By Michael V. Cusenza
City Comptroller Brad Lander’s Office recently released a policy report on street safety in the era of mopeds, e-bikes, and e-scooters.
The new review lays out a strategic plan to create more predictability on city streets and ensure that micromobility vehicles operate safely and legally, according to Lander.
Key parts of the plan include:
- Cut off the supply of unsafe, illegal devices in New York City and beyond. Preventing consumers from purchasing and using e-bikes and mopeds illegally requires upstream interventions and collaboration between local, state, and federal government agencies.
- Create a City-administered licensing program that regulates app-based delivery companies and holds them accountable for the labor and street safety impacts of their business model. Improving street safety outcomes requires holding app-based delivery companies accountable.
- Invest in high-quality infrastructure and street design solutions to support the safe integration of micro mobility into New York City streets. Thoughtfully implemented infrastructure and transportation design can simultaneously improve safety while addressing quality of life issues around e-bikes, mopeds, and micromobility.
- Foster a culture of accountability around street safety at the NYPD to create more predictable, safer streets: Enforcement, along with education and engineering, is a key pillar of Vision Zero. The City’s original 2014 Vision Zero action plan directed the NYPD to conduct more vigorous street enforcement against dangerous moving violations. However, efforts to step up police enforcement against reckless driving have faltered over the past ten years. The number of traffic citations issued by the NYPD declined by 37 percent between 2018 and 2023, even as fatalities jumped by 25 percent over the same period. Advocates have long pointed out the failure to enforce laws prohibiting blocking or parking in bike lanes. Despite posing risks to cyclists’ safety, vehicles double-parked in bike lanes rarely receive fines. Fewer than 2 percent of 311 reports of vehicles parked illegally in bike lanes result in a ticket from the NYPD. As a key partner in achieving Vision Zero, the NYPD Highways Division and Traffic Enforcement District must be adequately resourced and prioritized within the department to bring about a culture shift to ensure all road users know the law and follow it, including moped and e-bike riders. This must include enforcement against vehicle parking in bike lanes, which drives e-bikes onto sidewalks and into crosswalks and driving lanes, creating unpredictable and unsafe conditions for pedestrians and drivers alike.
Micromobility vehicles account for a relatively small share of pedestrian deaths and injuries – but those numbers have grown significantly since 2020. The growing presence of micromobility devices on city streets represents a major trend in New York City’s transportation landscape. E-bikes, scooters, and mopeds offer tens of thousands on New Yorkers an affordable and convenient means of transportation, but the proliferation of these vehicles poses new safety and quality of life concerns. Managing these impacts is a multi-faceted challenge for government agencies, touching upon supply-side, labor, traffic enforcement, and infrastructure issues for which there is no single solution.
“The Adams administration, unfortunately, has taken an extremely downstream approach to this problem,” said Lander, a 2025 mayoral candidate. “Seizing some illegal vehicles may make the mayor feel good when he rides a tractor over them. But it doesn’t make anyone safer.”
