PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Nora McCauley on E-Bike Safety and Regulation
7:43:22
·
134 sec
Nora McCauley, a resident of Brooklyn and employee at an electric bike store, testified about the varied uses of e-bikes and concerns about proposed regulations. She emphasized that while safety is a priority, the proposed licensing and registration requirements may not address the core issues.
- McCauley highlighted that e-bikes are used by families, commuters, and seniors for various purposes including transportation and recreation.
- She argued that law-abiding e-bike riders would comply with new regulations, but this wouldn't solve existing safety issues or illegal behaviors.
- McCauley pointed out that many dangerous behaviors, such as riding mopeds without licenses or riding the wrong way, are already illegal.
Nora McCauley
7:43:22
too Yes.
7:43:23
I'm Nora McAuley.
7:43:23
Sorry.
7:43:24
I had to leave my laptop to go do an errand in the rain, so I also don't really have my notes handy, but I'll just be quick.
7:43:30
Thank you.
7:43:31
I live in Brooklyn, downtown Brooklyn, on a block that is a microcosm on both the sidewalk and the street of every safety issue you can possibly imagine.
7:43:38
And my heart goes out to all of the people that we heard from today who have been injured.
7:43:43
I also work at an electric bike store.
7:43:46
We sell, class 1, pedal assist bikes for the most part, and we are definitely very, very safety concerned.
7:43:53
The last time I testified for the city council was in support of, what became local law 30 9, in terms of battery safety, supporting the FDNY.
7:44:03
So we are very, very concerned with safety.
7:44:05
Most of our customers are families who ride their kids to school, go grocery shopping, go to the park, and so on.
7:44:12
We also have a number of customers with, challenging commutes, say, from Forest Hills, Queens to Chelsea or from Fort Lee, New Jersey to midtown Manhattan.
7:44:21
And a a third category, which I want to mention tonight in particular, is that we sell a good number of electric assist bikes to seniors to who like to remain mobile and active in exploring their city.
7:44:33
We have seniors in every borough who spend a significant portion of their time, actually, riding around, staying engaged, whether it's basketball or bird watching.
7:44:42
And, by the way, bird watching, spots on the edge of every borough are best reached by electric bike, especially home getting home again when they're it's all uphill.
7:44:51
So the the main point I'm making is that all of our customers are law abiding riders of ebikes.
7:44:57
They will all go ahead and get license and get registrations, and follow the law as they already do, but I don't think it will make any difference to the issues that people are concerned about, that we're all concerned about, which is, safety, especially for pedestrians and cyclists and children and seniors.
7:45:16
Anyway, a lot of the behaviors that we keep hearing about are already illegal, as people have said.
7:45:21
Mopeds are required to be licensed, at the state level.
7:45:24
Many of them are not, and that's already illegal.
7:45:27
You're not not allowed to ride the wrong way on a street or in a bike lane.
7:45:30
That's illegal.
7:45:31
And the police are
Eric McClure
7:45:33
Thank you.
UNKNOWN
7:45:33
Your time's expired.
Nora McCauley
7:45:35
To support.
7:45:36
Okay.
Selvena N. Brooks-Powers
7:45:36
Thank you.
