New York\u2019s City Council, to its members\u2019 credit, now sees the need to control the e-bikes and other motorized devices that have made Gotham\u2019s streets more dangerous and less pleasant.<\/p>\n
Its Wednesday hearing will launch debate on 23 bills and resolutions that could rein them in.<\/p>\n
But the sheer number of proposals indicates confusion.<\/p>\n
Councilmembers need to focus: E-bikes and scooters should offer no speed advantage over regular bikes.<\/p>\n
For decades, New York\u2019s street-safety story was one of success.<\/p>\n
Traffic deaths tumbled from 701 in 1990 to 206 in 2018. \u00a0<\/p>\n
But bicycles weren\u2019t a big part of that story. \u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2007, the year New York got its first protected bike lane<\/a>, the average number of annual cyclist deaths, smoothed out over three years, was 21. \u00a0<\/p>\n By 2019, the average annual number of cyclist deaths remained\u00a0. . . 21. \u00a0<\/p>\n Yet the rate of deaths fell, as more people were cycling. \u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s in part due to NYC\u2019s policy choice to mitigate speed. \u00a0<\/p>\n In unrolling the Citibike bike-share program in 2013, Mayor Mike Bloomberg\u2019s administration ensured that the blue bikes couldn\u2019t move quickly: No Citibike rider died until 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since 2020, however, New York has made speed a top priority.<\/p>\n That year, the council legalized e-bikes that can go up to 25 mph.\u00a0<\/p>\n Deaths soared: an average of 25 cyclists annually over the past three years. \u00a0<\/p>\n This year so far, 19 people have died \u2014 despite Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 move to limit bike speed to 15 mph<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n And people are dying mostly on e-bikes, which were responsible for 16 of this year\u2019s 19 fatalities, versus three victims on regular bikes. \u00a0<\/p>\n Moreover, this year\u2019s figures don\u2019t include another 11 deaths on stand-up e-scooters. \u00a0<\/p>\n Citibike\u2019s six-year-old e-bike program has become an attractive nuisance \u2014 like an uncovered swimming pool to a child. \u00a0<\/p>\n This month, when two\u00a0girls joyriding downtown attempted to overtake a heavy truck from the right, one of them, 15-year-old Daria Serkov, was crushed<\/a> \u2014 the latest Citibike e-bike death. \u00a0<\/p>\n No, this doesn\u2019t absolve car and truck drivers.<\/p>\n But New York chose to take its already chaotic streets and add small, speeding vehicles to them. \u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s why people are now regularly dying in collisions that don\u2019t involve a car or truck.<\/p>\n This month, 77-year-old Thomas Bakas, riding a stand-up scooter, died in a\u00a0crash with a cyclist<\/a> in a bike lane. \u00a0<\/p>\n In May, a man on a stand-up scooter<\/a> going well over the speed limit killed himself and a bicycle rider<\/a> on the Queensboro Bridge.\u00a0<\/p>\n This week, a traditional bicyclist careening down one of Central Park\u2019s newly widened bike lanes killed 41-year-old pedestrian Richie O\u2019Brien<\/a> \u2014 one year after an e-cyclist died there in a similar collision. \u00a0<\/p>\n Why\u2019d we redesign\u00a0the park\u2019s bike lanes? To create a new \u201cfast\u201d lane<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n Pedestrian deaths at the hands of e-device drivers were once near non-existent, but at least seven people died that way last year. \u00a0<\/p>\n Not until 2023 did Citibike claim its first pedestrian victim<\/a>, 69-year-old Priscilla Loke, in downtown Manhattan.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile overall pedestrian deaths, mostly caused by cars and trucks, remain near record lows, averaging 78 through September over the last three years, down from 99 a decade ago. \u00a0<\/p>\n So the new danger is unequivocally posed by e-bikes.\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0point of encouraging bicycle use was to slow traffic and encourage good health \u2014 but now e-devices are a source of peril and anxiety. \u00a0<\/p>\n What should the council do? \u00a0<\/p>\n First, it must realize that the only way to enforce speed is licensing, plates and insurance. \u00a0<\/p>\n