Ellen Sandals testifies on harassment and need for accountability
Ellen Sandals says EVSA has warned the council for years, describes online harassment, and calls for Priscilla's Law and an end to bike lane expansion.
My name is Ellen Sandals and I live in Manhattan.
For over four years, the Electric Vehicle Safety Alliance has warned the City Council about the growing dangers on our streets and in parks from bikes and scooters ignoring traffic laws.
Unfortunately, our pleas have been ignored, allowing this issue to escalate into a full-scale crisis.
New Yorkers routinely face hostility, harassment, and vulgar abuse from reckless riders simply for exercising our legal right of way.
This degradation of civil discourse extends online.
A few weeks ago, a participant on Nextdoor sent me a direct message
featuring a large picture of his penis, along with the words, quote, Granny, you need some biker dick.
I'm going to ride my loud bike to your home and pound your white ass, end quote.
This hostile environment stems directly from the city council's refusal to pass Priscilla's law to hold riders accountable.
Instead, your inaction has empowered a minority of entitled individuals who treat public spaces as their own, neglecting your duty to protect the majority of New Yorkers who walk our streets.
The 20 or so proposed laws are political theater that fails to address the root of the problem.
The reckless behavior of
the riders themselves.
Why is protecting a minority of micro mobility and city bike riders treated as more important than the public safety of the pedestrians who are the majority?
Stop ramming more poorly designed bike lanes down our throats.
It is time to put public safety first and hold riders accountable.
Shame on all of you if you continue to look the other way.
Thank you.
Next.