Prepare, New Yorkers. A brand new invoice may quickly lengthen the identical automobile license plate and registration necessities to e-bikes within the largest metropolis within the US. However regardless of ostensibly specializing in security, some argue that the transfer is a misguided try to focus on marginalized communities.
The difficulty surrounds what is named “Priscilla’s regulation”, a invoice drawn up by NYC Councilmember Bob Holden and named after Priscilla Lake, a lady killed after being hit by an e-bike in Chinatown final yr. It went up for debate on Wednesday, however its potential passage is up within the air as New Yorkers debate the deserves and pitfalls of the suggest laws.
The invoice would lengthen the kind of automobile registration and licensing necessities to electrical bicycles. “Purple mild cameras work, and velocity cameras work,” defined Holden. “Why not apply that to e-bikes? We have now a public well being disaster. When individuals are strolling the streets, a harmful place to be is in a crosswalk.”
Holden appears to accurately determine how harmful it’s for pedestrians in NYC, who face deadly risks strolling via the town. Nevertheless, his push for license plates on electrical bicycles and e-scooters appears to disregard the plain largest hazard to pedestrians: automobiles.
Whereas e-bikes have been accountable for 47 deadly site visitors accidents in NYC within the final 5 years, in line with the New York Put up, automobiles have killed 61 pedestrians in NYC within the first half of 2024 alone. And that quantity is barely rising. Over 600 pedestrians have been severely injured by automobiles in NYC in simply the primary 9 months of 2024.
With automobiles inflicting over 10x the fatalities and considerably increased than 10x the intense accidents to pedestrians, focusing on e-bikes on this context is a bit like standing in the course of a rainstorm and remarking in regards to the excessive humidity. Maybe one may make a much bigger affect by first opening an umbrella.
The unusual fixation on a comparatively minor menace to pedestrians – and one that really helps change the bigger on-road menace of automobiles – has not gone unnoticed by many New Yorkers. “They’re not going after the SUVs, those killing most individuals on streets. Cyclists are simple. Stand and hand out tickets usually to marginalized individuals,” mentioned Queens resident Chong Bretillon.
It’s true that the identical effort utilized to implementing site visitors regulation on e-bikes may have a a lot bigger affect on the protection of pedestrians if as an alternative utilized to implementing site visitors legal guidelines on automobiles and vehicles. With orders of magnitude extra accidents and deaths brought on by bigger automobiles, the unusual concentrate on comparatively safer, lighter types of various transportation like bicycles appears at finest, misguided, and at worst, calculated.
Bike owner and e-bike riders usually embrace increased percentages of marginalized communities, leaving some to argue that the restrictions are supposed to focus on such communities. E-bikes are the transportation methodology of selection for supply employees in NYC, lots of whom are immigrants. The decrease earnings occupation already presents a hardship in comparison with many higher-income employees driving automobiles into the town every day. Now these people, in addition to e-bike riders from all backgrounds, might must cope with additional restrictions to this environment friendly, lower-cost transportation various that has confirmed to be safer for all highway customers, not simply these tucked away inside SUVs.
by way of: PIX11
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