My name is Tiffany-Ann Taylor, VP for Transportation at the Regional Plan Association (RPA).
RPA support calls for the increased safety of our roads’ most vulnerable users. Better street design allows for a more standardized and predictable experience for cyclists, therefore we support Intro 1131.
As cycling and the use of ebikes have grown since the start of the pandemic, democratizing the street for all users must continue to be a priority. Given the catalog of definitions for what constitutes an ebike, better education about where these different devices should travel and reducing crashes is essential for sustaining a healthy system of mobility. We support the creation of a City-led task force to better understand options for making street design and infrastructure safer for all New Yorkers.
To ensure the success of recommendations from legislation like Intro 1131 , equitable enforcement of traffic rules is paramount. As a city, we have repeatedly seen the challenge of this type of enforcement. For this reason, RPA cannot support Intro 606 because it is unlikely to solve the problem it is trying to address and poses a high risk for uneven enforcement.
Sixty percent of people who ride a bike in New York City are people of color and low-income Citi Bike riders choose electric Citi Bikes for 75% of their rides. Given this country’s history of discriminatory policing, we should not introduce another opportunity for these populations to be subject to interactions with law enforcement. Additionally, the administrative cost of creating a licensing program would be high and overly burdensome. We’ve seen other large cities repeal bike licensing laws, due to high cost and ineffectiveness.
There are other ways to address concerns about ebike usage and street safety. Legislation like Intro 1131 is a great start, but other supportive policies like creating ebike loading zones and charging stations would create safe places for users to wait off the sidewalk. Creating a policy that requires and monitors safe working conditions for commercial ebike users would also be a better compliment.
Thank you.
