PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Peggy Yannis on E-bike Safety Concerns
6:22:12
·
128 sec
Peggy Yannis, a lifelong New Yorker, expressed strong concerns about e-bike safety and criticized the arguments put forth by TransAlta and similar organizations. She shared personal experiences of near-misses with e-bikes and a recent incident where she was injured while trying to cross a protected bike lane.
- Argued that protected bike lanes are "death traps" for pedestrians, contrary to claims that they are a solution
- Described an incident in Chinatown where she was nearly hit by a fast-moving e-bike and fell, injuring herself
- Questioned the accuracy of injury statistics presented by advocacy groups and shared her husband's experience of being rear-ended by a motorbike in a bike lane
Peggy Yannis
6:22:12
you.
6:22:15
My name is Peggy Yanes.
6:22:16
I'm a lifelong New Yorker.
6:22:18
I've lived through the bad old days of New York, and I can't beside myself by what's going on in the city right now.
6:22:26
I'm gonna go a bit off script because I've been here since 9 o'clock this morning.
6:22:30
And I am outraged and very upset by the arguments that have been put forth by TransAlta and similar organizations.
6:22:38
They are giving no solutions to say that protected bike lanes, our solution is wrong.
6:22:45
Those are death traps for pedestrians.
6:22:49
I have been dodging e vehicles for the last 4 years, sometimes 10 a day.
UNKNOWN
6:22:55
I've got hundreds of photographs of them going the wrong way, everything.
Peggy Yannis
6:23:00
I've been lucky.
6:23:01
Twice I got grazed on the hand, by 2 cyclists not doing what they were supposed to be doing.
6:23:08
And then recently, I was down in Chinatown and I was going to try to cross a protected bike lane to get to a parked car.
6:23:17
I looked both ways.
6:23:19
Didn't see anybody coming.
6:23:20
And as I was getting ready to cross out of nowhere, An e bike going very very fast came straight at me and screamed, watch out.
6:23:31
At which point I tried to turn to get back on the sidewalk, lost my balance, hit my head on a bike, rail.
6:23:39
Fortunately for me, that kind of cushion the fall when I landed on my knee would have been broken.
6:23:44
I just got very badly cut up.
6:23:46
But to say protected bike lanes are a solution, maybe for the bicyclists, but not for the pedestrians.
6:23:56
And the statistics they were giving, how few of us have been injured.
6:24:00
My husband who's an avid regular cyclist was on, the west side bike lane and he got rear ended by a motorbike that shouldn't have been there.
6:24:11
Went flying off his bike, somehow made it home.
6:24:14
I told took him to emergency, told him, you gotta file a police report.
6:24:18
It came back.
Selvena N. Brooks-Powers
6:24:19
Thank you.
