E-bike laws need enforcement

Dear Editor,

In response to Councilwoman Susan Siegel’s opinion column in the Aug. 6 issue ("Bike & E-bike safety need the Town Board's attention," Page 26), I am wholeheartedly in favor of some common sense restrictions and enforcement on the use of e-bikes and e-scooters in Yorktown.

They seem to outnumber traditional bikes, and the majority of them appear to be operated by kids who most certainly are not obeying any laws governing their use.

Siegel cited New York’s V&T Law that e-bike users must be at least 16 years of age. Anyone here in Yorktown can plainly see there are plenty of younger kids riding around town.

The law restricts what roads they can ride on and at what speed.

I regularly observe kids riding on any and all town roads, including the busiest intersections in downtown. Often they ride down the roads, in traffic, as if they were licensed vehicles. And they are going fast enough to keep up with and sometimes surpass, traffic.

The law prohibits their use on sidewalks. This prohibition is certainly being ignored. While the sidewalk may be safer for these young e-bike riders than riding in traffic on the road, it is certainly more dangerous for pedestrians on the sidewalks – especially at the speeds these kids ride.

I work in a store in the Yorktown Green shopping center and it is commonplace for kids on e-bikes and scooters to ride on the sidewalk in front of the stores. I have personally witnessed multiple occasions when customers exiting the store have had to take evasive action to avoid being hit.

Ms. Siegel very accurately summed it up when she stated: “Put simply, a law is meaningless if it is not enforced.”

Personally, I am not advocating for a ban on e-bikes. When I was young, I had a small motorcycle that had a top speed of about 35 miles per hour, but I rode it off road in fields and on trails. Both I and the motorcycle were unlicensed and therefore not allowed on roads at all. Such a motorcycle would still be illegal on the road today. But these e-bikes, some of which go faster than 30 miles per hour, and being operated by underage and unlicensed drivers are OK running all over town?? How does that make sense?

-David Humphrey, Yorktown Heights