At least 28 people have died in crashes involving electric bicycles and stand-up scooters in New York City in 2026, the highest-ever annual total by this point in the year.
The supercharged vehicles allow riders to breeze across the city without breaking a sweat, making them attractive to teenagers and people who might not otherwise travel on two wheels. But they have also added to a sense of chaos on already crowded streets.
As ridership soars and the death toll continues to mount, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the City Council are moving to address safety concerns. The Council will hold a hearing on Wednesday to consider new regulations.
A New York Times analysis of this year’s fatal crashes found a variety of contributing factors. Some of the riders were using unlawful high-powered vehicles that can far exceed local speed limits. Others were hit by reckless drivers. Many were working-class immigrants; at least two were delivery workers.
No pedestrians have died after being hit by e-bikes or e-scooters this year, though many have been injured in crashes. On Sunday, a pedestrian who was hit by a traditional bicycle in Central Park died.
State and city leaders have pressured retailers to stop selling devices that can exceed the speed limit. But they have disagreed over other proposals, including whether to increase police enforcement or to require license plates and helmets.
Mr. Mamdani sent cease-and-desist orders to 42 online sellers last month and has focused on making street design upgrades, including more bike lanes, to help prevent crashes.
“These are not unavoidable tragedies; they are preventable losses,” Mr. Mamdani said when he announced the orders.
Dangerous Roads
Shortly before sunrise one morning last month, Paulina Tec Choc was killed in a hit-and-run while riding an electric bike to her job at a Sonic Drive-In restaurant in Brooklyn.
Ms. Tec Choc, 29, an immigrant from Guatemala who lived in Queens, had bought the bike because it shortened her commute to 20 minutes, compared with an hour on the subway and bus, said Osman Cevallos, a friend and colleague.
She had stopped at an intersection on Jamaica Avenue when the driver of a pickup truck ran her over and fled the scene, the police said.
Her bike was a legal Ecotric Power Sport pedal-assist model with a top speed of 20 miles per hour. She was wearing a helmet. There is no bike lane on that stretch of Jamaica Avenue.
“If there was a bike lane, this wouldn’t have happened,” Mr. Cevallos said.
E-bike injuries and deaths are rising nationally, but New York City’s congested streets present unique challenges. Some advocates have pointed to recent rider deaths as further evidence that the streets are too car-centric and that the city must do more to get dangerous drivers off the roads and to prioritize the safety of those who get around in other ways.
In July, Doreen Meyers, a 49-year-old former Peace Corps volunteer and marathon runner, was killed by an Uber driver while riding an electric scooter in Manhattan. Her scooter, a NIU Pro, was legal and she was wearing a helmet and riding in a bike lane on Amsterdam Avenue.
“She was extremely safe — she was a rule follower,” her sister, Debby McGee, said.
Uber said in a statement that the company was “devastated for Ms. Meyers’s family and loved ones” and that the driver had been removed from the app after the crash.
“I don’t know what the answer is,” Ms. McGee said. “I just know that when I’m driving, I’m so much more cognizant. Everyone needs to slow down and look around.”
Dangerous Devices
New York City has a speed limit of 15 miles per hour for e-bikes and e-scooters, and riders must be at least 16 years old. Devices that can travel over 25 m.p.h. are illegal but are widely available online.
Several fatal crashes this year involved illegal vehicles that can travel up to 50 miles per hour, including a crash on the Queensboro Bridge that killed a cyclist and a man riding a Teverun Blade scooter that is billed as an “urban wolf” with “explosive power.”
Dr. Rahul Sharma, chief of emergency medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, said that hospitals were seeing a rise in injuries among riders of so-called micromobility devices.
“The physics of the crashes have changed entirely,” he said. “We’re not seeing scraped knees and broken bones. We’re seeing high-velocity trauma and traumatic brain injuries.”
Dr. Sharma said that more than half of the patients coming into the emergency room where he works were not wearing helmets, which “can be the difference between a mild concussion and a severe head injury that requires you go to the I.C.U.”
Experts have called for a public awareness campaign to make clear which devices are dangerous. Laura Kavanagh, the former fire commissioner, said that a similar campaign about e-bike battery fires, showing bikes bursting into flames, had saved lives.
“It had to catch attention,” she said. “We had to underline that this was a matter of life and death.”
Citi Bike, New York’s bike share system, has been a major driver of the increase in bike ridership, and its gray pedal-assist e-bikes, which go up to 15 miles per hour, have surged in popularity. Of the more than 5 million Citi Bike trips taken each month, roughly 72 percent are on e-bikes. The city has taken a cautious approach to e-scooter apps like Bird and Lime, which are available only in parts of the Bronx and eastern Queens.
Only two of the people killed in crashes this year were using electric Citi Bikes: a 15-year-old girl who was hit by a truck while riding with a friend in Manhattan this month, and a 23-year-old cyclist who was hit by a New York Waterway bus in May. A 64-year-old man riding a Lime e-scooter also died in the Bronx in January.
Safety proposals
Over the summer, Jean Kotler, 43, was hit by an electric bike while jogging in Central Park and suffered a traumatic brain injury.
While she recovers at a rehabilitation facility, her family has called for more regulations on e-bikes, including requiring licenses and insurance.
“One of my great frustrations is the rider has faced no accountability,” her niece Brandi Wiltse said.
There has been a heated debate over whether, and how, to crack down on riders who use illegal devices or disobey traffic laws. In March, Mr. Mamdani’s administration ended criminal enforcement against cyclists for low-level traffic offenses. Opponents filed a lawsuit to reverse his decision.
The police are still confiscating illegal devices and issuing civil summonses to cyclists. The Police Department said that seizures of electric bikes had doubled so far this year to about 1,200 compared with the same period last year. Moving violations for e-bikes also increased to 10,055, up from 5,893 last year.
The Council speaker, Julie Menin, has stopped short of advancing a local version of Priscilla’s Law, a state bill that would require electric bikes and scooters to be registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles and display license plates, saying that it was a state issue.
Even the prospect of requiring helmets has been contentious. City officials have resisted the idea, fearing that it could stall enthusiasm for cycling by limiting impromptu trips.
When Mr. Mamdani released a video on social media promoting helmets, Streetsblog, a publication that advocates for street safety, argued that it reinforced the idea that cyclists were responsible for safety “while downplaying the government’s role in designing safer streets.”
“Helmets are no match for three-ton motor vehicles,” the piece said.
Georgia Gee contributed research.
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