PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Kathy Park Price, Brooklyn Organizer at Transportation Alternatives
6:34:32
·
124 sec
Kathy Park Price, speaking in her personal capacity, strongly opposes Intro 606 and supports Intro 1131. She argues that the city should focus on reducing crashes caused by cars and large vehicles, which account for 99.5% of pedestrian fatalities since 2014, rather than implementing e-bike licensing and registration.
- Park Price rides an electric bike for various purposes and emphasizes the need for street safety as a mother and New Yorker.
- She criticizes the proposed $19 million investment in e-bike licensing as misguided, given that only one person was killed by an e-bike rider this year.
- She recommends alternative safety measures such as reducing speed limits, expanding automated enforcement, adding school streets, and installing protected bike lanes.
Kathy Park Price
6:34:32
Thank you, Chair Brooks Powers, for allowing me the opportunity to to speak.
6:34:37
My name is Cathy Park Price.
6:34:38
I'm the Brooklyn organizer at Transportation Alternatives, but I'm testifying in my personal capacity.
6:34:44
I'm here as a mother whose kids recently began walking on the streets on their own as and as someone whose number one concern as a New Yorker is street safety.
6:34:55
Instead of adding another car to the street, I ride a pedal assist electric bike to get to work, get one of my kids to school to run errands, and generally enjoy New York City.
6:35:04
And I strongly oppose intro 606 and support intro 1131.
6:35:10
If licensing and registering e bikes and investing $19,000,000 of tax payer money to set up a new system would have prevented the death of the one person killed by an e bike rider this year, I would support it.
6:35:25
As a city, we must focus our limited resources on reducing and ultimately eliminating the number of crashes that cause death and serious injuries on our streets.
6:35:35
The best way to do that is by enforcing existing laws and designing our streets to prioritize safety and implementing policy changes that address the source of 99.5% of pedestrian fatalities since 2014, and that is cars and other large vehicles.
6:35:53
The fact that supporters of intro 606 do not support actions that address cars and other large vehicles shows how disingenuous the bill is.
6:36:02
We know what works and have the tools to prevent deaths and serious injuries today.
6:36:06
Reducing speed limits, expanding automated enforcement of speed and red light violations, adding more school streets, reducing vehicle size, daylighting every intersection, installing speed governors in vehicles, building raised crosswalks, and installing protected bike lanes are some examples of proven ways that we could improve safety on our streets today.
6:36:30
I encourage city council to Nick's intro 606.
6:36:35
Thank you.
