injuries<\/a> are underreported and city officials rely on incomplete statistics. \u201cMost e-vehicle crashes aren\u2019t reported. The police aren\u2019t there,\u201d Schroeder said. \u201cIt\u2019s like erasing victims and erasing what happened to them.\u201d Some victims were there to ensure their stories were not erased.<\/p>\nSandy Rayburn, dressed almost entirely in purple, has never been struck by an e-bike but fears becoming a victim. \u201cAs an 81-year-old, I\u2019m in terror of crossing the street and having to dodge an e-bike rider,\u201d she said. \u201cIn this so-called most walkable city, I feel I am being deprived of my equal mobility, rights and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
The youngest protester in attendance, 20-year-old Mia Clark, came with her mother and dog. \u201cWe need more voices,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Many protesters also opposed a proposed redesign of West 72nd Street that would add new bike infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Karen Hochman, a longtime neighborhood resident, sat on a bright red rollator walker. She worried elderly residents and parents with strollers would have to cross bike lanes to reach taxis. \u201cThat\u2019s really scary,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Nearby, Peter Shaw held a photograph of a woman in a neck brace. \u201cMy friend was walking her dog, and a cyclist rode right into her,\u201d he said. The crash left his friend with a concussion and dizziness. After learning about the proposal to make a river-to-river bike lane on 72nd Street, he began organizing opposition and said he has collected 500 to 600 signatures. Community Board 7 gave its approval to the proposed bike lane at a full board meeting on June 2.<\/p>\n
\u201dWe\u2019re not saying no bike lanes ever,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re saying: don\u2019t put bike lanes in without thinking it through.\u201d<\/p>\n
As protesters spoke outside, guests hurried inside. A few waved and smiled at the crowd. One guest even danced briefly before entering. The tension occasionally boiled over. Howard Yaruss of Manhattan Community Board 7 stopped to argue with protesters. \u201cWe want people to be kept safe. Why are you always against us?\u201d Yaruss shouted toward the crowd.<\/p>\n
While protesters focused on injuries, near misses and accountability, speakers inside the fundraiser emphasized street redesigns, bike infrastructure and reducing traffic deaths. One honoree was the Make McGuinness Safe coalition, which successfully pushed for the redesign of McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
That same project was criticized outside by Debra Kent, a former producer of the television show Sex and the City, who traveled from Brooklyn to attend the protest. \u201cThousands of people opposed it,\u201d Kent said. \u201cBut we lost the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking at the event, Mayor Zohran Mamdani praised advocates who pushed for safer street designs. \u201dToo often, it felt as though tragedy was the only thing capable of generating the investment a street had needed years earlier,\u201d he said. \u201cNo longer will we wait for a New Yorker to get hurt before we take action.\u201d<\/p>\n
His remarks followed an introduction by Mary Beth Kelly, whose husband was killed 20 years ago when a truck made what she described as a fast, illegal turn while the couple was bicycling. Following his death, Kelly became involved in Transportation Alternatives and street-safety advocacy.<\/p>\n
The dispute comes as e-bike safety has become an increasingly political issue in New York. Earlier Monday, Mamdani addressed the issue on WNYC\u2019s The Brian Lehrer Show.<\/p>\n
Responding to a caller injured by an electric scooter traveling the wrong way on Broadway, he said the city was expanding safety efforts. \u201cWe\u2019re also pursuing an approach with app delivery companies that looks to strengthen accountability,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Transportation Alternatives rejects the central claims made by the E-Vehicle Safety Alliance. \u201cThe vast majority of deaths in the city are from cars and trucks,\u201d Alexa Sledge, Transportation Alternatives\u2019 director of communications, told the West Side Spirit. \u201cWe are talking 90-plus percent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sledge rejected claims that e-bike injuries are underreported. \u201dIf I were lying publicly like EVSA is, I would also say the crash reports are inaccurate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She also rejected calls for e-bike licensing. \u201cThere is absolutely zero data that e-bike licensing leads to safety,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Some protesters questioned Transportation Alternatives\u2019 corporate sponsors and accused the organization of prioritizing business interests over public safety. Sledge rejected that criticism. \u201cIf sponsors dictated our policies, why would we support legislation that makes delivery apps more expensive and more regulated?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That idea\u2014safety for everyone\u2014was one of the few points of agreement visible Monday evening. Even some Transportation Alternatives supporters acknowledged concerns about high-speed e-bikes.<\/p>\n
\u201dI absolutely agree that anything going faster than 20 miles per hour should not be in bike lanes,\u201d Klaus Kaley, a physician and Transportation Alternatives member attending the fundraiser, said.<\/p>\n
Emily Jacobi, a senior organizer with Transportation Alternatives, said the organization does not view protesters as enemies. \u201dWe think any New Yorker who wants to see our streets become safer is an ally,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t always agree on the ways to get there, but we agree on a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Furnas, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, struck a similar note. \u201cThere are real concerns about the fastest and heaviest e-bikes. We want to phase those out,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the sky will not fall. The bike lane is going to be beautiful. And we\u2019re building a better city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Separated by a set of glass doors, both groups insisted they were fighting for safer streets. On Monday night, neither side appeared likely to change the other\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201dI\u2019m happy I\u2019m talking to you, because I could have been dead.\u201d Standing outside the New-York Historical Society…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63,7428],"class_list":["post-256969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-protesters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}