E-Bike & Scooter Injuries Rising Sharply: NYU Langone Study

E-bike and scooter injuries are climbing, producing an alarming rate of serious brain and spinal trauma according to a five-year study of patients at one of Manhattan’s busiest emergency rooms, according to an NYU Langone Health in a study recently published in the journal “Neurosurgery.”

Published online on April 15, in a publication of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the work analyzed 914 patients treated for injuries linked to both pedal-powered and electric micromobility devices at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue over five years, from 2018 to 2023.

Over this time period, the study found that these injuries now account for nearly seven percent of trauma patients admitted to Bellevue, which stands at 462 First Ave, between East 27th and East 28th streets, in Kips Bay.

The research team found that one-third of patients suffered traumatic brain injury, more than two-thirds required hospital admission, and roughly 30 percent needed intensive care. The share of trauma cases seen in the emergency room (whether patients were admitted or not) that involved such devices increased from less than 10 percent in 2018 to more than 50 percent by 2023.

According to the study, the most common cause of injury was a collision with a car or truck, accounting for about half of cases.

Fewer than one-third of riders wore helmets, and this was linked to significantly higher rates of brain and facial injuries.

About one in five patients tested positive for alcohol, which was tied to both worse brain injuries and lower helmet use.

For Manhattanites who fear and sometimes loath e-bikes, scooters and the like, their apprehension appears justified. The researchers highlight that the 69 pedestrians struck by electric vehicles suffered brain injuries at nearly double the rate of the riders.

Injuries peaked between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., suggesting, the paper avers, that a surge of dinnertime e-bike delivery traffic may play a role.

“Our study shows that micromobility injuries are producing serious brain and spinal trauma that demands neurosurgical care at a scale we haven’t seen before,” said corresponding author Hannah Weiss, MD, a resident in the Department of Neurosurgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

“In a busy urban setting, we are seeing more and more of these injuries firsthand. The data point to actionable solutions—helmet use, safer bike lane design, and enforcement—that could prevent many of these injuries and better protect both riders and pedestrians, who in our study often sustained even more severe brain injuries than the riders themselves.”

To complete the study, researchers reviewed records of every patient treated by the trauma team at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue between January 2018 and August 2023 for injuries involving bikes or scooters. The patients included riders of both electric and pedal-powered bikes and scooters, as well as pedestrians struck by these devices. The team collected information on helmet use, alcohol levels, injury type, brain scans, surgeries performed, and length of hospital stay.

The study didn’t collect data on marijuana use or other drug use among the victims.

Follow Science, But Journalism Leads The Way

While this study is unlikely to surprise many Manhattanites, the details are illuminating even if, because thoroughly documented science is slow, not wholly up to date. This last point is important because all available evidence, both statistical and anecdotal, suggests that the use of bicycles and micromobility devices has only increased since 2023.

Indeed, from 2024 to the present, Straus News has reported on the battle between pedestrian safety and e-bikes, scooters and other micromobility devices dozens of times, and from multiple angles. “A menace to our city’: Mayor Announces E-bike Crackdown After Rabbi hit-and-run” we reported in June 2024. ”As Bike Traffic Soars, So Do Pedestrian Injuries—But Who’s Counting?” read the headline of a June 2025 story by Gail Gregg and Mike Oreskes. “Two Young Women on E-Bikes Assult 3 Pedestrians on 5th Ave.” announced another piece illuminating the dark side of micromobility. In March 2025, “New Bike Lanes Debut in Village and Midtown; Riders Pleased but Many Ignore Rules of Road” further assayed the issue’s complexities.

As for what “micromobility” is, specifically, it’s complicated, and can refer to a wide variety of motor powered vehicles. These include pedal assist e-bikes like the gray CitiBikes; electric and riding scooters; mopeds where the pedals are entirely decorative save when a rider stands on one to dismount; standing scooters, akin to a motor powered children’s kick scooters; electric skateboards; and monowheel scooters, also known as electric unicycles. By some accounts, pedal assisted electric motor powered Amazon trucks, which can take up an entire “bike lane” are also considered “micromobility” devices.

Police and press alike are sometimes unclear about the different classes of e-bikes. While micromobility advocates tend to focus on the dangers of cars and trucks, and the ability of all the e-bikes and micromobility vehicles to cut pollution, many pedal bicyclists feel betrayed. Pedestrians, including members of the Electric Vehicle Safey Alliance, have lobbied for passage of laws requiring all e-bike vehicles to be registered, claiming that the vast number of pedestrians injured by e-bikes never make it into NYPD statistics.

That the architects of micromobility, such as NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) often obscure their plans is also an issue, one that is already seeing a new flash point in the proposed 72nd Street bike lane plan.

This past March, when Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced changes to the Brooklyn Bridge bike lane approach, renderings of the project omitted any images of e-bikes, scooters, and mopeds. The 2025 Greater Greenways Report, produced under Mayor Eric Adams, also omitted any engine powered vehicles from “bike lane” or “Greenway” presentations. For awhile, Adams and NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, aware that e-bikes were seen as a flashpoint for many pedestrians, began issuing criminal sommons to bikers for infractions like going through a red light or driving on a sidewalk. But the plan was quietly abandoned this year.