Citing ‘emergency threat to life,’ Adams orders Citi Bike e-bikes be limited to 15 mph

Mayor Eric Adams’ administration demanded Thursday that Citi Bike restrict its fleet of popular gray e-bikes to 15 mph, writing that the current state of the roads represented “an emergency threat to life and property.”

The letter from Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro and the transportation department amounted to a rejection of Lyft’s plan to add speedometers to their fleet of 15,000 e-bikes. The company, which owns and operates Citi Bike, said it is now reversing course.

The aggressive move to impose the new e-bike speed limit, which Adams announced late Wednesday afternoon, is another sign of Mastro’s power in the administration. He’s already pushed for the return of ICE agents onto Rikers Island, delayed the destruction of the Elizabeth Street Garden on the Lower East Side and given small landlords a reprieve from composting fines.

Mastro wrote to Lyft CEO David Risher that the “lack of action” addressing public safety problems surrounding e-bikes was “hindering the city’s ability to advance bike lane and micromobility infrastructure and safety across the city.”

The electric Citi Bikes, Mastro wrote, are more dangerous than their pedal-powered counterparts. In 2021, there were nine deaths on gray e-bikes and two on the blue traditional ones. There were 1,170 Citi Bike e-bike injuries, and 236 injuries on pedal-powered bikes in the same period, according to the letter.

“We have requested that you immediately implement this new 15 mph speed limit for Citi Bike e-bikes, and you declined to do so. We therefore have determined that an emergency threat to life and property exists,” Mastro wrote.

Citi Bike said it would comply with Mastro’s demand.

“We’ve received direction from City Hall and DOT to cap Citi Bike pedal-assist speeds at 15MPH. We’re working to meet that mandate and best serve our riders,” Citi Bike general manager Patrick Knoth wrote in a statement.

Knoth previously said the company was “deeply concerned” about the speed limit proposal.

Gray e-Citi Bikes can travel up to 18 mph, but do not have speedometers that would allow a rider to know if they’re exceeding the mayor’s new speed limit.

A spokesperson for Lyft said the company was only informed of the plan by the city transportation department on Tuesday. The company was never invited to speak about the rule with the mayor’s office, the spokesperson said. Mastro ordered Citi Bike to cap speeds of its e-bike fleet by June 20, while acknowledging the broader speed limit proposal needed to go through the city’s “rulemaking process.”

The mayor’s office said they planned to publish a notice of the new rule Thursday, which, after five business days, will spark a process to collect public comments and feedback on the speed limit. The mandate could be finalized by the end of July.

Citi Bike representatives did not say whether the cost of complying with Adams’ directive would result in a fare increase.

According to Citi Bike ridership data, 69% of all the system’s rides in May were on e-bikes. Representatives for the company said the system’s e-bike ridership for members has more than tripled over the last three years.

City Hall did not immediately confirm what the penalty would be for exceeding the speed limit.

Adams’ order comes less than two weeks after a 3-year-old girl in South Williamsburg was injured after she was struck by an e-bike rider in the Bedford Avenue bike lane. Members of the neighborhood’s Orthodox Jewish community have long protested the bike lane on the street — and have also called on Adams in recent months to crack down on e-bike drivers, who are predominantly delivery workers. Adams, who is seeking reelection as an independent, recently held a town hall in Williamsburg that featured complaints about the bike lane.

NYPD officers in recent weeks have cracked down on regular bike riders, issuing criminal summonses to cyclists accused of disobeying traffic rules.

It was not entirely clear if the mayor had legal authority to abruptly mandate a new speed limit for e-bikes without sign-off from the City Council or state lawmakers. A spokesperson for Adams argued the mayor has the power to do so thanks to Sammy’s Law, a state law passed last year that allowed city officials to lower the speed limit for cars on most streets from 25 to 20 mph.

Adams’ spokesperson Allison Maser said there’s a carveout in the law for e-bikes and e-scooters that allows the mayor to set the new speed limit without needing state approval.

Current New York state law allows for pedal-assist bikes — like the Citi Bike’s e-bikes — to travel at speeds up to 20 mph. Maser also argued the city’s authority allows for the mayor to limit speeds on operators in city streets, pointing to a 15 mph speed limit the city DOT set last year for electric cargo bikes.

Ben Furnas, executive director of transit advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, condemned the plan.

“A 15 mph speed limit on e-bikes and no other vehicles is half-baked and ill-conceived,” Furnas wrote in a statement. “Bikes and cars sharing the same road would be subject to different speed limits and consequences — and those consequences would be inverse to the potential for harm.”

This story has been updated with new information.