http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/exclusive-police-crackdown-illegal-scooters-article-1.2279900 EXCLUSIVE: Police begin crackdown on illegal scooters and electric bikes BY Molly Crane-newman , Thomas Tracy July 3, 2015
[image / Kendall Rodriguez/Kendall Rodriguez http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2279899.1435879110!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_635/scooter3n-1-web.jpg Riding a scooter can now result in a ticket and police seizing the vehicle. If the scooter is used for a delivery, the restaurant owner or manager will be slapped with a summons. ] Buzz off! The NYPD has begun a crackdown on illegal electric bikes and the restaurants that use them, according to internal documents reviewed by the Daily News. Cops have been given orders on how to issue tickets and seize the scooters seen buzzing up and down city streets and sidewalks. The goal is to increase “public safety by enforcing laws pertaining to the use of motorized scooters/electric bikes,” the NYPD documents show. The electric bikes or e-bikes, which are powered by both pedals and small electric motors, can’t be registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles, police said, meaning they’re illegal on city streets and sidewalks. “Technically they can’t be registered and they can’t be considered bicycles because they are not solely powered by human power,” said a high-ranking NYPD source. “It’s a problem that we get a lot of complaints about. We try to confiscate them as soon as we see them.” Police officers are being told to give environmental control board violations for riding a motorized scooter in New York City — which comes with a stiff $500 fine. If those operating the e-bikes are seen driving on the sidewalks or ignoring traffic signals, they may face motor vehicle operations as well, the orders state. If a scooter is being used by a delivery person, cops are ordered to locate the employee’s restaurant and issue a summons to “the manager or owner of (the) business who has knowledge of the employee’s actions.” Some residents hailed the initiative, claiming that the electric bike riders are out of control. “They’re always going the wrong way,” said Mark Barbian, 58, of Park Slope, Brooklyn. “We live on a one-way street and there’s a couple restaurants up on the corner, and when they deliver, they come up the wrong way quite often. I don’t want to hit them (with my car).” Some restaurant owners were outraged by the initiative, claiming the electric bikes are essential to their business. “We will have to stop delivering,” said Rahman Maksedur, 26, the manager of the Kinara Indian Restaurant on Fifth Ave. in Park Slope. “(Without them) we couldn’t go too far away. We would go like five blocks or six blocks.” [© nydailynews.com] % CA registers them as mopeds, but NY laws are archaic: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/motorcycles/motorcycles A "motorized bicycle" or "moped" is: A two or three-wheeled device, capable of no more than 30 mph on level ground, and equipped with: ... - An electric motor, with or without pedals for human propulsion. (CVC §406(a)) http://dmv.ny.gov/registration/motorized-devices-cannot-be-registered-new-york Motorized devices that cannot be registered in New York ... % For EVLN posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-NYPD-busting-seizing-escooters-ebicycles-tp4676708.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
