended the e-bike clampdown — even to the faces of City Council members concerned about ensnaring migrants.
Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics
“This is not a war on e-bikes, this is a response to very real concerns that are widely held across virtually every borough, every New Yorker in this city,” Tisch said last year during a council hearing when pressed by Mamdani’s lefty comrade Tiffany Cabán.
“A person who is more likely to be a person of color may end up in deportation proceedings, It’s not just right,” Cabán had argued.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has defended the clampdown on e-bikes. AFP via Getty Images
Tisch went as far as to pen an op-ed in The Post in support of the blitz.
“When vehicle drivers fail to respond to a traffic summons, their licenses can be suspended,” she wrote, “but e-bikes do not require any license, so their operators can simply ignore a traffic summons with virtually no meaningful repercussions.
“Now, we’re closing that loophole by issuing c-summonses —the only real option available under the law to hold reckless e-bike operators accountable.”
Notably, Tisch was not quoted in the news release announcing the rollback, which came from City Hall, not the NYPD.
Delivery worker advocates – who received a prominent place on Mamdani’s press release – argued the blitz focused on speeding e-bike riders let app companies off the hook.
A year after Adams’ e-bike crackdown, many New Yorkers remain irked by reckless two-wheelers – and zapped Mamdani for seemingly going soft on them. Gregory P. Mango
“For too long, app delivery companies have built business models that push workers to speed, work long hours and ride in unsafe conditions — making delivery one of the most dangerous jobs in New York City,” said Ligia Guallpa, executive director of Workers Justice Project/Los Deliveristas Unidos, in a statement on the release.
“This is a crucial step toward addressing the root causes of unsafe delivery work, and we look forward to advancing a comprehensive worker justice platform that makes delivery work safer and creates safer streets for e-bike riders, pedestrians and all New Yorkers,” Guallpa said.
Many street safety activists and progressives also argued treating scofflaw cyclists as criminals was fundamentally unfair, especially given motorists driving far more deadly vehicles only deal with civil summonses for traffic infractions.
But Queens Councilman Phil Wong pushed back, arguing it was important for the city to step up “to protect public safety and restore order on our roads,” instead of pulling back enforcement.
Zohran Mamdani before the start of the 265th Annual New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Jess Stiles/ZUMA / SplashNews.com
“This is exactly the wrong direction. If there are no real consequences for reckless e-bike riders and cyclists blowing through red lights, it will only make our streets more dangerous for pedestrians and drivers alike,” he told The Post.
A year after Adams’ e-bike crackdown, many New Yorkers remain irked by reckless two-wheelers – and zapped Mamdani for seemingly going soft on them.
“I f—ing hate the e-bikes,” said Dennis Smith, 32, a parks employee. “They’re like a motor vehicle and I feel like I’m going to get murdered when I’m walking and they are speeding and breaking the law. There are no rules and this will only make it worse.”
Red Hook resident Feodor Granof, 22, agreed that cyclists and e-bike riders should still have to go to criminal court.
Many street safety activists and progressives also argued treating scofflaw cyclists as criminals was fundamentally unfair. Gregory P. Mango
“They should get more than a regular traffic ticket if they break the law,” he said. “I’ve almost been killed by these guys when I’ve crossed the sidewalk, even if they’re in the bike lane. And they don’t have insurance.”
The city saw 15,000 recorded e-bike or bicycle collisions in 2024, data shows. The crackdown kicked off the next year, which ended with 7,100 such collisions.
The softer touch on cyclists isn’t the only recent decriminalization push in the Big Apple.
Get opinions and commentary from our columnists
Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!
Thanks for signing up!
A City Council law removing all misdemeanor penalties for food vendors automatically – and quietly – went into effect last week.
Mamdani plans to pair the e-bike enforcement rollback by pushing for City Council legislation to require delivery platforms to share trip-level data with the Department of Transportation that can help craft safety standards, officials said.
The city will also seek to work with the council to mandate enhanced training for delivery workers who repeatedly engage in unsafe riding behavior, officials said.
An NYPD spokesperson gave a terse response to the change.
“NYPD will follow this directive,” the statement read.
— Additional reporting by Estrella McDaniel and Steven Vago