City to crack down on electric bicycles

Electric bikes on city streets could be going the way of the Model T if city officials have their way.

Police efforts to enforce the city’s e-bike ban have, to this point, focused on targeting riders, the vast majority of whom are delivery people. But under a new policy announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio last week, police will begin issuing summonses to businesses that employ e-bikes users, in addition to ticketing riders themselves.

Riders operating an e-bike, which are legal to buy and own but illegal to use on city streets, are subject to civil summonses, seizures of their bikes and fines of up to $500. Starting next year, businesses that use e-bikes or allow employees to use them will receive a civil summons and a $100 fine for a first offense and a $200 fine for each subsequent offense.

“My hope is this will cause business owners to stop using e-bikes. It’s as simple as that. As they see more and more fines, more and more confiscations it will convince the business owners to get out of the e-bike business altogether,” de Blasio said.

The bikes, which can reach speeds of about 25 mph with much less effort than conventional bicycles, have been a boon to businesses, permitting them to deliver to a greater distance. It also allows delivery persons, whose income is chiefly derived from tips, to make faster, and more frequent, deliveries.

But because of their speed and their increasing numbers, de Blasio said, e-bikes have become a scourge to pedestrians. “We love our city but let’s be clear, crossing the street in New York City should not be a harrowing experience,” de Blasio said. “You shouldn’t feel unsafe crossing streets in your own neighborhood. We have to go after anyone who creates a threat to neighborhood residents.”

“What people have seen is absolutely unacceptable — electronic bicycles going the wrong way down streets, weaving in and out of traffic, ignoring traffic signals, sometimes going up on sidewalks,” he said. While riders of regular bikes sometimes behave in similar behavior, de Blasio said, e-bikes pose a “real danger” because of the faster speeds at which they can travel.

Caroline Samponaro, deputy director of the bicycle and pedestrian safety advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, criticized the initiative, saying in a statement that the crackdown on e-bikes “is about listening to the loudest complainers, not listening to the data.”

“According to NYPD data, drivers speeding and failing to yield are the ones causing death and serious injuries on New York City streets,” Samponaro said. “Rather than attacking the livelihoods of hard-working, predominantly immigrant delivery cyclists, the Mayor should follow the lead of California and work with the New York State Legislature to pass common sense e-bike legislation that establishes a framework for safe, pedal-powered, low-speed models.”

The crackdown, though, appears to have already begun. Police have seized more than 900 of the e-bikes so far this year, compared to the 341 confiscated to this point last year, de Blasio said. Officers have also given out about 1,800 summonses to e-bike riders to date this year.

Council Member Ben Kallos told Straus News that enforcement has been particularly strict in his East Side City Council district. According to Kallos, 10 percent of all e-bike confiscations citywide over the last two years took place on the Upper East Side, which he said “has gotten more e-bike enforcement than almost anywhere else in the city.”

But Kallos said that summonses issued to delivery riders who have had their e-bikes seized often go unpaid because a new e-bike can be outfitted for under $200 — significantly less than the $500 fine. “With the cost for the penalty being so low, offenders are just buying a new bike rather than paying a fine,” he said.

Kallos is hopeful that including business owners in enforcement efforts will do more to help reduce the number of e-bikes on city streets. “If the business person gets the fine they will be less likely to still use e-bikes,” he said. “The restaurant owners know whether their delivery people are using e-bikes, and they should bear responsibility for that.”

NYPD Chief of Patrol Terry Monahan said that by January 1, police precincts will be trained and equipped to identify owners using business names or addresses — which delivery people are required to display. “Whether it’s a private owner or a corporation, at that point, our officers will prepare a summons and mail it to that location, to that business,” Monahan said.

Business that employ e-bike riders, de Blasio said, “are profiting by violating the law,”

“It’s as simple as that,” he added. “That’s not acceptable.”

Advocates for delivery workers have said that the crackdown would unfairly burden older delivery workers. The mayor said that such workers have other options available to them, such as pedal-assist bikes, which are not fully motorized, travel at slower speeds than e-bikes and are legal under certain circumstances. “Regular bicycles and the pedal-assist bicycle cannot go as fast as a fully motorized e-bike,” de Blasio said. “That’s where we draw the line, period. If someone couldn’t make those deliveries anymore, my hope would be that they can find some other type of work with that restaurant or that business, but I have to put public safety first, that’s the bottom line.”

Kallos suggested motorscooters as a possible option for delivery workers unable to pedal regular bicycles. “Ultimately, folks who can ride a bicycle should, because it’s good for environment,” Kallos said. “But for someone who needs something between a bicycle and a car, there are legal alternatives available to them, like motorscooters — but you can’t imagine someone riding one of those in a bike lane or on the sidewalk.”