E-Bike Tickets Tossed As NYPD Wrongly Targets Delivery Workers

NEW YORK — Officials recently tossed out tickets issued to New York City delivery workers for riding illegal electric bikes in rulings that suggest police aren't enforcing the law as it's written.

Hearing officers in the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings on Sept. 11 dismissed summonses against three workers caught using throttle-powered e-bikes. Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration launched a crackdown on such bikes this year before moving to legalize so-called pedal-assist bikes.

The city code says businesses — not individuals — should be fined when one of their employees is caught riding an outlawed bike on the job. But the cops in all three cases didn't try to ascertain whether the riders were working before slapping them with tickets, the court records say.

"They’re just bearing the brunt of this entire crackdown and the business owners are experiencing little to nothing, and some of the cops are oblivious to it," said Steven Wasserman, the Legal Aid Society attorney who represented the workers.

This month wasn't the first time a hearing officer has slapped down e-bike tickets. A ruling in July similarly dismissed two summonses against a sushi restaurant worker, finding his employer should have been fined instead. That case was first reported by Streetsblog.

The throttle-powered bikes commonly used by delivery workers are considered "motorized scooters" and are illegal to ride. The city allows the use of pedal-assist bikes, which require the rider to pedal to get a motorized boost. Some were recently added to the Citi Bike fleet.

De Blasio, a Democrat, has pledged that the city's e-bike enforcement would target the "top of the food chain" — businesses who force delivery workers to use the faster but cheaper illegal bikes for their jobs.

"We have to go after the businesses," he said when he announced the crackdown last October. "They are profiting by violating the law. It’s as simple as that."

That approach is reflected in the city's administrative code, which says businesses will be liable for fines against anyone using a motorized scooter "on behalf of such business."

But the message hasn't filtered down to the NYPD cops enforcing the law, Wasserman said. Half the officers he's spoken with were unaware of the policy, he said, while others have said it's not their responsibility to find the business responsible.

That leaves workers vulnerable while giving restaurants no incentive to help them switch to more expensive pedal-assist bikes, Wasserman said.

"They’re subject to having their bikes confiscated at any moment. It’s a terrible way to live," Wasserman said. "A lot of these guys have immigration problems and families to support."

NYPD figures reportedly illustrate the pattern. Police had confiscated 541 e-bikes and cited riders 345 times as of July 18, while businesses had gotten just 138 violations, according to Streetsblog.

A spokesman for de Blasio deferred to the NYPD for comment on the dismissals. The Police Department did not respond to emailed questions on Monday afternoon.

The mayor defended the city's stance on e-bikes in a radio interview last month, saying the fast throttle-powered bikes pose a safety risk for pedestrians. Pedal-assist bikes are legal in part because they're slower, he said.

"They’re in many cases, again, going wrong way on the street, going right through lights and right through stop signs," he told WNYC. "I have enough evidence from everything I’ve seen and talked to people to say we did the right thing by cracking down and saying public safety first."

(Lead image: A cyclist rides an e-bike on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. Photo by Noah Manskar/Patch)