Editor’s Note: The following is an extended version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez announced the launch of a new, e-bike safety campaign on March 19. The following day, March 20, Rodriguez joined some of the families of loved ones killed or injured on New York City streets at a separate event to call for the renewal and expansion of the City’s red-light camera program. The announcements came following a week of moped/dirt bike chaos across The Bronx.

 

As reported, on Thursday, March 14, after police observed “a roving band” of ATV [all-terrain vehicle] / dirt bike riders traveling in a pack in the Norwood/Bedford Park area, which they said later dispersed in different directions, an ATV rider was hospitalized following a collision with a sedan the same evening.

 

Meanwhile, police were searching for another dirt bike / motorcycle rider who, the same evening, as reported, attempted to assault two cops in Norwood. Later that evening, in Morris Park, a motorcycle rider was killed in a collision with an ambulance and on Sunday, March 17, another “roving band” was witnessed in Norwood.

Two days before the Bedford Park accident, Norwood News witnessed a group of motorcycle / ATV riders on March 12 at around 5 p.m., breaking red lights up and down the Grand Concourse also in Bedford Park. When we spoke with a resident on the evening of March 14 after the Bedford Park accident involving an ATV, we asked if she had also seen the group of riders the previous Tuesday. She said, “I’ve seen a lot of those, yeah. They’re very reckless. I mean they’re very scary. All those motorcycles in general are terrifying.”

 

Earlier on the same evening as the Bedford Park collision on March 14, Norwood News had also witnessed a roving band of dirt bikes traveling on the Grand Concourse in Tremont. It’s unknown if it was the same group as was later seen in Bedford Park.

 

At the launch of the e-bike safety campaign on March 19, Adams said, “Our streets must be safe for everyone — pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike.” He added, “E-bikes are a great way for New Yorkers to get around, but we must ensure that people riding them can do so safely. That’s why we’re launching this campaign as a part of our broader efforts to make our streets safer and adapt to the new ways our streets are being used.”

A GROUP OF motorcycle and ATV riders is seen traveling north along the Grand Concourse in the Tremont section of The Bronx on Thursday, March 14, 2024. Video by David Greene

DOT officials said the “Get Smart Before You Start” e-bike safety campaign is a new, multi-platform, marketing campaign aimed at educating New Yorkers on how to safely ride e-bikes. They said the new campaign will work in tandem with what they said are innovative street redesigns along with targeted enforcement of the law to reduce injuries and fatalities on New York City’s streets.

 

DOT officials said that with nearly six percent of the City’s adults reporting that they ride an e-bike or e-scooter once a week or more, the new campaign will use “compelling images” and instructive audio to inform users how to properly accelerate, brake, and operate an e-bike at an appropriate speed.

 

They said by targeting newer or less experienced riders, the ad campaign aims to shift the culture around biking and promote safe practices. The said the campaign will be multi-lingual, available in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Bangla, and Creole, and will be targeted to zip codes with the highest number of e-bike injuries and crashes. (See the campaign in Spanish here.)

 

They said it includes advertising on TV, radio, print and digital news outlets, as well as on social media, on subways, and on LinkNYC kiosks. In addition to advertising, DOT officials said its Safety Education and Outreach Unit will conduct direct community education to help newer riders know what to expect when they operate an e-bike.

“With bicycle ridership reaching historic levels, we must use every tool available to give new and experienced cyclists the resources they need to bike safely, whether its building new protected bike lanes or educating New Yorkers so they gain these crucial skills on-the-ground,” said Rodriguez.

 

The commissioner added, “Our data-driven process shows that this new campaign is a timely and necessary response to the rise in fatalities that involve e-bike riders. E-bikes are an efficient and environmentally friendly way to get around and we hope that this campaign will encourage their safe operation.”

 

DOT officials said that last year, the department installed a record 31.9 miles of protected bike lanes and installed the first “double-wide” bike lanes to better accommodate the increasing number of cyclists on the City’s streets. In addition, they said last year, bike ridership reached an all-time high, and added that DOT is committed to both improving infrastructure to better accommodate e-bike users and expanding enforcement efforts against the most dangerous behaviors on the road.

 

They said the the new, million-dollar campaign is part of DOT’s $280 million “Vision Zero” expense budget for the next fiscal year and the agency’s $7.7 billion, 10-year, capital plan for Vision Zero-related projects.

GET SMART BEFORE You Start NYC Department of Transportation e-bike safety campaign. Video courtesy of NYC Department of Transportation via YouTube

The campaign also has the backing of the the NYPD and the New York Police Commissioner Edward Caban, who said in part, “We understand that traffic safety is public safety, and we must support and equip New Yorkers at every turn, on every street, in every borough.”

 

Many e-bike users are “deliveristas” or delivery workers. Norwood News reported in 2022 on the high number of delivery worker fatalities in The Bronx due to e-bike riders being hit by, or otherwise involved in collisions with, other road users. NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Commissioner Vilda Vera reacted to news of the new safety campaign, writing, “As more and more of our city’s delivery workers transition to using electric micromobility devices, it’s crucial that we do all we can to support them and make sure all e-bike riders know the rules of the road.”

 

DOT officials said the latest campaign is the first Vision Zero campaign in history to focus solely on e-bikes. They said the “Get Smart Before You Start” campaign follows a “data-driven approach, based on comprehensive market research and guided by NYC DOT crash data.”

A GROUP OF motorcycle and ATV riders is seen traveling down the Grand Concourse by East 204th Street on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Video by Síle Moloney

They said the latter shows that the majority i.e. 76 percent of cycling fatalities in 2023 involved e-bikes, even as traditional bike fatalities reached an all-time low, and protected bike lane miles reached an all-time high. They said last year also saw a record number of “single-bike” fatal crashes involving e-bikes where no other moving vehicle, pedestrian, or cyclist was involved.

 

DOT officials said they are also working to improve bike lane designs [to make them wider, facilitating riders traveling at different speeds] as well as charging availability to better accommodate e-bikes and promote safe behavior. DOT also recently launched a 6-month pilot program to test public, e-bike charging infrastructure among delivery workers.

 

DOT officials said eight of the ten safest years on New York City streets have occurred during the “Vision Zero” era. They said in 2023, DOT installed a record number of protected bike lane miles, the first time the agency surpassed 30 miles in a calendar year. They said 2023’s totals also included a record number (10 miles) of protected bike lanes in The Bronx.

Agency officials said last year, DOT also distributed nearly 22,000 bicycle helmets and nearly 9,000 bicycle lights during various citywide events, and added that a total of 20 miles of existing protected bike lanes were hardened in 2022 and 2023.

 

DOT officials said the e-bike safety campaign is targeted at first-time e-bike riders. A chart showing a breakdown of the different types of two-wheeled vehicles accompanies this story. A DOT spokesperson said the rules outlined in the chart apply to mopeds that are both gas-powered and electric-powered.

 

When asked, the NYPD press office was unable to confirm if all of the bikes involved in the above-referenced, recent incidents were e-powered or gas-powered. According to online research, ATVs can be e-powered as well as gas-powered.

 

As reported, the father of 4-year-old Mario “Mjay” Rosario, 4, who died following a scooter accident on Sunday night, Aug. 14, 2022, in Fordham Manor, and who was traveling with his son on the scooter at the time of the accident, was sentenced to 5 years probation following the incident. Police said his son had not been equipped with a helmet at the time of the collision and suffered traumatic head injuries.

 

Meanwhile, on March 20, DOT officials said the relaunch of the red-light camera program coincided with the release of its Red-Light Camera Report showing what they said was “the tremendous safety benefits of red-light cameras.” They said the report shows red light cameras located at fewer than 1% of the city’s intersections dramatically reduce red-light running and dangerous crashes.

As reported, in late August 2021, then-DOT Commissioner Hank Gutman had also called for the expansion of speed cameras in school zones during restricted periods [evenings and weekends] following two fatal crashes, one on East Fordham Road and Morris Avenue in Fordham Manor on Aug. 28, 2021, when two pedestrians were struck by a vehicle, and another in Brooklyn.

 

On March 20, DOT officials said new data from the report shows a steady decline in average daily violations at camera locations, from roughly 30.8 daily violations per camera in 1994, to 8.18 violations per camera in 2023, a 73 percent decrease. They said T-bone collisions causing injury were also dramatically down at camera locations, with a 65 percent decline citywide when comparing these injury collisions in 2023 to the three years before the program began in 1994. They said rear-end collisions were also down 49% in 2023 under the same statistical comparison.

 

“The data is clear: red-light cameras save lives,” said Rodriguez. “No family should have to bury a loved one because of a reckless driver, and we need Albany to renew and expand the red-light camera program to prevent the next tragedy from occurring.”

DOT officials said the agency has consistently advocated at the state level for the authority to expand its automated enforcement programs when it comes to red-light running. In 2022, they said DOT successfully worked with Albany legislators to expand its speed camera program to operate 24-hours a day, seven days a week, as reported at the time by Norwood News. They said the expansion led to a drop in injuries, crashes, and on average, a reduction of 30% in speeding violations during the hours when cameras were previously not allowed to operate i.e. on nights and weekends.

 

This legislative session, DOT officials said they are working with state lawmakers to both renew and expand its red light camera program and crack down on who they said were the “few, incredibly reckless drivers who are repeatedly caught running red lights.” They said DOT is also working with its partners at the MTA to expand bus-mounted camera enforcement to combat double parking and blocked bike lanes.

 

Attendees at the March 20 event called for the passage of a package of specific bills to renew and expand the red-light camera program. They said the bills would expand the camera program from fewer than 1% of the city’s intersections to 10% of intersections with a traffic signal. A companion bill would require the State Department of Motor Vehicles to revoke the vehicle registration of vehicles in receipt of five or more red-light camera violations over one year.

 

We reached out to DOT to clarify if it was the vehicle or the driver being targeted by the law, since if bad drivers have access to other vehicles, they can still speed. DOT replied, saying, “It’s the registration of the vehicle. Automated enforcement can provide proof of the vehicle involved in a red-light running, but not the driver.”

As reported, past calls for greater road safety have focused on the expansion of camera usage in school zones, in particular. Schools Chancellor David C. Banks wrote of the new push for camera expansion, “We have lost too many of our students and other members of our school communities to motorists failing to follow the law.”

 

He added, “Red-light cameras began in school zones because they work, and our students deserve that sort of safety wherever they walk in their city. We unequivocally support the expansion of the city’s red-light camera program because red-light cameras keep our students and their communities safe.”

 

DOT officials said the agency currently operates a 30-year-old, red-light camera program, with the authority from Albany to operate cameras at 150 intersections, or at one percent of signalized intersections in the city. They said this first-in-the-nation program is set to expire this year, right as the city experiences a deadly increase in red-light running. In 2023, they said 29 people were killed in red-light running crashes, the worst annual total ever recorded and more than double the average annual total of such deaths from the previous decade, all at intersections without red-light cameras.

They said DOT and the Adams administration are working with lawmakers to pass two bills relating to red-light cameras. They said bills S2812 and A5259, sponsored respectively by State Sen. Andrew Gounardes (S.D. 26) and Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81) would reauthorize the program until Dec. 1, 2030 and expand the number of locations where cameras can be used from 150 intersections to 1,325, or about 10 percent of signalized intersections.

 

“As we confront an alarming surge in fatalities resulting from drivers disobeying red lights, the evidence is clear: red-light cameras save lives. The NYC DOT‘s Red-Light Camera Report underscores these cameras’ vital role in preventing road tragedies,” said Dinowitz in part.

 

Meanwhile Bills S451 and A7621, sponsored respectively by State Sen. Michael Gianaris (S.D. 12) and Assemblymember William Magnarelli (A.D. 129), would authorize NYC Department of Motor Vehicles to suspend the registrations for vehicles that get five or more red-light camera violations in a 12-month period.

 

Adams concluded, “We’re using all the tools in our toolbox to keep New Yorkers safe, whether they’re on two feet, two wheels, or four.”

 

An additional DOT safe cycling campaign launched on March 22.

 

*David Greene contrbuted to this story.