Op-Ed: NYC E-Bike Registration Bill ‘Regressive,’ ‘Practically Useless’

In an op-ed in Streetsblog NYC, Shabazz Stuart argues that a proposed e-bike registration bill would be ineffective.

Stuart writes, “I’ve spent most of my career managing public space at the city’s third-largest Business Improvement District and championing the creation of a regional secure bike parking and charging network with my company, Oonee. As such, I can promise that if this bill becomes law, not only will it fail to achieve its own stated goals, it will stand alone as one of the most regressive urban transportation policies of the 21st century.”

Stuart notes that bike advocates have for decades been calling for more protected bike lanes and other infrastructure that makes it safe for people to ride e-bikes on city streets and not on sidewalks. Requiring all powered bikes, scooters, and other devices including motorized wheelchairs to be registered would be “expensive, difficult to enforce, prejudicial and practically useless.”

Other cities that have attempted bike registration programs have ended them, Stuart points out. “Registration mandates are notoriously difficult to enforce at almost every level of government. The federal government intended Real IDs to be the FAA standard in 2008, but the program suffered from low compliance, even with the full muscle of state DMVs and the specter of not being able to fly. Today, only 56 percent of Americans have converted, 19 years after the original goal of 100 percent.”