A push to register e-bikes in New York state has a thrown chain.
A key lawmaker said deliberations on the state budget have stretched so far past its April 1 due date that there simply isn’t enough time to develop and consider bills on the subject.
Assemblymember Bill Magnarelli, a Syracuse Democrat who chairs that chamber’s transportation committee, wants to require that all e-bikes be registered. But he said there won’t be any major actions on the topic until 2027.
“This is one of the casualties, so to speak, of a budget going a little bit later than you would want,” he told the New York Public News Network.
Magnarelli chaired a hearing on e-bikes and e-scooters in January where a Long Island police chief and the head of the Albany Bicycle Coalition testified. Around four dozen bills with various proposals to regulate, register, incentivize or increase awareness about e-bikes are pending before the Transportation Committee, he said.
New York state law allows three classes of e-bikes. Class 1 e-bikes can go up to 20 mph with motors that operate when riders are pedaling; while Class 2 e-bikes are still capped at 20 mph, but can operate without anyone pedaling. Class 3 bikes go up to 25 mph and are allowed to operate in New York City.
No one under age 16 is legally allowed to operate an e-bike, and state law currently prohibits the use of e-bikes on roads where the speed limit is greater than 30 mph. Localities can impose their own additional restrictions; New York City last year imposed a 15 mph speed limit for e-bikes.
But the existing laws aren’t well-enforced, lawmakers and advocates acknowledge. Magnarelli complained that it’s difficult to hold people accountable if an e-bike isn’t registered and operators aren’t required to have any type or license or training.
Starting in July, e-bikes in New Jersey will need to be registered and riders will need to have licenses. Bicycle advocacy groups in New York are generally wary of registration.
“New York should learn from New Jersey's experience rather than repeat its mistakes by rushing into the same thing,” Anne Savage, executive director of the New York Bicycling Coalition, said at the January hearing.
Since the state doesn’t require registration, officials from the Department of Motor Vehicles said they didn’t have statistics on the number of e-bikes operating in New York. The New York City Department of Transportation tracks bicycles that cross over the East River bridges; that figure has increased to an average of 28,853 per day last year from 20,624 per day in 2019.
An urban planning student last year estimated that around 45% of vehicles observed in the city’s bike lanes are e-bikes. The Workers Justice Project, a group that advocates for delivery workers, estimates there are 80,000 e-bike workers in New York City.
Magnarelli said there also seems to be an increase in his upstate city, and he worries about pedestrians who are hit by e-bikes.
“The idea that you don't have to register something because it's only going 20 miles an hour makes no sense to me,” he said. “If we're going to do it, I'd like to do it for all classes. It also would make it easier to enforce.”
The problem with registration requirements is that they aren’t uniform among states, and bicycles cross state lines, cycling advocates said. Jon Orcutt, a long-time bicycle advocate and former city transportation official, says he believes the concerns are overblown.
“The discourse over e-bikes tends toward panic rather than support,” he said. “If you don't want e-bikes on the sidewalk, that's already illegal. If you don't want e-bikes blowing through red lights, that's already illegal. If you don't want e-bikes going 50 mph, that's already illegal. So, Albany's not the venue to change that.”
Suffolk County Republican Assemblymember Jodi Giglio is the sponsor of a bill to require people to carry identification while operating e-bikes and to force the state to develop a safety course on their operation.
“It was a missed opportunity,” she said of this year’s legislative session.
State lawmakers are set to return to the Capitol on Tuesday, when they are expected to spend the week considering seven remaining bills for the roughly $268 billion state budget. That leaves just one week of scheduled session in June before lawmakers conclude their time at the Capitol for the year.
Magnarelli said he would take time over the summer and autumn to meet with stakeholders and develop a package of bills to introduce in January. He wants to take a holistic approach in addition to pushing registration.
“How do we keep roads safe? There has to be rules. There has to be regulations. There has to be accountability, and there has to be, there has to be enforcement. So those are the things we're going to try to put together,” he said.
Until then, he said, “ I just pray nobody gets hurt.”
