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‘Inevitable carnage’: Cyclists shaken after bloody scooter crash on Manhattan Bridge
By
Charles Lane
Published Jul 28, 2023
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By
Charles Lane
Published Jul 28, 2023
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A collision of scooter and e-bike riders on the Manhattan Bridge bicycle path left four people injured and the cycling community shaken as traditional cyclists increasingly share precious riding real estate with motorized bikes and scooters.
According to the FDNY, four “electric scooter” riders collided at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday and were taken to the hospital with unspecified injuries. But bikers on the bridge at the time describe a much more horrifying scene — one that involved e-bikes and electric scooters traveling at unsafe speeds and a collision that left a trail of blood and wreckage more than twenty feet long.
“Inevitable carnage,” Lucas Freshman, an emergency room nurse, described it. “As shaken up by it as I still am, twelve or sixteen hours later, the sad feeling I have is that I'm not surprised by this happening.”
Freshman posted his account on Reddit and New York’s biking community responded with fear and concern about what they see as the unregulated threat of scooters.
“You're in survival mode just to do your things like get to work and get to school,” Freshman said.
Derrick Chan, also a nurse who arrived on the scene while commuting to work, said the crash involved both electric mopeds and e-bikes.
“It was very obviously a high speed, I mean a very high speed crash,” he said. “There was just this massive pool of blood streaming down the bridge.”
Freshman, Chan, and many Reddit users said they were frustrated at the number of unsafe e-scooter riders on bicycle paths and sidewalks. Electric scooters are not permitted on the city’s bridges.
“We know what the laws are, the laws are very obvious,” Chan said. “Why is there no enforcement?”
The NYPD said it was unaware of the crash and did not answer questions about a possible investigation. When asked about enforcement of scooters on the bridges, the department emailed a link to its main Twitter feed.
The Department of Transportation declined to respond to questions about the incident on the record, but an agency spokesperson said the NYPD was responsible for enforcement.
“I don't think an occasional ticketing sting is going to change practices at the scale that we need,” Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who represents parts of Brooklyn, said in an interview. “It's the lack of e-bike infrastructure in New York City that has pushed deliveristas to mopeds.”
Restler defended moped and scooter riders as underpaid workers pushed by delivery apps that incentivize unsafe practices. He wants the Adams administration to build better infrastructure for charging and storing e-bikes. “The goal should not be to make [delivery workers'] lives harder, but rather to incentivize them and make it easier for them to get around safely.”
The City Council’s recent focus on e-bike safety has been on the fire danger of batteries. Legislation has been proposed to ensure all powered bicycles are licensed and insured and for delivery workers to be paid in a way that doesn't encourage unsafe riding, but neither bill has been acted on.
The DOT has specific classes of e-bikes and mopeds and registration requirements, however the NYPD says enforcement is difficult and time consuming.
Cyclists are asking for more to be done.
“What do we need to do to get politicians to pay attention to this?” asked Alex Ritter, who says the Manhattan Bridge in particular as become particularly dangerous. “I see the government and police not really do anything to help ... is there anything I can do to help?”
Tagged
public safety
manhattan
brooklyn
e-bikes
e-scooters
transportation
Charles Lane
Charles is a Day-of reporter focused on breaking news and enterprise. He’s very friendly and can be reached at [email protected], or more securely on whatsapp/signal 631-295-6715
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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