City Council Members Launch Sweeping Review of E-Bike Safety After Deadly Crashes

Following an uptick in crashes and fatalities involving motorized, high-speed e-bikes and e-scooters, several New York City Council members announced on Aug. 4 that they plan to introduce 17 new laws to enhance oversight and implement legislative solutions.

While Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not make the press conference, a day later he signed an executive order cracking down on retailers who sell illegal motorized devices and said that 42 online retailers have already been served cease-and-desist letters.

The actions by Menin and Zamdani underscores the new sense of urgency in the city to do something about e-bikes. But Mamdani has said he will wait until he sees the language in the new proposed laws before deciding whether to support them.

The Department of Transportation reports at least 20 people have been killed in e-bike and e-scooter collisions this year, up from 13 in the same period last year. NYPD figures show there were 560 collisions involving e-bikes and 795 involving standup e-scooters through the first three weeks in July, which was a 28 percent surge in accidents of both varieties from the same period last year.

While some New Yorkers fear that these smaller, motorized vehicles are uncontrollable and increase the danger of something as simple as crossing a street, bike advocates weigh the positives and highlight how they’ve transformed access to the city, helped cut pollution from motor vehicles and given economic opportunity to people working in the delivery industries. The issue is a complex one, weaving in several stakeholders and opposing New Yorker interests.

Menin acknowledged the dilemma. “E-bikes connect New Yorkers with every corner of our city, literally opening up doors of both geographic mobility and economic opportunity,” Menin said. “But in recent times, they have too often come with a cost and in worst cases, a fatal one.”

Menin, announced at the press conference at City Hall that the City Council ill host a hearing on September 30 and invite representatives from the NYPD, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and the Department of Transportation to review laws regulations already on the books. Menin will lead the hearing alongside Majority Leader Shaun Abreu, Council Member Harvey Epstein, and Council Member Oswald Feliz. Council member Gale Brewer is also a supporter and attended the announcement.

Menin gestured to the City Hall steps around her. Just a few hundred steps away, she said, 17-year-old Gabriel Nacado was killed in an accident, “riding an e-bike gifted by his uncle who wanted him to easily commute between his home in Brooklyn and his school and work in Manhattan.” She said that the bike, illegal and capable of reaching dangerously high speeds, was purchased online.

In recent tragedies, a 49-year-old woman suffered a serious brain injury and was placed in a medically induced coma when she was struck from behind while jogging on July 7 by a wrong way e-biker rider in Central Park. In another recent incident that shocked the city, a racing bicyclist and a stand up scooter rider were both killed in a collision on the Queensboro Bridge on May 28.

“We cannot wait again for tragedy to strike to become advocates for public safety,” Menin said.

The council’s initial list of legislation to be considered this fall includes three sponsored by Council Member Gale Brewer and three by Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers. More legislation will be introduced in the upcoming weeks.

“If you’re a delivery worker, the apps you work for should never pressure or encourage you to speed through red lights or ride the wrong way down the street just to keep your job,” Abreu said.

Council Member Brooks-Powers discussed Introduction 110, a bill she’s sponsoring to “put responsibility on the businesses and apps that profit from delivery rather than the workers.” Intro 110 would expand the city’s commercial bicycle safety laws to include other delivery devices like e-bikes, mopeds and motorcycles.

Introduction 78, sponsored by Brewer, would require 3rd-party apps to submit data on their drivers’ ID numbers, delivery time, and location, while Schulman’s Introduction 950 would solicit and centralize data about delivery services by requiring them to register with the DCWP.

“We cannot improve e-bike safety without understanding how the delivery system actually operates,” Brewer said.

Schulman highlighted how delivery services have expanded far beyond restaurants to include prescriptions and retail items. “That’s why I introduced legislation requiring delivery services to be licensed by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection [DCWP],” she said.

The e-bike and e-scooter debate has long been active in New York, sitting at an intersection of topics including transportation, immigration, economic opportunity, and city infrastructure.

Mamdani ended a practice of handing criminal summonses to bike riders in March for things like running a red light in part because critics said the fines for bikers were tougher than the fines handed out to motor vehicle drivers for the same infraction.

The NYC E-Vehicle Alliance an organization dedicated to addressing e-bike and e-scooter safety issues, founded by Janet Schroeder and Pamela Manasse in 2023 welcomed the move by the city council members.

“We at NYC E-Vehicle Alliance are grateful to the Speaker, who has always fought for e-vehicle safety, for shining a light on this vitally important public safety issue, including the lack of enforcement,” Schroeder said in a statement. “... We have ideas that we are sharing with the council to enhance public safety through accountability, and we are delighted for her support of a resolution to pass Priscilla’s Law in the State Legislature.”

Priscilla’s Law—named after Priscilla Loke, a 69-year-old woman killed by an e-bike operator in Chinatown in 2023—was born in the New York City Council three years ago but died in committee. The City DOT opposed the bill because it said it was not equipped to handle registration of thousands of e-vehciles and urged that it be taken up on the state level. It is currently under deliberation in the New York State Senate Transportation Committee.

Organizations representing delivery workers argue that the law could be misdirected to criminalize a delivery industry comprising a large share of immigrants and make it easier to deport them.

Executive Director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance Andrew Rigie, for example, has pointed to existing mechanisms that already require delivery-based businesses to display their own distinct ID numbers and equip bikers with safety equipment, arguing that more legislation will only impose additional financial burdens on workers.

In the Aug. 4 press conference, Menin responded to an attendee asking a similar question: what about the existing regulations?

“560 collisions involving e-bikes, 795 involving stand-up e-scooters so far this year [...] We have some laws on the books, but are those laws working? Are they being enforced? That’s why we’re acting,” Menin said.