New York Has a New E-Bike Speed Limit—and No Way to Enforce It
Scott Mace
New York Has a New E-Bike Speed Limit—and No Way to Enforce It
By Ben Raab
The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 7, 2025
New York City has an e-bike problem and no idea how to solve it.
The vehicles have taken over the city’s streets, and picked up a vocal following of haters. Critics say e-bikes are an urban menace, propelling riders to speeds that make them a danger to humans and dogs.
“We have nowhere to escape. The stress level of having to look behind, above, next to you at every sidewalk is exhausting,” said Ron Wisniski, a Hell’s Kitchen resident of 45 years.
So when Mayor Eric Adams announced a 15 mile-an-hour speed limit for e-bikes and e-scooters at a June press conference, it sounded like a step toward restoring order. Except…e-bikes usually don’t have speedometers, they don’t have vehicle registrations, and no one in the city government seemed to know the policy was coming.
“We’ll have to guess the speed, and police will have to guess, too,” said Mahamadou Balde, a delivery worker who’s biked for Uber Eats and DoorDash across Manhattan for the past year.
Without license plates, the bikes can’t be ticketed by traffic cameras.
Spokespeople for both City Hall and the city’s Transportation Department directed questions to the New York Police Department, which in turn told The Wall Street Journal to ask City Hall. Days later, City Hall said it was “actively working with the NYPD to conduct next steps on speed limit enforcement.” Both the NYPD and DOT declined to comment further.
City Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers, who chairs the transportation committee, said her office wasn’t consulted ahead of the mayor’s announcement.
Even some of the city’s most vocal e-bike critics are baffled.
“This is a gesture that means absolutely nothing,” said Janet Schroeder, director of the NYC E-Vehicle Safety Alliance and an Upper West Side resident.
“E-bikers are speeding, running red lights, they’re all over the sidewalks maiming and killing dogs and people.” One of her group members’ dog died after it was struck by an e-bike on the sidewalk, she said. In March, a 49-year-old Brooklyn man was reportedly killed by an e-bike while crossing the street.
Her group supports a measure that would require registration and licensing for e-bikes, so riders could be retroactively ticketed if caught speeding on camera. The proposal is similar to regulations in the European Union, where all e-bikes must be registered and motors are programmed to cut off at 15.5 mph.
In New York, where there’s no formal e-bike registration system and many bikes are cobbled together from mix-and-match parts, enforcement is more complicated. Adding to that: More than 30,000 delivery workers rely on the bikes to make a living.
Actually policing the speed limit would likely require officers stationed on curbs with speed guns, clocking passing cyclists.
“To go out with radar cameras and try to find speeding cyclists would be a misuse of scarce police resources,” said Michael Replogle, who served as deputy commissioner for policy of the city’s transportation department from 2015 to 2021.
The city has gotten at least one win: Citi Bike operator Lyft said it would reduce the top speed of its pedal-assist bikes in the city-backed network from 18 mph to 15 mph. But that won’t affect the bikes used by private riders, which can top out at 28 mph.
The need for speed comes from delivery apps like DoorDash, which offer incentives for timely drop-offs and penalties for delays. Drivers commonly work for multiple platforms at once. “We’ll have maybe 10 to 20 minutes to do four food orders. Either we follow the law, or lose our income,” said Balde.
“Our delivery time estimates take into account real-world factors like distance, weather, and traffic so that Dashers can complete those deliveries safely,” a DoorDash spokesman wrote. “Just as importantly, no Dasher loses opportunities to earn for a single late delivery.”
E-bike commuters tout a range of additional benefits to the much-maligned vehicles.
“The subways are always late, the station is hot,” says Marina Paulino, who commutes 35 minutes from Queens to Midtown each morning on a Citi e-bike. “On the bike I make it faster to work, enjoy the views, feel free.”
The city’s regulation doesn’t apply to traditional bicycles, which can reach speeds upwards of 40 mph going downhill, no battery required.
Thomas Bourany, a 32-year-old amateur cyclist from Paris who is training for a half Ironman this September, says he can hit 30 mph on his Bridgestone racing bike in Central Park. In the bike lanes, he caps his speed around 20 mph to avoid close calls with pedestrians.
“If I’m on my race bike, I’m not worried about anyone slowing me down,” he said.
Write to Ben Raab at ben....@wsj.com