Battery storage. Solar farms. Garbage transfer stations. Cell towers. Car washes. The list of quality-of-life issues that impact our daily lives, and are decided by our Town Board, keeps growing. Now add bicycle safety to the list — especially e-bikes.
In response to the growing use of e-bikes and concerns about how they interact with pedestrians and motorists, the Town Board has been asked to look into the issue of bicycle safety: What can, or should, the board do to ensure the safety of pedestrians, e-bike users, and motorists alike?
Although recent attention has centered on e-bikes, the board also needs to address safety issues involving standard bicycles. Long before e-bikes existed, Yorktown officials knew there was a problem with the unsafe use of standard bicycles, mostly on sidewalks in the hamlets and around the track at the Jack DeVito Veterans Memorial Field.
A Town Board response to bicycle safety — for both e-bikes and standard bicycles — requires a comprehensive, coordinated, three-pronged approach.
Education: Making sure that cyclists know – and follow – safety guidelines and the laws governing their use.
Laws: The New York State Vehicle & Traffic Law (V&T) regulates both standard bicycles and e-bikes, although the e-bike law also allows local municipalities to adopt additional regulations in certain areas.
Enforcement: Put simply, a law is meaningless if it is not enforced.
The Town has already taken a first step. As reported in last month’s Yorktown News, the Police Department has created a bicycle unit whose initial task is community outreach — ensuring that cyclists ─ and their parents ─ are familiar with safe riding habits and the state, county and town laws that govern all types of bicycles. These outreach efforts will include, but are not limited to, working with the town’s two school districts and Scouting groups, having bike unit officers attend community events to distribute bicycle safety literature, and using social media.
E-bikes: New York’s V&T law establishes three classes of e-bikes and regulates the use of each class. (Class 3 e-bikes are only allowed in New York City.) For all classes, the law requires e-bike users to be at least 16 years of age, restricts what roads they can ride on and at what speed, and prohibits their use on sidewalks and on public lands such as parks and trails.
But — the state law includes a special provision for Westchester County that gives the county the first opportunity to change some of the state regulations, such as age, helmets, and hours of operation — except — that municipalities can, independent of any county regulation, limit e-bike use in specified areas of municipal concern, such as sidewalks and public lands. But, if Westchester County doesn’t change the state’s regulations, which it hasn’t, Yorktown can’t change them.
The county’s only e-bike regulation allows Class 1 e-bikes on the Bronx River Parkway during Bicycle Sundays. E-bikes are prohibited on the North and South County trails and in all county parks.
That leaves Yorktown with a limited, but still important, list of what it can regulate. For example, Yorktown could prohibit e-bikes on all sidewalks, or only on sidewalks in the hamlets. It could also allow them in some recreational facilities but not others — for instance, prohibiting e-bikes at the DeVito Veterans Memorial Field and playgrounds, while allowing them in certain parks or on certain trails.
Standard bicycles: Contrary to what was said at a recent Town Board meeting, state law does not prohibit standard bicycles on sidewalks. Currently, Yorktown has no local law that prohibits bicycles on sidewalks. Nor is there a law regulating their use in our parks and other recreational facilities. It’s time this omission was addressed.
E-bikes: Violations of the NYS law carry a $50 fine — except that if the violator is under 16, police can issue a summons only to the rider’s parent or guardian, and only if that parent or guardian is present when the violation occurs — which is unlikely. Yorktown cannot change the fine.
Standard bicycles: Since there’s no law, there’s nothing to enforce. Laws, not signs, are enforceable. Cyclists violating the “No bicycle” signs at the track cannot be fined.
To be clear, I don’t believe anyone on the Town Board wants to ban e-bikes. If anything, the board wants to encourage the safe use of all types of bicycles. Safe for everyone. That’s why we’re exploring where bike lanes can be added in the Yorktown Heights hamlet and why we’ve launched an aggressive safety education program. But there’s more we can do.
In addition to a strong ongoing educational outreach program, some legislation is needed for both e-bikes and standard bicycles. And before drafting any new legislation, the board needs to hear from cyclists and non-cyclists alike: what regulations, if any, do they think are needed to promote bicycle safety while remaining consistent with state law? We also need to review all our recreational facilities and decide where e-bikes and/or standard bicycles should be allowed or prohibited.
We need to find the right balance — the sweet spot — between ensuring safe cycling for everyone and encouraging and facilitating cycling. It’s a doable task — if we try. So let’s get to work.
Susan Siegel is a member of the Yorktown Town Board.
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