Hey Doug
Here is my very simplistic, admittedly biased yet mostly informed view, since I started this thread.
This whole thing has to do with the two New Yorks - the City, and everywhere else - and some political feud that the governor has apparently involved himself in with one of the sponsors of the bill, Assemblyperson (I think, not a senator) Ramos. There are a few stories sprinkled through the Albany Times Union newspaper over the past several months about that, but none that I can now find through their excellent (!) search function.
In the city, and apparently especially Manhattan, there is and has been a range war going over the use of ebikes by food delivery people. Much the same thing happened about 20 years or so ago when bicycle messenger services arose and people howled about the cowboy behavior of the messengers - running lights, racing on sidewalks, the same stuff they are dealing with now. The aggravating factor now is the ebike aspect, and particularly the use of throttled bikes.
Combine that with a basic misunderstanding of the whole ebike world by the press, and subsequent misreporting - all ebikes have throttles, they can go over thirty miles an hour, etc, etc, the whole issues has become clouded.
Upstate, far from the maddening crowd, there doesn’t seem to be any ebike angst at all. They’re ridden for different reasons by different people, perhaps. Most ebikes that I encounter in the Capital region and Adirondacks are ridden by older people - that’s right, us Boomers - seeking to recapture our extend our youth a little more, for fitness or pleasure. So maybe we behave better.
I would say that most ebikes in these parts anyhow - mid drives - have no throttles and therefore fall into a grey area of the law between the general law and the Vehicle and Traffic law that while they are not expressly forbidden, they are not expressly authorized either. So the actual impact on myself and people I see regularly out here is basically nil.
However, there are plenty of throttle bikes around. Pedego and Rad pretty much assure that, and they are a little more perilously perched, legally. But I swear, especially as a retired cop of 23 years, that no one gives a damn as long as people just behave themselves.
The helmet thing is a fair point. I wouldn’t ride across the street without one, and I have no idea why the big problem including that, if it was actually a point that would have made a difference. But this was a rigged deck in the first place. While the bill was passed by veto proof margins in both sides of the government, it was sat on and not delivered to the Governor until just after the legislative session had ended and everyone had gone home - the day before Christmas. By vetoing it immediately at that point, Cuomo assured its failure, since both houses would have to return to revote to override the veto - and that ain’t gonna happen. That little bit of treachery overrides any reasonable appearing arguments and rationalizations all by itself.
A final note quoted from a Times Union story this morning:
”The Albany Bicycle Coalition, a nonprofit that promotes cycling in the Capital Region, released a statement slamming the veto, which it called "one of the most backward things that could be done in terms of wise use of energy, promoting physical activity, and reducing motor vehicle congestion."
"E-bikes promised a whole new wave of people leaving their cars for active transportation," the coalition said. "The veto flies in the face of common sense and certainly in the face of those who are ready and able to make a contribution to energy conservation. It further shows the governor to be completing lacking in sincerity in reducing fossil fuel waste. Once again, Gov. Cuomo leads in putting New York State at the rear of the pack.”
Sorry to be so long winded!
