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Next month, the New York City Council is set to debate a whopping 18 bills aimed at regulating e-bikes.
The measures include an outright ban on Class 3 e-bikes (those that can travel up to 25 mph), a requirement for delivery apps to share anonymized rider data with the City, and most controversially, a resolution asking the state to force all e-bike riders to be licensed and registered.
New York City Council Transportation Committee Chair Shaun Abreu told Hell Gate that he does not support a licensing and registration regime for e-bike riders.
But he is proposing three bills aimed at reining in the marketing and use of the kinds of super-fast devices that have been involved in recent high-profile crashes—like the illegal e-motorcycle that 17-year-old Gabriel Nacato was reportedly riding when he was killed in a crash near City Hall late last month.
The bills, which Abreu exclusively shared with Hell Gate before he introduces them on Thursday, aim to phase out fast e-bikes without harming the people who rely on them for their livelihoods. They include a City-funded trade-in program, a $1,000 penalty for retailers who don't specify that mopeds must be registered with the state, and a requirement that the NYPD start using devices that measure power and torque during enforcement actions to weed out the illegally fast e-devices from the legal ones.