> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Making Micromobility Work - URL: https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/making-micromobility-work-nyc/ - Published: 2026-09-24T13:37:29.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-24T13:37:29.000Z - Description: A new vision should make clear distinctions between different ways of getting about the city. - Author: Charles Komanoff - Tags: Streets, Transit Back when I burned with fervor for New York City bicycling, I typically took to heart my occasional run-ins with fellow New Yorkers. If a pedestrian snarled at me for coming too close, I would loudly proclaim my right of way. When I was at fault, I would call out, “Sorry!” Encounters with motorists were and still are different. Cyclists like me inhabit their space on vastly unequal terms. I have a trove of stories in which drivers who cut me off apologized when I waylaid them at the light. But for each salutary moment, there have been hundreds of times I’ve been left shaking, with no recourse. When a bicyclist or pedestrian’s joust with a car or truck goes wrong, it’s not just unpleasant. It’s an instant trip to the hospital or morgue. Today, a fourth element, motorized “micromobility” devices, is profoundly complicating the old equation. These powered two-wheelers — e-bikes, stand-up scooters, mini-motorcycles — are larger, heavier and faster than ordinary bicycles. Moreover, by virtue of motor power, they move differently. They’re *ridden*,but also *driven.* And there are now thousands upon thousands of them on the streets, and too often the sidewalks. Motorized micromobility isn’t one single thing. It’s a spectrum with sub-spectrums. E-bikes include not just the ubiquitous silver Citi Bikes, use of which has nearly quadrupled in just four years, but also *deliverista* bicycles, which themselves divide into e-assist bikes and throttle-controlled machines that dispense with pedaling. Stand-up scooters range from spindly rentals weighing little more than a clunker bicycle, to high-end devices clocking in at nearly 100 pounds. More extreme still are “e-motos” — electric motorcycles that,[ one online dealer](https://www.citygrounds.com/collections/e-moto-1?ref=vitalcitynyc.org) hypes, “combine lightweight motocross-inspired handling with instant electric torque, creating an exciting way to ride on two wheels.” Like jet skis on land. In auto-dominated San Jose, say, or Atlanta, micromobility’s claim to promote independence from cars holds up. Parents exult that their kid’s e-bike has finally freed them from chauffeur duty. But in New York, things work differently. Tweens’ rite of passage is navigating the subway with a pal. Micromobility here sometimes replaces traffic but mostly adds a layer — and an often unruly one at that. In a post here last year,[ I extolled](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/safe-only-at-certain-speeds/) e-bikes’ potential to unlock cycling’s door-to-door utility for outer-borough residents stuck with tortuous transit routes but daunted by cycling’s physical demands. The reality has been less emancipating. Users of motorized micromobility — who are now by law[ limited to 15 mph](https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/ebikes.shtml?ref=vitalcitynyc.org), but habitually go far faster — seem more interested in the extra speed than in disentangling gnarly commutes. And speed isn’t the only disruptor. The very act of pedaling that made most traditional cyclists attentive and responsive is missing from throttle bikes and e-motos. The resulting quality of disregard is doubtless a big reason micromobility is generating widespread pushback. ### Deliveristas New York’s largest micromobility bloc is the estimated 65,000 food-delivery bicyclists known as *deliveristas*. This overwhelmingly Mexican, Central American and West African workforce found its niche during the COVID pandemic and, aided by [skillful organizing](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/22/nyregion/doordash-settlement-delivery-drivers.html?ref=vitalcitynyc.org), is assimilating, albeit slowly, into the city fabric. Almost unnoticed, red-light compliance by *deliveristas* appears to be significantly greater — I peg it north of 50% — than among any other two-wheeling sector, which I attribute to a crackdown begun in May 2025 by then-Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch that is continuing on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s watch. Two other measures could further reduce their impacts on pedestrians, other cyclists and traffic overall. One measure would surcharge longer-distance food deliveries rendered through app services like DoorDash and Uber Eats. A fee of, say,[ a dollar for each delivery-mile traveled](https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2024/11/05/komanoff-reining-in-deliverista-distances-is-the-key-to-safety?ref=vitalcitynyc.org) (less in lower-density neighborhoods) tacked on to customers’ bills would apply the successful logic of congestion pricing to the absurd proliferation of crosstown and even interborough meal orders. Total delivery mileages would diminish, easing traffic, especially in bike lanes and paths such as the Hudson River Greenway. Revenues from the mileage fee could finance *deliverista* gathering hubs like the one on the Broadway sidewalk outside City Hall that began operating last spring. The other measure would geo-fence a maximum speed of 15 mph on all electric-assisted devices on designated bike lanes and paths but grant e-bikes using ordinary traffic lanes the right to higher speeds permitted for motor vehicles. This would not only relieve bike lane crowding but also restore to traditional cyclists a modicum of the calm and safety they enjoyed before the explosion in motorized micromobility put them on constant edge. While the necessary geo-fencing tech isn’t yet available, City officials — perhaps in conjunction with the app companies — should embark on the necessary R&D. Notably, the jump in *deliverista* red-light compliance — I judge it a tripling — has triggered zero impact assessments. Are delivery cyclists suffering fewer crashes with motorists? Are they colliding less often with other cyclists and pedestrians? Are riders’ earnings, especially tips, suffering on account of slower delivery? No one knows. The data dearth speaks to deficient metrics, not just for *deliveristas*, but for motorized micromobility overall, a subject I’ll return to shortly. ### Two theories of the case Transportation Alternatives, the city’s premier bicycling-advocacy organization and an outspoken proponent of fewer cars — a group I used to lead — has been a force for street safety and sanity for most of its 50 years, and a powerhouse for the past 20\. Its theory for safer streets appears to rest on two precepts. One is that private cars and other motor vehicles are so detrimental to the city’s quality of life that restraints on two-wheelers — even powered ones — should be deferred until cars and trucks have been brought to heel. The other is that traffic conflicts and crashes should be managed and reduced primarily through improved street design rather than law enforcement or individual behavior change. (Though to its immense credit, Trans Alt, with its sister organization of traffic violence victims and survivors, Families for Safe Streets, earlier this year broke both its own street-design orthodoxy and entrenched Albany resistance to enact a law that could place[ speed-limiting devices on cars of so-called super-speeders](https://www.familiesforsafestreets.org/news/new-york-stop-super-speeders-passed-in-final-state-budget?ref=vitalcitynyc.org), multiple repeat offenders.) I disagree. The first belief, sometimes telegraphed as “first do cars,” is anachronistic. Fact is, cars and other vehicular traffic *are*, at last, coming under a modicum of social control. Congestion pricing is one such restraint. Another is lane takeaways for bikes, buses and plazas. New forms of road charging like[ universal curb pricing](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/06/09/nyregion/nyc-street-parking.html?ref=vitalcitynyc.org) could be next. A growing network of automated cameras is detecting and summonsing motorists who speed or run red lights. Driver-involved pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities in the five boroughs are[ trending historically low](https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pr2026/vision-zero-pedestrian-deaths-at-historic-low.shtml?ref=vitalcitynyc.org). It’s true that this progress remains bumpy. Last month, in the span of just 72 hours, three hardworking New Yorkers who rode e-bikes every day — an auto-mechanic dad in the Bronx, a mom in Brooklyn and a delivery worker in the same borough —[ were killed in driver hit-and-runs](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/nyregion/nyc-cycling-bike-deaths.html?ref=vitalcitynyc.org). Moreover, none of the gains I noted came easily. They required massive organizing. Still, the arc of change is unmistakable. But even so, it’s fair to ask if failure to grapple fully with public distress over micromobility could sour opinion and gum up progress. As to the second precept, I question how fast and fully street redesign alone can integrate motorized micromobility into New York’s street landscape. Even the seemingly slam-dunk infrastructure makeover of barring parked cars and trucks near intersections to open up sightlines to reduce crashes — a measure known as daylighting — will take decades at the stepped-up pace promised last week by Mamdani. Design and placement of new street treatments is one hurdle; the inevitable battles over parking spaces are another. The same obstacles loom for other street reapportionments. Not only that, the mobility devices themselves are perhaps too inherently anarchic for a citizenry clamoring for order. There will have to be laws and norms, which will require more from City officials, especially police. And that’s where things go south. ### Making cops care more Ask a random New York City bike-rider their biggest gripe about traffic policing, and they may well point to the NYPD’s tone-deaf penchant for flooding intersections where a driver has recently run over a law-abiding cyclist ... and ticketing passing cyclists for[ absent handlebar bells](https://komanoff.net/bicycle/Daily%5FNews%5Fbike%5Fbells%5Foped.php?ref=vitalcitynyc.org). Here’s another: the NYPD spurning pleas from street-safety watchdogs to be allowed access to the hundreds of forensic analyses of Killed and Serious Injury (KSI) crashes that the department’s Collision Investigation Squad writes each year. Only victims’ attorneys get to see these reports. A powerful lens into how harms actually unfold on our sidewalks, roads and streets lies dormant. From[ glimpses of KSI reports](https://www.komanoff.net/cars%5FI/OnlyGoodCyclist.pdf?ref=vitalcitynyc.org) decades ago, I can attest to their power to unspool deadly crashes. These forensics are even more valuable today, amid rampant micromobility confusion. Specialists and the public alike could better understand how excessive speed, vehicle bulk and operator negligence bring traffic tragedies. Safer street designs, devices and rules could follow. Yet the NYPD is checked out. The vigilance that police marshal against conventional crimes has rarely applied to traffic violence. Whether because of culture wars (suburban-minded officers vs. car-disdaining urbanites) or self-dealing (cops’ private vehicles[ rack up](https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2023/02/01/are-police-disciplining-cops-who-deface-their-plates-who-knows?ref=vitalcitynyc.org) way more speeding and red-light violations than most civilian cars), in[ 40 years of monitoring](https://www.komanoff.net/cars%5FI/RoW%5FHistory%5Fcolumns.pdf?ref=vitalcitynyc.org) traffic injury and death, I’ve seen only sporadic willingness by police to lock in on traffic violence. Enmeshing the police force in street safety might best be started with data. Circulating the KSI reports is a painless way to begin, and annual digests distilling key findings could follow. Precinct commanders could be directed to compile and report traffic crashes and injuries quarterly, as a prelude to being held accountable for reducing those figures over time. Arm-twisting from the mayor may be required as well. As street-safety commentator (and *Vital City* contributor) Nicole Gelinas[ pointed out on X](https://x.com/nicolegelinas/status/2100030072610599409?ref=vitalcitynyc.org), the dozen or more city commissioners appearing at the mayor’s “Vision Zero Reimagined” rollout this month did not include Police Commissioner Tisch. At that event, no NYPD official spoke to reporters,[ according to Streetsblog](https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/09/15/vision-zero-report-2026-mayor-zohran-mamdani-street-safety-dot?ref=vitalcitynyc.org). ### The mayor and the Council Motorized micromobility and street safety are going to be deliberated at an[ omnibus City Council hearing](https://council.nyc.gov/press/2026/08/04/3202/?ref=vitalcitynyc.org) next Wednesday, Sept. 30\. Council members have introduced 17 bills, per[ this rundown in the “livable streets” news site Streetsblog](https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/08/06/a-list-of-julie-menins-e-bike-bills?commentID=f109f74a-1613-4a9d-8ac4-78c55b5127c0&ref=vitalcitynyc.org). “Every New Yorker deserves to cross the street without fear, every rider deserves to know the device they purchase is safe to use, and every delivery worker deserves to make a living without being pushed to ride dangerously,”[ declared](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXZxHoTWweE&ref=vitalcitynyc.org) Majority Leader Shaun Abreu, who chairs the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Yet belying the rhetoric, most of the pending bills are small-bore, nibbling at the edges with no discernible street safety schema. The lone exception,[ Intro 244](https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/View.ashx?M=F&ID=15190882&GUID=C68D4C10-8EB9-48C3-A9CE-AF0B507626C8&ref=vitalcitynyc.org), prohibiting sale and rental of Class 3 two-wheelers — essentially, e-motos — has 27 sponsors, a supermajority, as well as the backing of Transportation Alternatives. The Mamdani administration, meanwhile, is taking a complementary tack. Its street safety plan, released to great fanfare in mid-September as[ Vision Zero Reimagined](https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/09/mayor-mamdani-unveilsvision-zero-reimagined-to-make-streets-safe?ref=vitalcitynyc.org), is nothing if not holistic. Its 100-plus pages[ run the gamut](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/nyregion/mamdani-street-safety-vision-zero-reimagined.html?ref=vitalcitynyc.org) from carving out new pedestrianized areas to creating 15-mph speed zones around hundreds of schools. The document also commits to two items long sought by street-safety advocates: installing[ automatic speed-limiters](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/nyregion/nyc-speed-limiters-cars-frequent-speeders.html?ref=vitalcitynyc.org) on cars of repeat speeding offenders, and studying the feasibility of imposing higher tolls on super-sized passenger vehicles. While the City Hall report is impressive on its face, it comes with three major caveats. It is vague on specifics, lacking, for example, locations for the daylighted intersections and slow-speed zones. It doesn’t appear to enjoy buy-in from the NYPD. And on micromobility, the report is a case study in pablum: “E-micromobility is essential to reducing car dependence, cutting emissions, and expanding affordable travel options,” the report intones. “But its growth must be safe and well-regulated. The City will ... hold delivery platforms accountable for unsafe practices ... expand bike and e-scooter ... safety training, align e-bike rules with national and international standards ...” Yawn. The nod to “dedicated enforcement” is, well, a nod. In a further telltale, the report calls for “transitioning delivery workers to micromobility devices capable of traveling no more than 20 mph,” making no mention of the existing — and[ essential](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/safe-only-at-certain-speeds/) — 15 mph limit in bicycle lanes and on bike paths used by non-motorized and other slower-speed cyclists. Here is where the City Council can help. At its Sept. 30 hearing it can take steps to fill the information vacuum on motorized micromobility usage, costs and benefits. At a minimum, the Council should order up an assessment of the potential drop in traffic stress from a city surcharge on longer-distance food deliveries. The Council could also direct the NYPD to create an information portal to its Collision Investigation Squad crash forensics, and to report quarterly vehicle crashes by precinct. The city Department of Transportation should be instructed to compile neighborhood-level estimates of motorized micromobility trips by purpose and demographics. Without those metrics, comparing crash and injury numbers between different modes and from one year to the next is a fool’s errand, on account of rapid changes between, say, traditional pedal cycling and various forms of motor-assisted cycling. DOT should also probe Citi Bike[ pricing](https://hellgatenyc.com/lyft-made-24-million-off-citi-bike-last-year/?ref=vitalcitynyc.org), which has risen many times faster than general inflation, and should conduct or commission a feasibility analysis of geo-fencing speed limits on bicycle lanes and paths. The Council could also direct DOT to streamline its procedures for installing bus lanes, bicycle lanes and intersection daylighting, and to create a motorized micromobility analysis and policy group to conduct the reviews outlined here. Mamdani, of course, is an inveterate Citi Bike rider; a[ close-up of his smartphone](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fmamdani-citibike-stats-v0-kezfb4mp8vwg1.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D1916%26format%3Dpjpg%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dbb74b1468bd16414c2966953a0e2744204561353&ref=vitalcitynyc.org) taken before his election last year shows more than 3,000 miles logged on the Citi Bike app, and an average speed under 7 mph — bros take note! As the city’s chief executive, he can lead on street safety and sanity alike by paring the city’s fleet of official cars, shrinking the City Hall parking lot and[ eliminating parking placards for good](https://x.com/StreetsblogNYC/status/2096591834147418536?ref=vitalcitynyc.org). Mayor Mamdani should also instruct City agencies to monitor senior staff’s official travel by car and non-car modes. And he should stand with crash survivors and victims’ families, whatever vehicle injured or killed them. “Sewer socialism” isn’t just improving sanitation and delivering efficient municipal services — as vital as those are. It embodies universal access to the public realm. As Paul Goldberger recently[ reminded us](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/opinion/ground-zero-world-trade-center-rebuilding.html?ref=vitalcitynyc.org), the fundamental building block of the city isn’t the building — it’s the street. Renowned New York bicycle inventor[ George Bliss](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George%5FBliss%5F%28pedicab%5Fdesigner%29?ref=vitalcitynyc.org) once remarked that among all forms of travel, the bicycle best harmonizes mobility with community. A mayor who can democratize that vision — if need be with modest electric assist — will have earned the right to be lionized alongside La Guardia.