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NYC delivery workers fear e-bike bills would bring more police stops, racial profiling
By
Carol Chen
Published Sep 30, 2026
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Carol Chen / Gothamist
By
Carol Chen
Published Sep 30, 2026
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More than 75 delivery workers flooded City Hall on Wednesday to push back on a package of e-bike bills they feared would lead to an aggressive police crackdown and cost them the bikes they rely on to make a living.
The City Council held a hearing on 21 bills and 2 resolutions that aimed to rein in the growing ecosystem of electric two-wheelers on New York City’s streets. Council Speaker Julie Menin called the hearing after a summer of deadly crashes involving e-bikes, scooters and mopeds. Department of Transportation data shows 17 e-bike riders have died in crashes so far this year, up from 12 at the same point in 2025.
Councilmember Shaun Abreu, who chairs the transportation committee, said the legislation offered a "two-pronged" approach, with one set of bills designed to add new rules around bikes in the city and another that aims to hold delivery services more accountable.
One of the bills would ban the sale and rental of ”class 3” e-bikes commonly used by delivery workers. Many of those bikes have throttles and can travel faster than 20 mph. The current speed limit for e-bikes is 15 mph. Other bills would prohibit stores from advertising vehicles that legally require registration, like mopeds and e-motos, as if they were e-bikes or e-scooters, and create a trade-in program to swap illegal bikes for legal ones.
Another set of bills would target delivery apps that Abreu said set tight deadlines that push workers to speed.
The advocacy group Workers Justice Project said they supported parts of the legislative package, including bills that would hold delivery apps accountable and make them hand over trip data. However, they said some parts of the legislation would lead to more police enforcement of delivery workers.
Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Workers' Justice Project, took issue with one bill that would allow the NYPD and DOT to use special machines to test whether e-bikes are illegally fast and seize them if they don’t comply with city regulations. "To address a workplace safety issue, we don't deploy the cops," said Guallpa. "This bill will only intensify e-bike confiscation, racial profiling, massive deactivations, without addressing the infrastructure, the regulation, the lack of worker protections that workers need."
Workers say enforcement has already been mounting. NYPD officers wrote 55% more moving violations to e-bike riders over the first eight months of 2026 compared to the same period last year. Police seized 973 e-bikes over the period, twice as many as last year, according to city data. Some workers said they already pay more than $2,000 a month on traffic tickets and have to spend over $3,000 when the police confiscate their bikes, said Guallpa.
Cellou Balde, 20, a delivery driver, said the apps push workers to speed with tight deadlines and bundled orders. "You have to choose your safety or losing your income," he said. The real solution, he said, is to regulate the apps.
"We want street safety more than anybody else," he said, "because I'm outside risking my life."
The NYC E-Vehicle Safety Alliance, an advocacy group for regulating e-bikes and mopeds, said the legislation didn’t go far enough in cracking down on e-bikes
"It will no doubt have some impact, but it will be insufficient and misdirected," said Renee Baruch, 78, who was hospitalized in 2023 after she was struck by an e-bike rider on the Upper West Side.
The Alliance called on the state to pass “Priscilla’s Law,” which would require e-bikes to have license plates. Lawmakers in New Jersey imposed a similar requirement earlier this year.
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new york city
public safety
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Carol Chen
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