A 77-year-old man died Monday after his e-bike collided head-on with another cyclist in the protected bike lane on Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn, police said. The crash happened just before 2:30 p.m. outside the Hilton hotel near Smith and Schermerhorn streets, according to authorities. The man suffered serious injuries and was later pronounced dead at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.
According to News12 New York, the man was riding an e-bike with pedals northbound in the bike lane when he lost control and collided with a 47-year-old cyclist heading in the opposite direction, per the NYPD. The 47-year-old was not hurt and stayed at the scene, police told the outlet. As of Monday night, the victim's identity had not been released, and no charges had been filed in connection with the crash.
A Bidirectional Lane Built to Prevent Exactly This Kind of Collision
The stretch of Schermerhorn Street where the crash occurred is part of a bike lane redesign the city completed in October 2022, when the Department of Transportation converted the corridor to one-way vehicle traffic to make room for a 10-foot-wide, two-way protected bike lane on the south side of the street, according to 6sqft. The project was meant to shield cyclists from car traffic and illegal parking along a corridor local officials and advocates had previously called one of Brooklyn's most dangerous for cyclists. But a bidirectional design means riders traveling in opposite directions share a single narrow lane, a layout that can turn survivable near-misses into head-on collisions when a rider loses control.
The lane sits within a bike network that has grown more connected in recent days. On September 1, the DOT opened a redesigned stretch of Ashland Place in Downtown Brooklyn, linking the Schermerhorn Street lane to a continuous 5.5-mile protected cycling route running from Sunset Park to DUMBO, per NYC DOT. Schermerhorn Street has also seen prior safety conflicts even with physical protections in place: in June, an NYPD officer turning across the protected bike lane struck a cyclist at an intersection where the barriers give way to painted lane lines, according to Road.cc.
E-Bike Crashes Are Climbing Citywide Even as Speed Limits Tighten
Monday's crash comes as New York City grapples with a sharp rise in e-bike collisions. The City Council reported in August that more than 500 e-bike collisions occurred citywide in the first seven months of 2026, a 31.7 percent jump over the same period in 2025, according to figures cited by the Abaev Law Firm. The council has scheduled a hearing for September 30 to consider 17 new safety proposals aimed at addressing the surge.
New York City instituted a citywide 15 mph speed limit for e-bikes, e-scooters, and pedal-assist bicycles effective October 24, 2025, an administrative rule enacted by Mayor Eric Adams to align local micromobility speeds with European Union safety standards, per the NYC Mayor's Office. Under state law, e-bike riders must be at least 16 years old, but no license, registration, or plate is required to operate one. Citywide, NYPD collision data analyzed by the DOT shows that 54 percent of e-bike fatalities between 2017 and 2025 involved high-speed vehicles capable of exceeding 25 mph, according to Streetsblog NYC, which noted that e-bike-involved collisions have caused 134 deaths and 17,434 injuries citywide between 2019 and 2026.
Brooklyn already leads all five boroughs in bicycle crashes. A 2026 analysis of city traffic data found the borough recorded 1,485 cyclist injuries and eight deaths in 2024, accounting for 29 percent of all citywide cycling injuries, per Richman Law. Despite recent redesigns, the area around Schermerhorn Street remains a known trouble spot: a school-zone safety report in August ranked Khalil Gibran International Academy at 382 Schermerhorn Street third among the city's most dangerous school zones, logging 177 crashes and 64 injuries from 2021 to 2026, according to the Abaev Law Firm.
Monday's fatality adds to a string of recent micromobility deaths across Brooklyn that Hoodline has covered in recent months, including an e-bike rider killed in Fort Greene and a Flatlands cyclist killed by a fleeing driver. No charges had been filed as of Monday night, and police have not released the identity of the man who died.
