New York State Senator Kristen Gonzalez and Assemblymember Diana Moreno were set to announce legislation Wednesday that would prohibit retailers from selling e-bikes or e-scooters capable of exceeding 20 mph, with civil penalties reaching $1,000 for every prohibited sale. The lawmakers chose a deliberate backdrop for their announcement: the Queens side of the Queensboro Bridge, where a high-speed crash left two people dead earlier this year.
According to CBS News New York, the bill's rollout was planned for the bridge site, where lawmakers and safety advocates were set to gather. The location was not incidental. On May 28, a head-on crash on the bridge's bike path killed a 35-year-old cyclist and a 39-year-old scooter rider who was operating an illegal e-scooter capable of reaching 53 mph, according to Streetsblog New York City. That crash has become a touchstone for lawmakers pushing to keep unregistered, high-powered devices off city streets.
A Shift From Policing Riders to Policing Sellers
The state bill builds directly on groundwork laid by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who on August 5 issued cease-and-desist orders to 42 online retailers — including Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy — demanding they stop shipping non-compliant high-speed e-bikes to city addresses by August 18 or face fines up to $2,000 per violation, the CBS report notes. New York Attorney General Letitia James added her own weight to the effort on July 31, issuing a formal consumer alert warning that marketing or selling motorized vehicles exceeding state speed or power limits under the label e-bike or e-scooter violates New York consumer protection laws.
Rather than relying solely on police enforcement against individual delivery workers and commuters, lawmakers and executive officials are moving upstream to penalize the retailers selling illegal high-speed devices, per the same account. That approach dovetails with a policy shift Mamdani made in March, when he directed the NYPD to stop issuing criminal court summonses to e-bike riders for low-level traffic offenses.
The Numbers Behind the Push
The scale of the problem is laid out in city data. Illegal e-bikes capable of exceeding 25 mph were involved in 45 rider fatalities between 2017 and 2025, accounting for 54% of all e-bike rider deaths in the city over that period, according to New York City Mayor's Office data reported by Bicycle Retailer and Industry News. Collisions have also spiked more broadly: New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin reported in August that e-bike and e-scooter collisions rose more than 30% year-over-year, topping 500 recorded incidents in just the first seven months of 2026, according to FOX 5 NY.
State law already draws a firm line between legal e-bikes and the illegal e-motos the new bill targets. Under New York Vehicle and Traffic Law § 102-c, legal e-bikes must have operable pedals and motors capped at 750 watts, with assistance cutting off at 20 mph for Class 1 and Class 2 models statewide, or 25 mph for Class 3 models in New York City, according to Greenstein & Pittari LLP. The city separately caps e-bike speeds at 15 mph in bike lanes and park drives. Devices that exceed the bill's 20-mph sales threshold are the products the new legislation addresses.
Battery Fires Add Another Layer of Risk
Beyond crash risk, battery fires add another layer of risk citywide, underscoring why officials are pursuing safety measures on multiple fronts at once.
E-bike and e-scooter collisions have kept pressure on lawmakers to act at both the city and state levels. Hoodline previously reported on a fatal e-bike crash in Brooklyn just over a week ago, part of a pattern of collisions that has kept pressure on lawmakers to act at both the city and state levels.
