Any law enforcement professional can recognize the difference between a minor inconvenience and a major public safety problem. Law-breaking e-bike riders across the five boroughs have passed the nuisance threshold and now are approaching a full-blown crisis that City Hall is willfully ignoring.
Since 2019, at least 17,447 people have been injured and 133 killed in e-bike related accidents in the city, with deaths involving motorized two-wheeled devices shooting up nearly 86% in 2026 compared to the same time last year. E-bikes riders are blatantly flouting traffic laws, running red lights, commandeering sidewalks, and terrorizing pedestrians with abandon.
New York is not alone in experiencing this dangerous phenomenon. But while other governments — most recently New Jersey, just across the Hudson — are taking steps to ensure safer streets, the Mamdani administration refuses to follow suit.
It wasn’t always this way. In 2025, then-Mayor Eric Adams granted NYPD officers discretion to issue criminal summonses for serious traffic violations to e-bike riders. The directive worked, with fatalities tied to motorized two-wheeled vehicles like e-bikes dropping 39% from 2024.
Yet that respite was short lived, as the Mamdani administration in March 2026 stripped officers of the authority to issue criminal e-bike summonses, arguing that the Adams-era directive had “disproportionately burdened working New Yorkers.”
A criminal summons was not a perfect solution in the absence of a sensible registration and licensing requirement — such as what is proposed under Priscilla’s Law. But doing away with the only tool officers had to address out-of-control e-bikes without a workable replacement has left pedestrians in this city far less safe.
This is not an argument against all e-bikes. Along with scooters, mopeds and traditional bicycles, e-bikes are an invaluable form of transportation for thousands of New Yorkers and are an important tool for delivery workers trying to earn a living amid the ongoing affordability crisis.
Providing law enforcement with tangible tools to address unsafe practices aids the thousands of people who safely use their e-bikes every day. Responsible riders should not fear being stigmatized because of a comparatively few reckless individuals.
Every other motor vehicle must be registered and insured. Operators must be licensed and insured and follow basic laws, facing consequences when they break them. E-bikes, which can travel as fast as — or faster than – the citywide default speed limit of 25 mph and can inflict deadly harm, should not be treated differently.
Just this month, a 43-year-old jogger was left in a medically induced coma after she was hit from behind by an e-bike rider allegedly going the wrong way in Central Park. Last year, a 60-year-old mother was struck and killed by a speeding e-bike carrying two men as she stepped off a city bus. Dozens of other crashes are taking place weekly, if not daily, but going unreported as New Yorkers have no way of holding e-bike riders who break the law accountable.
These incidents are not mere statistics, they are tragedies. Stories like these will only continue unless City Hall decides that public safety matters more than political posturing.
NYC Common Sense, a nonprofit watchdog organization, has sued the Mamdani administration on behalf of nine e-bike crash victims and concerned New Yorkers over the decision to rescind the NYPD’s criminal summons power. But it shouldn’t take a lawsuit for City Hall to do the right thing; safe streets and sidewalks should be the mayor’s top priority, and he must rein in lawless e-bike riders before they kill or injure again.
Porcher is a retired NYPD lieutenant and criminal justice expert.