NYC e-bikes, scooters may soon require license plates, registration after 47 deaths in 5 years

This bill contains the ride ticket.

The City Council is considering a law that would require license plates and registration for electric bikes and scooters — after 47 people died in e-bike crashes over the past five years.

“The scourge of e-bikes continues on our roads, on our sidewalks and even inside our buildings spread chaos, injure and maim peopleAnd, tragically, take a life,” Council Member Bob Holden (D-Queens) said at the first public hearing on the bill on Wednesday.

“We need accountability for victims of e-bike incidents — and we need it now,” said Holden, who introduced the bill in March. “This legislation is long overdue and will provide a needed layer of oversight and accountability for these devices.”

Bill – named after Priscilla’s Law 69-year-old Head Start worker who She was struck and killed by a Citibike in Chinatown last September – Registration with the state motor vehicle department and an ID number on a visible plate will be mandatory for every bicycle and scooter with electric assistance .

The law would affect Citi bikes and electric scooters used by food delivery drivers.

“This bill also holds companies accountable: Platforms like Uber Eats and DoorDash benefit from the rise of e-mobility devices, they have the power to educate riders and enforce traffic laws among their users, and more frequently,” Holden said. We are responsible for removing violators from our platform.”

The council member first introduced a version of the bill in 2022, but that bill was never heard. The current edition has received 31 co-sponsors across party lines, according to City Council website.

Supporters of the bill, including those from the NYC Electric Vehicle Safety Coalition – a coalition of 1,200 members, including 98 pedestrian and cyclist victims of “e-vehicle and moped violence” – say Priscilla’s Law will prevent e- Will increase accountability in bike related traffic. Violations, accidents and crimes.

“Living with traumatic brain injury has become my full-time job,” said Pamela Manasse, co-founder of NYC EVSA, who was struck by an e-bike rider in 2022. Refuse to give up – and my mission now is to strive for safer roads so that no one else has to endure this pain.

EVSA said other victims suffered serious injuries including traumatic brain injuries, bleeding on the brain, fractured skulls, broken bones and more.

According to , a dozen people are expected to die in accidents involving e-bikes and e-scooters in 2024 alone. city ​​dataAnd 47 people have died in the past five years, according to NYC EVSA member Andrew Fine — but accidents are still vastly underreported.

“People’s first instinct is to be conscious of their injuries — they wake up in the hospital and spend several days, even several months, in the hospital,” Fine said. “And when they come out, the police (sometimes) tell them that, sorry, you can only report it within five days, or it will be classified like an assault.

He added, “There’s a really inconsistent understanding by the NYPD of how this works.” “They’re still figuring it out.”

Supporters of the bill also argue that licensing would help apportion blame to parties responsible for more than 735 e-bike battery fires that have resulted in 500 injuries and 30 deaths since 2019, Holden said.

But not everyone believes that registration and licensing are equitable solutions to security issues.

A representative of the NYC Hospitality Alliance – which represents restaurants and nightlife establishments in the boroughs – argues that the bill would “impose yet another administrative and financial burden on small businesses and workers” or drivers willing to grant e-bike licenses to owners. Will be unable to find. Or the owner is paying the fees associated with registration.

It’s unclear how much the registration and licensing fees will cost car owners compared to the estimated registration fee of more than $150.

“The city already mandates that restaurant delivery cyclists wear a distinctive ID number on their upper body apparel and must also have a distinctive ID number on their bike,” Andrew Rigie, director of the alliance, told The Post. Third ID number for delivery bikes, city council going to improve road safety.

Fine counters that the associated fees would be “modest” — and that food delivery app companies should be held accountable for their drivers, a sentiment shared by Department of Transportation Commissioner Yedanis Rodriguez at Wednesday’s hearing.

“Those who abuse (e-bikes) must be held accountable for their actions, including delivery app companies that encourage speeding and reckless behavior to increase their profits,” Rodriguez said. “

But despite DOT’s agreement that “the intent of this bill is something that the Administration supports,” the commissioner argued that the Administration already has the tools to enforce against reckless e-bike drivers.

“It doesn’t require a license plate to be implemented,” he said.

Holden said accountability starts before enforcement – ​​and greater monitoring of vehicles will curb reckless driving before it begins.

Holden inquired from the DOT about data on how many e-bike riders are not following traffic laws – but it appeared that the DOT did not have the statistics.

“We are in the process of collecting more data,” an assistant commissioner told the audience, laughing.

“I’m surprised DOT doesn’t have the numbers right now,” Holden said. “You can figure it out, except you decide not to because of some rule you think is going to be imposed.

“These devices, when unregulated, pose a greater risk than just collisions,” Holden said. “They are literally a matter of life and death.”