Prepare, New Yorkers. A brand new invoice might 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 called “Priscilla’s legislation”, a invoice drawn up by NYC Councilmember Bob Holden and named after Priscilla Lake, a girl 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. “Pink gentle cameras work, and velocity cameras work,” defined Holden. “Why not apply that to e-bikes? We now have a public well being disaster. When persons are strolling the streets, a harmful place to be is in a crosswalk.”
Holden appears to accurately establish how harmful it’s for pedestrians in NYC, who face deadly risks strolling via the town. Nonetheless, his push for license plates on electrical bicycles and e-scooters appears to disregard the apparent largest hazard to pedestrians: automobiles.
Whereas e-bikes have been answerable for 47 deadly visitors accidents in NYC within the final 5 years, based on 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 significantly injured by automobiles in NYC in simply the primary 9 months of 2024.
With automobiles inflicting over 10x the fatalities and considerably greater than 10x the intense accidents to pedestrians, concentrating 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 might make an even bigger impression by first opening an umbrella.
The unusual fixation on a comparatively minor menace to pedestrians – and one that truly helps substitute 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 typically to marginalized folks,” stated Queens resident Chong Bretillon.
It’s true that the identical effort utilized to imposing visitors legislation on e-bikes might have a a lot bigger impression on the protection of pedestrians if as an alternative utilized to imposing visitors legal guidelines on automobiles and vehicles. With orders of magnitude extra accidents and deaths attributable to bigger autos, the unusual deal with comparatively safer, lighter types of various transportation like bicycles appears at greatest, misguided, and at worst, calculated.
Bike owner and e-bike riders typically embody greater percentages of marginalized communities, leaving some to argue that the restrictions are meant to focus on such communities. E-bikes are the transportation technique of selection for supply staff in NYC, a lot of whom are immigrants. The decrease earnings occupation already presents a hardship in comparison with many higher-income staff driving automobiles into the town every day. Now these people, in addition to e-bike riders from all backgrounds, could should cope with additional restrictions to this environment friendly, lower-cost transportation various that has confirmed to be safer for all street customers, not simply these tucked away inside SUVs.
through: PIX11
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