Prepare, New Yorkers. A brand new invoice might quickly prolong 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 problem surrounds what is named “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 12 months. 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 prolong the kind of automobile registration and licensing necessities to electrical bicycles. “Purple mild cameras work, and pace cameras work,” defined Holden. “Why not apply that to e-bikes? We have now 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. Nevertheless, his push for license plates on electrical bicycles and e-scooters appears to disregard the plain largest hazard to pedestrians: vehicles.
Whereas e-bikes have been chargeable for 47 deadly site visitors accidents in NYC within the final 5 years, in line with the New York Submit, vehicles have killed 61 pedestrians in NYC within the first half of 2024 alone. And that quantity is simply rising. Over 600 pedestrians have been significantly injured by vehicles in NYC in simply the primary 9 months of 2024.
With vehicles 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 really helps substitute the bigger on-road menace of vehicles – has not gone unnoticed by many New Yorkers. “They’re not going after the SUVs, those killing most individuals on streets. Cyclists are straightforward. Stand and hand out tickets usually to marginalized individuals,” stated Queens resident Chong Bretillon.
It’s true that the identical effort utilized to implementing site visitors legislation on e-bikes might have a a lot bigger impression on the security of pedestrians if as a substitute utilized to implementing site visitors legal guidelines on vehicles and vehicles. With orders of magnitude extra accidents and deaths attributable to bigger automobiles, 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 usually embrace greater 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 vehicles 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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