Jean Ryan of Disabled in Action testifies about being hit by an e-biker

Hi, I'm Jean Ryan, President of Disabled in Action of Metropolitan New York, DIA for short.

Like many people, some of us use delivery apps and services.

Also, as people with disabilities, we are concerned about our safety when e-bikes are involved.

We have close encounters with e-bikes in the ped ramps, sidewalks, and streets.

On July 7th, while I was in my wheelchair crossing York Avenue at 75th Street with the light and in the crosswalk,

an e-biker came up from out of nowhere like a flash and hit my wheelchair at a very fast speed.

He did not look like he was delivering anything.

I was so shocked.

Luckily, I did not get hurt, and my wheelchair still worked, so I could get across the rest of the street to my accessorized vehicle.

The rider and his e-bike went flying, and he landed in the street.

Naturally, we did not exchange insurance information.

However, my wheelchair was not steering correctly and would unpredictably veer to the left.

It turns out that the e-bike bent the steel fork on my wheelchair and I needed a new fork and two new casters for a total of $945 I must pay.

I have not been able to use my regular wheelchair as I still wait for the parts to arrive.

They are supposed to come next week.

Three months.

after I was hit.

We are in favor of banning class three e-bikes that go up to 28 miles per hour and probably beyond.

We insist that all bikers follow the rules of the road and do not go over 20 miles an hour.

We are also in favor of technology that makes bikes slow way down on sidewalks.

Lastly, we need more education and accountability for e-bike riders.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

This panel is excused.

Next, we have Catherine Ruop.

Rosamond.

Giano Tussos.

Kate Brockwell, Lenore Ahrens, and Julian Williams or Giuliani Williams.

Or pull it out, like in the cartoons.

That's when I talk?

Thank you.

You may begin.

Please keep it down for the panel.

And remember to turn on your mic and state your name for the record.

Thank you.

I'm about to.

Good afternoon, committee chairs and committee members.

I am Lenore Ahrens, chair of the Pedestrian and Bike Safety Committee of Good Neighbors of Park Slope.

Good Neighbors, founded in 2015, has over 850 members.

It is a non-profit, aging-in-place organization.

Our social activism addresses our members'concerns.

Our focus is to improve e-bike, bicycle, and pedestrian safety by educating folks about the rules of the road.

Our members report close calls with e-bikes riding on the sidewalk or against the flow of traffic, cutting close to pedestrians in crosswalks and running red lights.

Closed calls have become falls, collisions, and serious injuries.

This year, we partnered with our council member, Shahana Hanif, and released a public awareness campaign about the rules of the road.

It consists of five highly visible traffic laws in English, Spanish, and Bangla.

We are...

Sharing the campaign with other districts, Council Members Hudson and Ressler intend to launch as well.

Our neighborhood campaign appeared on 31 LinkNYC ad kiosks, creating over 35,000 impressions per day.

It ran in February and July and will run throughout October, starting tomorrow.

The cost was zero.

We also handed out campaign flyers at community events and distributed posters to local bicycle and e-bike stores.

We would like to do more.

Each of us, every community member, is vulnerable to serious injury on our streets.

We seek a cultural change in the behavior of all those who share the road to normalize safety.

We would like the council to adopt the Rules of the Road campaign and go citywide.

In May 2027, which is New York City Bike Month, it would be great if this campaign was visible in every neighborhood in the city.

Thank you very much for your testimony.

Thank you.

Council, Sarge, can you please escort them for disrupting the chambers?

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, sergeants.

My apologies for that.

I take accountability for everything these days.

You're next.

Please go.

Okay.

Good afternoon, committee chairs and committee members.

I'm Kathy Roop.

I'm a member of the Pedestrian and Bike Safety Committee of Good Neighbors of Park Slope.

We strongly support legislation that requires delivery workers to have proper medical insurance and safety gear, that they complete and renew road safety training, they observe lawful speed limits, and they get paid for safe operation.

We support rules that require employers to provide liability insurance and e-bike fleet that is registered and insured, and regulate that e-bike vendors only sell legal e-vehicles.

We strongly support Intero 0212, the bike-sharing safety enhancement legislation.

Bike-share docking stations are visible throughout our public streets.

This bike-share legislation can be enhanced in three ways.

It can require the rules of the road be displayed on the ad space of the pay kiosk with large text at least one inch tall.

It can require safety messaging being highly visible and available in multiple languages.

A rules of the road quiz should be administered and passed at least twice a year to unlock a bike.

Regarding Inter 0989, that requires safety incidents.

reporting by bike share operators.

Historically, data on two-wheel crashes has been limited.

Micromobility and last mile delivery will only increase in the future.

We recommend better incident reporting also be required of delivery companies and the police.

We support Intro 0787 requiring the NYPD to report its e-bike enforcement efforts.

Obey red lights, ride with traffic, and stay on the sidewalk.

Visible rules of the road messaging can save lives.

So help our Rules of the Road campaign go citywide in Bike Month, May 2027.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next.

Hello, my name is Kate Rockwell and I'm the co-chair of Families for Safe Streets New York.

I was in the crosswalk with the light, I'd stopped on the curb and looked both ways twice before starting to cross.

The driver accelerated into me and 4,000 pounds of metal, glass, rubber, and plastic drove into my left side.

Ligaments in my wrists and forearms were torn as I hit the hood.

The force of the vehicle colliding with my shin and knee caused the layers of bone, muscle, ligaments, fascia, and nerves to tear apart horizontally.

I envision a New York City where no one suffers like I have.

Several of the bills being heard here today move us closer to that reality.

Some don't.

Today, our streets are a chaotic mix of illegal high-speed devices that put all New Yorkers at risk and safe, legal, low-speed e-bikes.

We can get high-speed illegal devices off our streets while protecting the New Yorkers who choose to get around on safe e-bikes, including many of my fellow FSS members.

We can't allow deceptive and predatory advertising that convinces shoppers that high-speed illegal devices are safe or legal when they're not.

We're horrified that this safety hearing has not a single bill on expanding safety infrastructure.

Too many streets have narrow sidewalks, no bike lane, and travel lanes filled with speeding traffic that turn neighborhood streets into deadly thoroughfares.

We look forward to the day when three council committees meet to discuss 23 bills aimed at reducing traffic violence as a whole.

that the City Council isn't moving forward with any plan to license and register e-bikes.

We've seen elsewhere it's an administrative boondoggle, it doesn't work, and it won't produce safety.

No one else should have to join Families for Safe Streets.

Please help us get high-speed legal devices off our streets and help us get around safely by bike.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next.

Good afternoon, Community Council, Shahana Hanif, Sean.

It's an honor to be here.

My name is Julaine Williams, and I'm a member of Family for Safe Streets.

In 2016, my beautiful, incredible daughter,

Janiqua Cook and myself, we were allied healthcare students in York College.

My daughter, Janiqua, was killed in June 2016, June 30.

At the tender age of 21 by a speeding driver.

Daniqua's simple standing on the sidewalk when this driver jumped the curb and struck her, stealing her life and causing her family pain.

We will feel for the rest of our lives.

Safe streets mean everything to me.

I am asking the City Council to remove illegal high-speed devices from our streets.

By banning them at the point of sale, and to move forward with ending the sale of the fastest Class 3 e-bikes.

E-bikes are safe, they're legal and slow, but high-speed illegal devices

are expected that, and they have no place on our streets.

This legislation, coupled with continuing to build safe streets,

infrastructure that protects everyone from death or serious injury, will make our streets safe and prevent our families from suffering what my family does every day

since we lost Daniqua.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Hanif has a question.

Thank you.

I just wanted to express my gratitude to good neighbors of Park Slope, Kathy and Lenore for being here since 10 a.m.

And waiting.

I know that this is a lot of waiting, but I wanted to make sure that your voices are heard and it really means a lot.

To have your engagement and this engagement that you've had with my office is since the very beginning of my term in 2022.

I wanted to ask, could you talk a little bit more about what you've been hearing from neighbors around e-bike and micromobility safety and what led you all to organize around this issue specifically?

You all are spending a lot of time on this.

Well, we just hear everyone, when we're out in the street on a public event, people all say, oh yeah, I was almost hit by a bike once.

It's the unexpected behavior of going against traffic.

You're not looking for them properly.

I mean, as New Yorkers, we're pretty hyper alert.

All the time, but if we can't hear them coming, which we, e-bags are quiet and our hearing's not so great, it's,

We hear it from everybody on the street.

We also heard many bikers say, oh, really, it's not legal to ride your bike on the sidewalk?

Is that true?

Yeah, it's a pretty hefty fine.

And then as we consider enforcement proposals, I mean, you heard from WJP in terms of, you know, the PD is already sharing a ton of fines and

the amount of the paper, printed papers that we saw of the fines, I think they have available to share.

How do you think we can improve safety without creating unnecessary or disproportionate enforcement against delivery workers and other cyclists?

I think a major focus of our work is to appreciate that nobody wants to be hit, nobody necessarily wants to injure anybody else.

So we think it's really important to have a positive campaign to tell people how to be good neighbors, how to be safe on the streets, and to believe,

since nobody wants to be hurt or hurt anybody else, that over time the culture will change and people will see that safety is important.

And that requires education.

It requires good legislation for workers'rights.

And we think they're parallel concepts.

It doesn't involve one or the other.

Thank you.

We can't just think of short-term solutions.

We're thinking of long-term benefit.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

This panel is excused.

All right, next up we have Sandy Reburn, Jacqueline Savage, Deborah Farley, Elizabeth Chow, and Christina Hanley, I believe.

Oh, all right.

I'll make sure to add you guys in right now.

One second.

So more APSA.

Christina Hansen.

All right, since we have a few more seats, I'll add up Maxine DeSeda, Susan,

Susan Simon, Ron,

With Nisky, my apologies.

And then Kathleen Conry.

And, Sergeant, if we need to add an extra chair, can you please add an extra chair?

I'll start with you, Maxine.

And please turn on the mics before you speak.

Testing.