If there’s one issue every New Yorker has a different opinion on, it’s e-bikes. Every day, my office receives calls from constituents who are concerned about street safety. They understand that predatory delivery apps demand routes and times that are impossible without battery power, but also want to be able to cross the street without worrying for their safety. That’s why I’m introducing a bill — alongside nearly one-third of my fellow City Council members from both sides of the aisle — that will defend pedestrians, protect delivery workers, and demand safety on our streets: the Ride Safe, Ride Right Act.
For years, e-bikes were illegal throughout New York City. Then in 2020, everything suddenly changed. Delivery workers were rightly recognized as essential workers, and with a pandemic ravaging the city, Albany and City Hall worked quickly to legalize e-bikes. Overnight, tens of thousands of delivery workers were able to legally ride e-bikes on the streets of New York City, delivering the food, personal protective equipment, and medicine New Yorkers needed.
Legalizing e-bikes was a critical and pivotal step — but the work wasn’t done yet. Over the last five years, the City Council has worked to improve worker conditions, ensure safe battery standards, and mandate a livable wage for delivery workers. Just this week, the City Council is overturning Mayor Adams’s veto to close a loophole in the minimum pay law and ensure fair pay for all delivery workers. Now that delivery workers won’t have to worry about traveling as fast as possible just to make ends meet and have access to lower-cost e-bikes with safe batteries, it’s time for the City Council to come together for a new piece of legislation that will ensure a safer, built-in speed cap of 20 mph for all e-bikes in New York City.
As our elected leaders work to build a safer city, exploitative delivery companies are still stealing pay and demanding impossible delivery times and unsafe bikes just to make an extra buck. It doesn’t have to be this way. Together, we can slow things down in the bike lane — not by criminalizing riders, but by stopping the sale of unsafe, high-speed e-bikes that put us all at risk. New York City is the only locality with a loophole for these faster bikes, and it’s time to get in line with e-bike standards implemented elsewhere. With slower technology, delivery workers can’t be pressured into riding too quickly and pedestrians will have more time to cross the street. As Chair of the Committee on Aging, I’m dedicated to ensuring our city’s older adults can age in place with dignity in the city they’ve called home for decades. And that means being able to use sidewalks and streets safely.
Everyone agrees that the status quo isn’t working, and there’s finally legislation to mandate safe bikes from the source. My Ride Safe, Ride Right legislation will end the sale of the fastest e-bikes in New York City, meaning slower e-bikes and safer streets for all of us. This isn’t a speed limit; it’s a point of sale restriction. Under this legislation, stores will only be able to sell e-bikes that are capped at 20 mph.
When massive delivery companies sell out our fellow New Yorkers, we have to step up. New York City leads the country in delivery worker protections, and this legislation will build on those successes to make delivery work safer for everyone. Legalizing e-bikes didn’t end with legalization or minimum pay. And delivery work won’t be safe until every worker has safe hours, a safe workplace, and a safe mode of transportation.
This legislation won’t just protect delivery workers from dangerous bikes; it will also protect other cyclists. Ending the sale of the fastest e-bikes ensures these bikes never make it to the street. By regulating products instead of people, this legislative fix protects all riders from criminalization that could lead to extreme, punitive measures like deportation all because a hardworking New Yorker was trying to meet unrealistic demands. We have already seen the consequences of the NYPD enforcing bike riding violations through criminal summonses — thousands of New Yorkers have been harassed and targeted for minor infractions or completely legal riding.
Slower e-bikes will create safer streets for everyone, and we could mandate this change if the City Council passes the brand-new Ride Safe, Ride Right bill. It’s time to make sure that every new e-bike sold in our city is a safe one.
Crystal Hudson is the New York City Council Member for District 35 (Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, and Crown Heights). She is chair of the Council’s Committee on Aging and co-chair of its Black Latino and Asian Caucus.
