Say No to Unfair Bike Laws
Biking is not a crime, but Mayor Adams wants it to be. In May, he instructed the NYPD to hand out criminal summonses to people who commit minor traffic violations on their bikes. Now, he wants to set a special speed limit just for bikes. We are rallying people to say NO WAY to this war on New Yorkers who bike.
Fight for your right to bike!
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Add your voice by submitting a comment in opposition to a 15 mph bike speed limit — before July 14th, when the New York City Department of Transportation hosts a public hearing on the rule change. We’ve drafted a sample comment below. You can copy and paste it, modify it, or write your own.
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Come learn about how to testify at DOT’s July 14th hearing on this proposed rule.
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Check out our past statements on criminal summonses and the new 15 mph rule.
This policy change — which applies only to people on bikes — is dangerous and illogical. You can be arrested for pedaling faster than 15 mph on a 30-pound bike that doesn’t have a speedometer, while someone behind the wheel of a two-ton truck speeding 40 mph will get to drive away with a traffic ticket.
Criminalizing biking won’t make streets safer. It will discourage people from cycling, making streets less safe for everyone — while exposing thousands of New Yorkers to the threat of a criminal record, jail time, or even deportation just for riding a bike. Tell NYC DOT: No unfair bike laws! No special speed limit for bikes!
Not sure what to say? We’ve got you.
“I am strongly opposed to the proposed rule to limit bikes to a 15 mph speed limit. It is illogical, impossible to enforce, and will put countless New Yorkers at risk of a criminal record or entrapment in President Trump’s immigration dragnet.
Statistically, people on bikes in New York City cause few crashes and almost no fatalities. People in cars and trucks tens of thousands of crashes, and kill more than a hundred New Yorkers every year. It is wildly illogical to require the former to travel at 15 mph, with criminal penalties, while allowing the latter to drive 35 mph without so much as a ticket.
Criminalizing biking will not make us safer. It will discourage biking, which research shows makes streets less safe for all users, and it will put countless New Yorkers at risk of a criminal record, the threat of deportation, or worse.
To make New York City’s street safe, we do not need more laws or stiffer penalties. We need the City of New York to accellerate plans to build dedicated, protected infrastructure for people on bikes, which has been shown to dramatically reduce biking on the sidewalk. And we need the City Council to advance regulations on the delivery app companies that currently profit off requiring an unsafe pace fo work for their delivery workers.
I say no to special speed limits for cyclists and no to police crackdowns that unfairly target and punish people on bikes. Biking is not a crime!”