NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — One week after a youngster was killed whereas using an unlawful e-bike, New York Metropolis Mayor Zohran Mamdani is about to make an announcement Wednesday on making streets safer.
The announcement additionally comes someday after New York Metropolis Council members introduced proposed laws to make metropolis streets safer.
Among the many proposals into account are measures that will ban the sale of e-bikes able to exceeding the town’s 15 mph velocity restrict, require extra insurance coverage for third-party meals supply apps, crack down on the usage of unregistered mopeds and improve penalties for riders who flee crash scenes.
Council members are additionally contemplating a trade-in program that will permit riders to change unlawful bikes for safer ones, together with stronger shopper protections, expanded enforcement and infrastructure modifications designed to sluggish high-speed using.
Based on metropolis knowledge, there have been greater than 500 e-bike collisions and 795 scooter collisions thus far this yr, a rise of greater than 28% in comparison with the identical interval final yr.
The announcement by the mayor and proposed measures by Metropolis Corridor come one week after 17-year-old Gabriel Nataco was killed in a crash whereas using a Deepower motorbike that his household had bought on Amazon. The corporate now not ships the bike to New York Metropolis.
“Each New Yorker deserves to maneuver round our metropolis freely and safely, no matter how they get round,” Metropolis Council Speaker Julie Menin stated in a press release. “However too many individuals have been critically injured or killed in crashes involving unlawful, high-speed e-bikes, e-motos, and e-scooters.”
The mayor stated his administration stays centered on eradicating unlawful bikes from metropolis streets however will reserve judgment on the Metropolis Council’s legislative bundle till he has had a chance to evaluate it.
“Having spoken to the mom of the younger man who was killed whereas using on an unlawful e-bike, my coronary heart simply breaks for her and for the entire households who’ve had their kids stolen from them on account of this,” Mamdani stated. “That bike is one that ought to by no means have been on our streets. It’s critically essential that security is one thing that every New Yorker has, it doesn’t matter what mode of transportation they use.”
The Sept. 30 listening to will embrace testimony from metropolis businesses, transportation and public security consultants, advocates, supply staff and members of the general public as council members consider potential legislative options.
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