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On Tuesday, a handful of City councilmembers, including Speaker Julie Menin, Majority Leader Shaun Abreu, and Upper West Side legend Gale Brewer, gathered on the steps of City Hall to announce the introduction of more than a dozen new bills aimed at curbing the e-bike menace.
The press conference came a little more than a week after a 17-year-old riding an illegal e-motorcycle was killed in a crash steps from City Hall, and Menin cited an "epidemic" of e-bike injuries as the driving force behind the council's move. To drive the point home, Menin released a Mamdani-style social media clip in which she is nearly mowed down by someone riding a silver Citi Bike e-bike. "This plan is an opportunity to make meaningful progress and ensure everyone can move around our city safely," Menin says in the video. "The Council is committed to getting this right, and the work begins now."
Yet the councilmembers failed to accurately sum up the dangers posed by e-bikes, or suggest any specific solutions for making the streets safer for everyone.