“An absurd proposal,” “DANGEROUS,” “Political theater,” Widespread Opposition to DOT’s Proposal for New 15 MPH E-Bike Speed Limit
Over 90% of over 650 online comments on NYC’s rulemaking website oppose this proposed speed limit.
Under this rule, a 50-pound e-bike would be subject to a lower speed limit than a 5,000-pound car on the same street.
Car and truck drivers have killed over 99% of pedestrians in the Vision Zero era.
NEW YORK — Today, alongside hundreds of New Yorkers, Transportation Alternatives spoke in opposition to the Adams administration’s proposed 15 mph e-bike speed limit. As per the rulemaking process, DOT has been collecting online comments over the past month. These comments are overwhelmingly opposed to the new rule, which follows another widely disliked recent Adams administration policy change: elevating minor traffic violations by people on bikes to criminal summonses. Under both new directives, someone driving an SUV more than 36 mph would receive a simple traffic ticket, but a person on an e-bike travelling at 16 mph could be summoned to criminal court — a serious legal escalation that can lead to arrest, a criminal record, or even deportation.
Over the past several weeks, as required, DOT has been collecting online comments about this proposed rule. This rule has been widely panned. A random sampling ranges from: “This is such an absurd proposal. Bikes already have speed limits on New York City streets: they’re the posted speed limits of all vehicles” to “The proposed rule is DANGEROUS and will kill cyclists,” to “The city has a duty to solve problems and not engage in political theater that will just cause more problems.” The vast majority of comments are in opposition to this rule — over 90% of well over 650 comments.
“This unenforceable new rule is Mayor Adams’ latest attempt to punish individual cyclists for his own failure to meaningfully regulate the delivery app industry. The proposed speed limit will likely exacerbate the impacts of the NYPD’s recent initiative to criminalize e-bike riders for what should be civil traffic violations. Accountability for the companies that profit off of reckless riding, combined with measures like the Idaho Stop, wider bike lanes, and dedicated loading zones can cut down on chaos while improving safety for everyone,” said NYC Comptroller Brad Lander.
Transportation Alternatives released this initial statement in strong opposition when Mayor Adams announced his plans to impose a speed limit on e-bikes, and only e-bikes, at 15 mph. Instead, TA supports a citywide rollout of Sammy’s Law, banning the sale of Class 3 e-bikes, and finally regulating the predatory delivery-app industry to improve safety on New York City’s streets.
Under Sammy’s Law, the Adams Administration has the power to reduce the speed limit for cars and trucks to 20 mph on most of New York City’s streets. Mayor Adams has lowered speeds on less than 1% of eligible streets.
You can read the full comment below:
“Good morning, my name is Elizabeth Adams and I’m the Deputy Director of Public Affairs at Transportation Alternatives. We’re here today to speak against the proposed rule to limit e-bikes to 15mph.
E-bikes are a critical sustainable transportation option for New Yorkers who need to travel to school, to work, to the doctor, or just to see friends. On average, e-bike users cut their car trips in half and travel 340% further than they would on traditional bikes. In New York City, Citi Bike’s e-bikes account for 70% of interborough trips — helping New Yorkers travel longer distances quickly and sustainably. E-bikes are here to stay: they have outsold electric vehicles every year since 2019 in the US, and are increasingly being used by families choosing cargo bikes and older adults looking for active transit modes (19% of e-bike riders are 65 or older). E-bikes are transforming the way that New Yorkers get around and making more of our city accessible to people without easy access to public transit or the physical ability to ride an acoustic bike.
A 15 mph speed limit on just e-bikes is half-baked and ill-conceived. Bikes and cars sharing the same road would be subject to different speed limits and consequences — and those consequences would be inverse to the potential for harm. If you’re speeding in a two-ton SUV at 40 mph, you get a traffic ticket, but if you’re riding an e-bike at 16 mph, you could be summoned to criminal court. It’s not just illogical, it’s unfounded; City Hall has identified no legal precedent for different speed limits on different lanes of the same road or between different vehicle classifications.
This is a bizarre escalation of the administration’s misguided war on biking. Already, the NYPD is giving out thousands of criminal summonses for routine traffic violations to people on bikes, and this new announcement will ask police officers, who have far more important work to do protecting our city, to waste their time sending New Yorkers to criminal court for biking 16 mph. These criminal summonses are already clogging the court system and could subject people to the risk of jail or deportation — just for choosing to ride a bike.
Ironclad research from the U.S. Department of Transportation points to 20 mph as a universally safe speed in places where vehicles are in close proximity to pedestrians, and finds that the risk of injury increases in direct proportion to vehicle speed and vehicle weight. Under Sammy’s Law, the City has unambiguous authority to reduce speed limits for every vehicle on the road to 20 mph. The World Health Organization, NACTO, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) all support 20 mph as the maximum safe speed on streets shared by vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists. This should apply to all motorized vehicles — including SUVs and trucks, not be selectively enforced on e-bike riders. And for e-bikes specifically, 20 mph should be mandated and regulated at the point of sale, through better design standards and phasing out Class 3 e-bikes. Piecemeal, punitive enforcement will not make New York City safer.
There are real solutions that would work on the ground, and New Yorkers can’t afford to wait. The Adams administration should widely implement Sammy’s Law, which would lower the speed to 20 mph on city streets. Sammy’s Law works and it’s popular — 68% of New York City voters support lowering their neighborhood streets’ speed limit to 20 mph. Additionally, City Hall and the City Council must move forward on measures like wider bike lanes and delivery e-bike curb loading docks to keep sidewalks clear. And fundamentally, we need to regulate delivery apps to address the root of the problem. New York City should require delivery app companies to receive a license to operate in the city, and set liabilities and penalties for companies who fail to comply with safety and worker professionalization requirements.
This should include requiring companies to: provide and maintain delivery workers with safe legal devices and certified batteries; ensure that safety training courses are given to workers; provide workers with sufficient time to complete a delivery and set routes that incentivize safe riding behavior; and provide public data on all trips and crashes, allowing the DOT to analyze speed, sidewalk riding, and traveling wrong direction on streets. It’s past time to regulate the same-day delivery app companies that profit from pushing delivery workers to complete unsafe routes in impossible times — and regulation is much more likely to actually make our streets safer than an arbitrary 15 mph speed limit.
App-based delivery workers in New York City are often forced to meet unrealistic delivery windows that put their safety at risk — in fact, 49% of delivery workers reported being in a crash or near-crash situation while making a delivery in 2022. Despite profiting off of this system, the corporations bear no liability for the crashes, injuries, or violations that result from their business model. Instead, the burden falls entirely on the workers, who are disproportionately low-income immigrants, often undocumented, and now face criminal summonses or deportation for attempting to meet the requirements imposed on them by these billion dollar companies.
A 15 mph speed limit is not the answer — but a citywide rollout of Sammy’s Law, prohibiting the sale of Class 3 e-bikes, and finally regulating the predatory delivery-app industry will improve safety on New York City’s streets. Let’s focus on solutions that work, not misguided ones that won’t.
Thank you for convening today’s hearing. We urge the administration to rescind its proposal for a 15 mph speed limit for e-bikes in New York City.”
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