Much of the recent critical reporting around e-mobility products, specifically e-bikes, centers on the Big Apple. New York City’s 8 million residents are seemingly on the front lines (or as many call it, the “wild west”) of folks riding e-mobility devices of all kinds on our streets. The city has been busy proposing new regulations and rules in an effort to rein in the worst outlaw operators, and more importantly, curtail a serious outbreak of dangerous and sometimes fatal fires related to unsafe and untested lithium-ion batteries, and rightly so: Of the 40 deaths nationwide related to lithium-ion battery fires, 29 (72%) occurred in New York City alone.

Thankfully, there is some good news on that last front: According to Underwriters Laboratories, deaths from e-bike fires declined in New York City after battery safety standards were written into law. At the same time, the number of fires and deaths rose rapidly from near zero prior to 2020 to a peak of hundreds of fires and 18 deaths in 2023. So far in 2024, only four people (still four too many) died from a battery-related fire in the city. This progress is no doubt due to the passage of ordinances that require lithium-ion batteries used in all e-mobility devices to be tested and certified by accredited third party laboratories, ongoing public education, and diligent enforcement efforts by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and the New York Fire Department, including shuttering some of the worst violators and going after online sellers who openly sell substandard batteries.

Over that same roughly five-year period, the number of people who lost their lives in New York City in a crash involving only an e-mobility device climbed from zero a few years earlier to 11 in 2023. That same year, eight cyclists and two pedestrians lost their lives in crashes that did not involve an e-mobility device or motor vehicle. As one might expect, crashes involving motor vehicles were the deadliest, taking the lives of another 22 cyclists, nine e-mobility users, 101 pedestrians, and 112 vehicle occupants. Despite the grim data clearly showing the dangers posed by motor vehicles to all road users, there has unfortunately been an increased focus on e-mobility devices (collectively and often incorrectly referred to as “e-bikes” in the public discourse) as particularly threatening. As the data clearly shows, New York City streets do present a real and present danger for operating an e-bike or e-scooter.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) both issued reports showing that the growth in popularity of e-mobility devices over the last five years has led to a significant increase in crashes and fatalities nationwide. Appendix B to the NTSB report reveals exactly where these fatalities occurred. Of the 53 reported e-bike fatalities nationwide from 2017 to 2022, 25 occurred in one of the five boroughs of New York City and two more occurred in neighboring cities in New Jersey. New York City had 47% of nationwide e-bike fatalities even though its residents only account for about 2.5% of the U.S. population. So just why is that?

Certainly, one may point to population density and lack of safe cycling infrastructure as possible causes. But New York City is not alone in that regard, and over the same period, other major, densely populated cities like San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago combined had a total of just two fatalities. Other cities also have equally inadequate infrastructure, while New York is actually making strides towards safer streets.

The prevalence of delivery workers in New York City, with an estimated 65,000 people performing the difficult and dangerous work of delivering meals and goods by bicycle, e-bike, scooter, or moped, could also be a factor: according to a recent article, 19 delivery workers died on the job in 2021 and 2022, two of the five years of the NTSB report with the highest number of fatalities (although some of these workers could have been using mopeds, which are considered motor vehicles). It is certainly unfair to blame these workers, many of whom are recent immigrants without other employment options, for the dangerous conditions they face trying to earn a living and support their families.

What is it about New York City in particular that led it to have both 72% of the fire deaths and 47% of the e-bike related deaths from traffic violence? This may be an instance where we should blame the e-bikes, because New York City has a type of e-bike that exists nowhere else on the planet.

When New York legalized electric bicycles in 2020, the legal definition included a “Class 3” e-bike that can go 25 mph by use of the throttle. In virtually every other state (and under federal law), that vehicle is considered a motor vehicle because it can exceed 20 mph on motor power alone.  Forty three states now follow PeopleForBikes’ model three-class definitions and require a Class 3 e-bike to only provide pedal assistance, not direct motor power. What happened in New York City was that no major e-bike manufacturer was willing to make an e-bike that (1) wasn’t legal to sell or operate anywhere else and (2) was likely subject to federal motor vehicle safety regulations.

The result should have been foreseeable in 2020 but has now become painfully clear in hindsight. Thousands of cheap e-bikes with unsafe speed capability and low quality batteries were made by a few foreign companies and sold to a vulnerable population. The names of these companies are well known to authorities. These companies do not have to bother with quality control, safety compliance, or product liability insurance because they are largely beyond the reach of government regulators and our judicial system. These low-quality e-bikes and batteries were sold not through traditional bike shops, but through e-bike stores that popped up all over the city to cash in on the growing demand for food delivery.

New York City is now working hard to undo this mess and reduce fires, crashes, and deaths that have little to nothing to do with the high-quality e-bikes that are sold and safely used everywhere else in the country. A great first step is to end the legal aberration that is a “Class 3” e-bike and align New York’s electric bicycle law to the 20 mph federal limits on motor-powered speed of low-speed electric bicycles and other e-mobility devices that are adhered to elsewhere across the U.S. Slower, throttle-enable speeds and safe e-bikes sourced from reputable U.S. manufacturers can help address these issues and improve safety for all New Yorkers.

PeopleForBikes also recommends:

• Congressional action to close the de minimis loophole that allows foreign sellers to sell unsafe devices and batteries direct to consumers (and avoid tariffs paid by domestic companies)
• Adoption of federal safety standards for e-mobility devices that incorporate international consensus standards such as those passed by legislatures in New York, California and Minnesota
• Accelerate the construction of safer infrastructure including protected mobility lanes and daylighted intersections which are proven to reduce crashes and save lives