NYC Common Sense released the following statement regarding the death of a 17-year-old e-bike rider at Centre and Chambers streets in Lower Manhattan:
“In the wake of the tragic death of a teenager at an intersection mere blocks from City Hall, local officials and safety advocates are rightly calling for stricter enforcement of the ban on the sale of high-speed illegal e-bikes. We 100 percent agree with their call, but it’s imperative that the work does not stop there.
“The threat is far greater than illegal e-bikes alone. A host of entirely legal e-bikes are unregulated, uninsured, and unregistered, operated by riders who routinely flout the law with no fear of recourse. When a bike carries no registration and its rider holds no license, the streets turn into the Wild West.
“New York City needs a holistic framework: registration, licensing, insurance, real limits on speed and illegal modification, and enforcement with teeth behind all of it.
“It is for this reason that we went to court in June to challenge the Mamdani administration’s decision to end criminal enforcement of e-bike traffic laws — enforcement under which crashes, injuries and fatalities had each fallen by roughly 30 percent.
“We offer our deepest condolences to the victim’s family and pledge to work tirelessly with all stakeholders – including, hopefully, City Hall – to make the city’s streets, sidewalks, parks, and public spaces safer for all.”
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