2old

New York City has a new law beginning in a month or so for e-bikes. It will govern the sale and use of them, and is the first city law governing e-bikes. If you're interested, go to "endlesssphere, EBIKES General Discussion".

Steve B.

It’s likely to be a law that is completely ignored by those using and servicing e-bikes, as well the only enforcement will be the yearly or every other year so-called “crackdown” by the NYPD for a one day enforcement period, with a blitz of ticket writing. Then everything will go back to the craziness that currents exists.

tds101 

Article on the new laws,... It has nothing to do with cracking down on ebike/escooter riders. It's all about the sale and regulations regarding the batteries requirement of UL certification.
https://www.nytimes.com/article/ebik...2C%20UL%202272.

2old

tds, thanks for posting.

cat0020

Is this the correct link?

https://endless-sphere.com/sphere/th...laws.120915/As

As a NYC commuter on bicycles, motorcycles, scooters, ebikes, cars, subways & buses since 2013.. I feel this is relevant for this thread to know the data about traffic deaths in NYC.

https://electrek.co/2023/07/30/the-n...ng-car-danger/

Every crash in this story involves a e-bike colliding with a motor vehicle.

All could’ve been avoided if e-bike riders were protected from cars (or if there were no cars).

Fight the real enemy.

https://t.co/POH4IM68Xf

— David Zipper (@DavidZipper) July 29, 2023

“By various measures, the risks of serious injury and death rise sharply at around 20 m.p.h.,
although much of that research involved collisions between cars and pedestrians.

For instance, the risk of severe injury to a pedestrian is 25 percent when the car is moving at 16 m.p.h.,
and it rises to 50 percent at 23 m.p.h., according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.”

According to the NYPD's crash statistics, there were 44,754 reported crashes between January 1 and June 23.
Of those, 43,188 — or 96 percent — were caused by drivers of cars, SUVs, trucks, ambulances, vans and other heavy motorized vehicles.
Just 826 crashes — or 1.8 percent — were caused by the operators of e-bikes, e-scooters, mopeds or motorbikes, according to the police.
Another 740 crashes — or 1.6 percent — were caused by regular bike riders, the cops said.

Drilling down further, there have been 3,952 crashes that caused injuries to at least one pedestrian.
Of those crashes, 3,784 — or 96 percent again — were caused by car and truck drivers.
Only 168 — or 4.2 percent — were caused by the operators of e-bikes, e-scooters, mopeds or motorbikes, according to the police.

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2023/07...tan-bridge-bike-path-underscores-moped-crisis

Steve B.

Correct. Between this law as well as existing state laws on the books governing where e-bikes can be legally use, which is essentially only on roads used by auto's, the NYPD is going to ignore it's enforcement.

mpetry912 

all that "Law" is going to do is raise the prices of e-bikes. Users of low end bikes will just go over the bridge and buy non-UL "certified" bikes in NJ.

or some enterprising seller will bring a truckload of them into Manhattan.

like cigarette taxes, there are always ways to get around the "law". That's how Bernie Kerik got his start, selling untaxed ciggies.

/markp

john m flores 

There have been an alarming amount of fires caused by poorly made ebike batteries. Lives have been lost and the New York City Housing Authority has banned ebikes from their buildings. This law had to be written, whether or not is enforced, so that if there's a fire, they can point to this law and assign blame.

I feel for the delivery ebike riders though. It's thankless work with long hours through all kinds of weather and they likely send a good chunk of their meager earnings to family back in their home country. They certainly don't want fires in their apartments but buying safer bikes and batteries is a financial hit for them.

If congestion pricing reduces traffic, maybe they can create more bike lanes for everyone to use.

cat0020

NYC bike and scooter riders just got good news and bad news

https://electrek.co/2023/11/07/nyc-b...-and-bad-news/

Smaug1

I'm sure that reduction in top speed from 20 to 18 mph is going to really cut down on the number of automotive-caused accidents.