NYC’s deadly e-bike crisis is getting worse — and – Latest News
Getting hit by an e-bike has change into such a recognizable hazard of New York City life that “Saturday Night Live” has repeatedly spoofed it as Gotham’s hottest “new way to die.”
“There’s a menace on the streets of our city,” Scarlett Johansen warbled in a musical skit final yr. “Suddenly e-bikes — they’re trying to kill me.”
But it’s no laughing matter for our pedestrians, who’ve tailored by developing a new reflex at each intersection: Look left; look proper; then look again — for the e-bike coming at you out of nowhere.
The metropolis has seen 9 deadly e-bike collisions this yr — and counting.
I launched Priscilla’s Law in Albany to deal with this deadly hazard in 2024.
It’s a easy idea: E-bikes and e-scooters working in New York City must be registered with the state Department of Motor Vehicles, and ought to carry seen license plates.
The law is named for Priscilla Loke, a beloved 69-year-old instructor and Chinatown resident who was struck by an e-bike in September 2023 and died from the extreme head trauma she sustained.
Her hit-and-run death put a human face on a concern New Yorkers had been already feeling.
We license and register motor autos for good motive: If a driver hits you and leaves the scene, the license plate offers us a solution to establish the offender’s vehicle.
But e-bikes are unregistered, making identification virtually not possible.
According to Janet Schroeder of the E-Vehicle Safety Alliance, riders flee the scene in 90% of e-bike crashes — so no police report could be filed.
More than two years have handed since I launched Priscilla’s Law, but Albany has taken no last motion.
In the meantime, the public outcry has solely grown.
At city halls throughout the town — from my South Queens district to the Upper West Side to Brownsville — I’ve seen widespread assist for Priscilla’s Law from on a regular basis New Yorkers, making this challenge not possible to disregard.
This yr, we lastly made a breakthrough: The Legislature held a public listening to dedicated to e-bikes and e-scooters.
Representatives of the Department of Motor Vehicles testified that they stand able to implement no matter regulatory framework the Legislature might undertake.
That means Priscilla’s Law is within attain.
Legislative attorneys and lawmakers have spent years finding out the problem, and the DMV has the regulatory experience to implement it.
Together, they will resolve the remaining particulars and get this executed.
There’s just one impediment: political will.
As City Council Speaker Julie Menin has identified, City Hall can’t substitute for Albany right here.
She has rightly referred to as for the state to deal with e-bike licensure and registration, and I agree: This is basically a state duty.
The state already has the DMV, the company with the infrastructure, experience and law-enforcement framework to register autos, challenge figuring out info and keep data.
Rather than construct a parallel city-only system from scratch, Albany ought to put the DMV’s current machinery to work — and present the enforcement device New York City wants.
New York would hardly be alone right here.
Just this yr, New Jersey enacted a law requiring e-bikes to be registered by way of its Motor Vehicle Commission.
Registration and identification necessities for sure courses of electric bikes are already utilized in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark, whereas main Chinese cities have adopted registration and license-plate necessities for them.
Those who oppose Priscilla’s Law usually declare that regulation will harm supply employees, many of whom are immigrants struggling to make ends meet.
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My immigrant-majority district is home to many supply employees, and I imagine the alternative: Priscilla’s Law will make the roads safer for everybody, e-bike operators included.
License plates will permit us to handle harmful using by way of abnormal site visitors enforcement and tickets — moderately than by way of felony penalties that would jeopardize a employee’s immigration standing.
Another objection pertains to the measure’s price: DoorDash and different supply firms have highly effective pursuits in Albany — and each incentive to withstand rules that would increase their bills.
But these are multibillion-dollar firms whose business fashions use our streets to make 1000’s of e-bike journeys each day.
They can afford to soak up the cheap prices of making that system safer — however we are able to’t afford the prospect of dropping one more life to a recklessly operated e-bike.
We don’t need one other yr of research, speeches and excuses.
We need to cross Priscilla’s Law — and lastly give New York City the e-bike accountability system its residents demand.
Jenifer Rajkumar represents South Queens within the state Assembly.
