Every day, vulnerable New Yorkers \u2013 from seniors with groceries and kids going to school to visually impaired individuals using cane and law-abiding traditional cyclists \u2013 are forced to share sidewalks and crosswalks with out-of-control e-bikes.<\/p>\n
Irresponsible, unregistered, and unlicensed e-bike riders who are blatantly flouting basic traffic laws at speeds of up to 30 mph have turned the city into a dangerous \u2013 even deadly \u2013 obstacle course for pedestrians and traditional cyclists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Across the Hudson, New Jersey is\u00a0taking sensible steps to protect<\/a>\u00a0pedestrians by requiring e-bike registrations, insurance coverage and age limits, But the Mamdani administration has moved in the opposite direction,\u00a0blocking<\/a>\u00a0the New York City Police Department (NYPD) from issuing criminal summons to e-bike operators who violate the law.<\/p>\n Last week, NYC Common Sense challenged that decision,\u00a0suing the mayor and the city<\/a>\u00a0on behalf of eight plaintiffs \u2013 including e-bike crash victims, seniors with mobility challenges, and a legally blind individual.Members of the NYC E-Vehicle Safety Alliance<\/a>\u00a0(NYC-EVSA)\u00a0joined<\/a>\u00a0attorney Jim Walden, chair of NYC Common Sense, on the steps of City Hall to announce the suit and demand that the city adopt a policy to protect pedestrians.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe mayor\u2019s power does not include ignoring public safety,\u201d Walden rightly said. \u201cOfficers need the discretion to issue criminal summonses when e-bike drivers put pedestrians at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n The public safety concerns in the lawsuit are backed by alarming data. A\u00a02024 study found<\/a>\u00a0e-bike injuries increased across the nation from roughly 1,600 in 2018 to more than 23,000 in 2022. Researchers at\u00a0NYU Langone found that<\/a>\u00a0micromobility vehicles accounted for roughly 7% of traumatic brain injury admissions, with nearly one-third of those patients needing ICU treatment.<\/p>\n The complaint notes that during the NYPD\u2019s criminal enforcement initiative,\u00a0which lasted from April 2025 and March 2026<\/a>, e-bike crashes, injuries, and fatalities declined by roughly 30%. But the truth is, the criminal summons option as merely a band-aid in the absence of what is truly needed to curb the e-bike menace \u2013 a comprehensive system that allows riders who break the law to be identified and held accountable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That is exactly what\u00a0Priscilla\u2019s Law<\/a>\u00a0aims to accomplish. The bill, named after Chinatown preschool teacher Priscilla Loke, 69,\u00a0who was killed in 2023<\/a>\u00a0by a rider on an electric Citi Bike who ran a red light and fled, would require e-bikes to be registered and have visible license plates. The rider who killed Loke was allowed by police to leave the scene and\u00a0reportedly received nothing<\/a>\u00a0but a\u00a0traffic summons<\/a>\u00a0for causing her death.\u00a0<\/p>\n A version of Priscilla\u2019s Law has been introduced at both the city and\u00a0state<\/a>\u00a0levels. The City Council hasn\u2019t held a hearing on this measure\u00a0since 2024<\/a>, allowing it to be bottled up at the insistence of\u00a0powerful special interests<\/a>. If the mayor and the Council refuse to protect pedestrians by regulation e-bikes, the state Legislature and Governor Hochul must act.\u00a0<\/p>\n E-bikes admittedly can provide an efficient form of transportation and are essential for thousands of delivery workers who rely on them to make a living. To be clear, requiring a license plate isn\u2019t about punishing those individuals, it\u2019s about ensuring accountability \u2013 the same way we regulate cars, trucks, and motorcycles on the same city streets.\u00a0<\/p>\n New Yorkers shouldn\u2019t be forced to choose between embracing new forms of transportation and feeling safe on our sidewalks. This city is constantly adapting and evolving. It is reasonable and realistic to provide support for delivery workers, encourage sustainable mobility, and still expect basic rules of the road to be enforced.<\/p>\n Every New Yorker deserves protection under the law. It\u2019s time for our elected officials to start treating e-bikes like the public safety crisis they\u2019ve become.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Janet Schroeder is the director and co-founder of the NYC E-Vehicle Safety Alliance (NYC-EVSA), Andrew Fine is the Alliance\u2019s legislative director.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every day, vulnerable New Yorkers \u2013 from seniors with groceries and kids going to school to visually impaired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6909,110932,110933,9,24,55,54,56,63,2584,299],"class_list":["post-290202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-e-bike","tag-e-bike-regulations","tag-e-bike-safety","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-op-ed","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290202","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=290202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}