City Council Members are renewing a push for harsher penalties on electronic bicycles that residents have complained about to the 104th Precinct for months.
Civic organizations in Middle Village and Maspeth have worried about the bikes with small electric motors zipping into traffic, onto sidewalks and endangering riders and pedestrians.
Now, a few council members want to apply normal bicycle laws to the vehicles and double the fines associated with them.
In 2011, Manhattan Councilman Dan Garodnick introduced legislation that would crack down on the electronically assisted bikes, but it’s recently picking up some more steam.
“The abundance of electric bicycles recklessly riding through our City streets and neighborhoods is a recipe for disaster,” said a Council Member Van Bramer at a press conference on July 12. His district overlaps with the neighboring 108th Precinct. “There is an urgent need for enforcement and that enforcement must come now and not after one more person is hurt by these illegal vehicles.”
Cops at precincts throughout Queens have had trouble dealing with the relatively new vehicles.
Technically, they are unlicensed motor vehicles and the motorists can be fined just for riding them.
However, commanding officers at the 104th, 108th, and 110th, precinct have all talked about how difficult it can be to enforce those provisions against someone who will start pedaling the bike—pretending to be a normal cyclist—as soon as cops come into view.
At meetings with the 104th Precinct in Middle Village and Maspeth, residents have repeatedly asked what can be done and cops have repeatedly said they don’t have the right laws to deter the bikers. Doubling the normal bicycle fines for the electronic bicycles could be a start.
“Personally I think it’s a good idea,” said Roa Daraio, of Communities of Maspeth and Elmhurst Together and a member of the 104th Precinct’s Community Council.
COMET, which covers a high-traffic area around Queens Boulevard, has been especially vocal about the bikes.
The legislation currently has nine sponsors and is in the council’s Transportation Committee.
“Navigating City streets is difficult and dangerous enough without the reckless actions of cyclists on electric bikes,” said Garodnick. “E-bikes are illegal, and yet we seem to see more and more of the popping up every day. It’s time for the City to step up and show that we’re serious about getting these bikes off the streets.”
By Jeremiah Dobruck
