{"id":980751,"date":"2026-08-04T20:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T20:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/980751\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T20:06:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T20:06:19","slug":"city-council-leaders-float-a-raft-of-bills-to-curb-e-bike-and-other-micromobility-device-crashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/980751\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council leaders float a raft of bills to curb e-bike and other micromobility device crashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

City Council leaders announced on Tuesday a package of 17 bills intended to curtail crashes involving e-bikes, e-scooters, and other micromobility devices that have become a common sight on city streets.<\/p>\n

In addition to the legislation itself, City Council Speaker Julie Menin also announced that she has scheduled a Sept. 30 public hearing on the devices. The proceeding aims to examine both the new legislative proposals and how the city currently regulates motorized two-wheelers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe at the City Council are launching a comprehensive review of e-bike and e-scooter safety,\u201d Menin said during a Tuesday news conference on the City Hall steps, unveiling the legislative package.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to convene a major hearing on over 17 bills that approach this issue from multiple different directions,\u201d she continued. \u201cThis hearing will also have a significant oversight component.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wide-ranging package of bills aims to tackle various facets of the issue. Those include the many classes of electric micromobility devices \u2014 some of which are already illegal, the heavy use of the two-wheelers by food delivery drivers working for third-party apps, and the existing web of regulations already in place for them.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in the micromobility reform package, and what isn\u2019t
\n\""We\u201cWe at the City Council are launching a comprehensive review of e-bike and e-scooter safety,\u201d City Council Speaker Julie Menin said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Among the items in the legislative package are proposals to require<\/a> delivery apps to secure business licenses from the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), ban the sale<\/a> of e-bikes that can reach 25 mph with throttle assistance, and mandate<\/a> that apps share their drivers\u2019 ID numbers, delivery time, and location.<\/p>\n

Others include a bill requiring app companies<\/a> to provide safety equipment to their drivers by widening the city\u2019s commercial bicycle safety laws and another mandating the NYPD to report<\/a> on its targeted enforcement of e-bikes and e-scooters.<\/p>\n

The bevy of proposals, however, does not include a bill to establish a system requiring e-bikes and e-scooters to be registered and to have license plates. The City Council had previously considered a measure that would do exactly that known as \u201cPriscilla\u2019s Law\u201d<\/a> \u2014 named for a woman named Priscilla Loke, who was hit and killed by an electric Citi Bike rider in 2023.<\/p>\n

But the package includes a resolution calling on the state legislature to pass its own version of Priscilla\u2019s Law<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

City Council Member Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan), who is sponsoring the resolution, said the city Department of Transportation (DOT) does not have the capacity to register and license e-bikes and e-scooters; and the task should rather be handled by the state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city does not have a Department of Motor Vehicles and when you get a license, we all know that there are certain criteria that go with it, and the state Department of Motor Vehicles knows what they are,\u201d Brewer said. \u201cWe really want the state to pass that law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menin said the measures come in response to recent high-profile crashes where riders of electric micromobility devices illegally marketed as e-bikes were killed. Those devices can travel at speeds that far exceed legal limits for e-bikes, which are limited to 25 mph but must abide by 15 mph.<\/p>\n

The speaker referenced the death of 17-year-old Gabriel Nacato, who was killed<\/a> when he crashed into an SUV while riding an illegal e-moto that exceeded speed and power limits for e-bikes, which his uncle purchased for him online. She framed the incident as just the most recent in an uptick in crashes involving electric micromobility devices over the last several years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis catastrophe is just one amidst a critical rise of e-bike crashes over the last decade,\u201d Menin said. \u201cFor years, we\u2019ve seen the close calls and heartbreaking collisions, reading about them on the news or even witnessing them in person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menin was joined at the press event by Jessica Selano, the sister of Jean Saelano \u2014 a 43-year-old woman who was seriously injured when she was hit by an e-bike rider in Central Park last month.\n<\/p>\n

There have been 560 crashes involving e-bikes and so far this year, 795 involving e-scooters through the third week of July. Both marked a 28% increase over the same period last year.\n<\/p>\n

However, it is not clear how many of those incidents involved e-bike riders hitting other road users versus the number of times they were hit by vehicle drivers.\n<\/p>\n

Menin said gaps in available data on e-bikes, e-scooters, and mopeds is \u201cexactly why we need the hearing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Mamdani says he will wait-and-see<\/p>\n

When asked about the package at an unrelated Tuesday press conference, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, \u201cI\u2019ll wait to see the specifics of these proposals themselves.\u201d But he did note that his focus is on restricting the sale of devices illegally marketed as e-bikes and e-scooters.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first focus, frankly, is that which is already illegal,\u201d he said. \u201cHow to ensure that no consumer is duped into believing that that is an appropriate way to be moving around the city, because it is hard for New Yorkers to keep up with what is legal or illegal if they\u2019re able to buy it online.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani earlier this year\u00a0reversed a policy<\/a> from his predecessor, Eric Adams, that allowed the NYPD to hit e-bike riders with criminal summonses for minor traffic violations, arguing the system was unfair because vehicle drivers do not face criminal charges for minor infractions. That reversal prompted a June lawsuit by a group led by former mayoral hopeful and attorney Jim Walden, as well as by City Council Member Frank Morano (R-Staten Island) in his personal capacity, seeking to overturn it.<\/p>\n

Ben Furnas, executive director of the safe streets advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, said in a statement that while the \u201cnumber one\u201d cause of death on city streets is cars and trucks, \u201cthoughtful regulation is needed\u201d for electric micromobility devices.<\/p>\n

Furnas spoke positively about the measures to require app companies are licensed by DCWP and share more granular data on their operations, while specifically signaling support for the bill to ban Class 3 e-bikes, sponsored by Council Member Crystal Hudson (D-Brooklyn).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city should act to rein in the delivery app companies that put profit over safety on our streets,\u201d Furnas said. \u201cWhile pedal-assist and low-speed throttle e-bikes are a safe and vital option for families, seniors, and commuters alike to get around our city, we must make sure nothing on our streets is traveling faster than a safe speed of 20 mph.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City Council leaders announced on Tuesday a package of 17 bills intended to curtail crashes involving e-bikes, e-scooters,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":681158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,208919,241476,32898,29652,29653,221265,312870,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-980751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-city-council-speaker-julie-menin","tag-department-of-consumer-and-worker-protection","tag-department-of-transportation","tag-e-bikes","tag-e-scooters","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-micromobility-devices","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117039045175396355","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=980751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=980751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=980751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}