Electric bicycles and scooters soon legal in New York State

Until now, these electric devices were banned in the city of New York as in the state as a whole.

The draft law concerning the authorization of bicycles and electric scooters should be voted tomorrow, Wednesday, before being promulgated by the governor.

Electric bicycles and scooters banned since 2004

It's been 15 years since scooters and e-bikes are banished of the city that never sleeps. And since prevention is better than cure: the state's legislation New York promises $ 500 fine anyone who has fun with one of these devices, including private property.

In November 2018, the governor of the state of New York shared a first bill to review the ban on electric bicycles and scooters. If neighborhoods, such as Manhattan or the Upper East Side, have not been slow to position themselves against this bill, a new version has been worn by Senators Jessica Tamos and Nily Rozic since April.

Their project aims to to legalize three categories of electrical equipment :

• A first class with electric bikes running at a maximum of 32 km / h.
• A second class categorizing electric bikes traveling at a maximum of 32 km / h.
• Finally, a third, which categorizes e-bikes up to 40 km / h, often used by deliverymen and couriers to save time.

This bill should soon be enacted. It must first be voted on tomorrow, before the governor makes the official announcement.

The risks that this could entail

Since the end of 2017, there had been at least 1,500 people injured by scooters in the United States. With the legalization of electric bicycles and scooters, there is no doubt that this figure could still be revised upwards very quickly.

With this law, if the operators of bicycles and self-service electric scooters come to offer their services and invest the places, we could quickly find the existing mess in other big world cities.

However, thanks to their opposition to seeing these devices land, the neighborhoods of Manhattan and the Upper East Side, in particular, should not see these machines on every street corner.

Source: Electrek