How to Get Policy Totally and Completely and Exasperatedly Wrong
New York City and State have a "novel" approach to the e-bike "problem." The current legislation proves we're completely out of our depth and have no chance at all whatsoever at fixing our streets.
Shabazz Stuart is one of our great entrepreneurs. His work to help reduce friction and create a safer ecosystem for cyclists across the New York region is unparalleled. He’s a tireless worker, a great connector, and a friend of nearly five years. And his post below—clipped from Threads—is exactly spot on.
The NYC Council Bill in question can be viewed here. Its full text is below. Before I get into the “how policy works and doesn’t section” of this Mini Exasperation, let’s line-edit this.
Section 1. Subchapter 3 of chapter 1 of title 19 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 19-176.4 to read as follows:
The action. This is what this law is effectively doing. It’s rewriting or amending the rulebook for New York.
§ 19-176.4 Licensing and registration of bicycles with electric assist, electric scooters and other legal motorized vehicles. a. For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:
Bicycle with electric assist. The term “bicycle with electric assist” means any electric bicycle as defined in section 102-c of the vehicle and traffic law.
Electric scooter. The term “electric scooter” means any electric scooter as defined in section 114-e of the vehicle and traffic law.
Other legal motorized vehicle. The term “other legal motorized vehicle” means any wheeled device powered by an electric motor or by a gasoline motor that may be legally operated in the city, is not capable of being registered with the New York state department of motor vehicles and is not a bicycle with electric assist or electric scooter.
Definitions of how they’re used in relation to this legislative action. They may or may not align with a common definition or a definition that’s used anywhere else. It’s important to understand this aspect of law versus human.
b. Every bicycle with electric assist, electric scooter and other legal motorized vehicle shall be registered with the commissioner and provided a distinctive identification number and a license plate corresponding to that distinctive identification number.
This section demands that every motorized vehicle now must be registered with the city. Note the text doesn’t specify exactly how this has to happen and _also_ note that “registered with the commissioner” does not mean registered with the _State-run_ DMV. This is otherwise straightforward: if you own or operate one of these vehicles as defined above, the administrative state now needs to know about it. Can’t see how that could go wrong.
c. The license plate issued pursuant to subdivision b of this section shall be of such material, form, design and dimensions and contain such distinguishing number as the commissioner shall prescribe, provided, however, that there shall be at all times a marked contrast between the color of the plate and that of the numerals or letters thereon. Each such plate shall identify whether the bicycle with electric assist, electric scooter or other legal motorized vehicle is personal or commercial in nature. The fee for such plate shall be determined by the commissioner.
This is seemingly to prevent ghost plates from circumventing the law because the law was not specific enough to compel the issuing authority (DOT?) from issuing incredibly stupid plates.
d. The license plate issued pursuant to subdivision b of this section shall be conspicuously displayed on the rear of the bicycle with electric assist, electric scooter or other legal motorized vehicle, and securely fastened so as to prevent the same from swinging. No bicycle with electric assist, electric scooter or other legal motorized vehicle shall display any plate other than that issued by the commissioner.
A very specific detail about license plate placement. Who brought this up? Is this a huge issue?
§ 2. This local law takes effect 120 days after it becomes law.
Sure.
Ah! But wait—there’s a concurrent bill loitering in the New York State Assembly that is almost identical in text, but adds language about registration fees and related fines:
Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as "Priscilla's law".
Politicians often name their proposed bills and laws to tie it to a person or event. It’s very effective politicking. Knowing nothing about why it’s called this, I’m not going to deny that Priscilla’s family _deserved_ safe streets before what I can only surmise was a serious incident.
§ 2. The vehicle and traffic law is amended by adding a new section 1244 to read as follows:
§ 1244. Registration of bicycles with electric assist. 1. Every bicycle with electric assist as defined in section one hundred two-c of this chapter shall be registered and issued a number plate by the department.
The sentiment here is the same as the City law—catalog and register your e-bike with the _State_
No person shall operate a bicycle with electric assist unless such bicycle with electric assist shall have a distinctive number assigned to it by the commissioner and a number plate issued by the commissioner with a number corresponding to that of the certificate of registration.
Nearly identical to the City law, too.
2. Such number plates shall be of such material, form, design and dimensions and contain or set forth such distinguishing number or other identification marks as the commissioner shall prescribe, provided, however, that there shall be at all times a marked contrast between the color of the number plates and that of the numerals or letters thereon.
Each such number plate shall be conspicuously displayed on the rear of the bicycle, securely fastened so as to prevent the same from swinging.
Identical.
4. The fee for such number plates shall be determined by the commissioner.
5. Where there is a violation of this section, the fine for such violation shall be determined by the commissioner.
Fees and fines were not included in Councilman Holden’s NYC bill, but they’re included here. Curious if the omission is an oversight or left out because there’s no budget authority or enabling revenue legislation to set up a plates-and-fines system.
That these bills are concurrent poses interesting Federalism questions i.e. for a geography represented by overlapping authority1. There’s no acknowledgment of either bill in the other one—the city bill doesn’t cite the state bill or vice versa—and that’s not necessarily an issue, yet. I’d wager that during reconciliation between the Assembly, Senate, and the City Council there will be some level of horse-trading compromise that either preempts the city from registering vehicles or shares some of the responsibility.2
For now, let’s talk about how dumb this law is through THREE lenses:
Problem identification and appropriate solutions
Politics and community engagement
Administration and implementation of the law
First: problem ID and available solutions. Not for nothing, the people who write and amend our laws are often neither particularly proactive nor engaged with the array of issues that hit their desks on an hourly basis; the first is a function of incentive and the second is why Councilors employ staff and experts depending on their seniority and committee assignment. It is normal for Councilors to know a little about a lot, nothing about some, and a lot about a little.
What is not normal is the complete lack of critical thinking skills, whether on purpose or not, and the aloof, lack of engagement with the real problems underwriting the law they want to propose. The _dozens_ of sponsors believe or may actually be acting in good faith, but the “draconian, regressive, and ineffective” law that Shabazz Threaded about above doesn’t feel connected to the deeper problem it’s claiming to address.
Prima facie, this bill feels like it’s aimed at a challenge many New Yorkers decry daily: e-bikers and scootees not following the “rules of the road” and causing or being involved in traffic incidents. The sheer number of e-bikers who use the device for work adds to the number of pleasure riders or commuters hovers in the dozens-of-tens-of-thousands: the yearly trips will likely cross 300,000,000(!) in the next few years. There’s certainly going to be conflict based on this massive number and entropy. Some idiot will do a dumb thing and trigger a crash—rarely, but still too often—this crash or incident is fatal. Sometimes everything goes literally, terribly wrong and there’s no obvious fault.3 More often, there’s an incident among the modes—bike, pedestrian, and automobile—with an injury or property damage.
So the problem is: too many incidents; too many injuries and too much death; too much property damage that often goes unresolved. But are these the problems…
…
…or are they symptoms of a larger structural issue that’s transportation-, labor-, immigration-, etc. related? What is the actual problem we’re trying to solve here without introducing more problems, which we’ll get into in a few bullets?
The actual problem is that our streets are only designed to move motor vehicles (including e-bikes?????) as quickly as possible; our public space is automatically offered to these motor vehicles, for no additional cost, to store them. New Yorkers love fast and cheap delivery. The e-bikers are often poorer and live further from economic opportunity than an average New Yorker. The bikes they use are unsafe at any speed.4
When we insist on addressing the wrong problem, the wrong solutions bubble up. Even if registering these e-bikes made it easier for the City/State to track their riders…what now? How does that address the safety challenge? The outcome is likely to be fewer cyclists on our streets, which reduces the critical mass required to encourage safety.
SO: if road design, curb management, and allocation of public space are the problem —the solution should require road redesign, tactical projects, reallocation of assets and usage of space, and ultimately encourage more cycling. As it stands, this bill will do none of these things.
Second: Politics and community. The fact that this bill has dozens of co-sponsors—33 needed to prevent a veto—is a testament to deeply held prejudices and successful bad-faith campaigns and perhaps, people lobbied or logrolled to trade votes to fulfill the vendetta. In this instance there’s Punnett Square we’ll use to discuss this phenomenon.
There’s a lot of Do Not Know/Care and Know/Do Not Care overlap here. It’s what’s preventing a clear message of how to counter this bill from circulating. The strange bedfellows phenomenon is obfuscating the pathway to kill this bill. For example, both Chi Ossé (D-Brooklyn) and Vickie Palladino (R-Queens) are both co-sponsors of this bill.5 These two Councilors couldn’t be more opposed as legislators—but what’s going on here that’s made both of them sign on to veto-proof this bill? Are we really to believe that this is bipartisanship at work and is it really bipartisanship “working as intended” if everyone is bipartisanly wrong?
The constituency represented by the smattering of Councilors, Senators, and Assemblypeople is diverse and there’s no common thread to connect them all: there are the deliveristas/delivery people who ride their e-bikes and motorized scooters for work; commuters who ride to get to work; pedestrians who just want to walk and not get run down by a careless cyclist; drivers who are just so angry at everything and then not, once they park; businesses and storefronts who rely on these cyclists; tourists who ride Citibike; manufacturers and resellers (totally different) of the devices themselves—and ancillary component providers (helmets???, batteries, panniers, etc.).
There are progressives who want meaningful laws to protect public safety and enhance access to opportunity; “progressives” who want to look like they’re helping, but instead just complain that they can’t park for free wherever they want; crusaders who think that the street and access to asphalt is their right for free forever, simply because they’ve spent money on a personal vehicle; opportunists who ride waves of emotion to political gain; chaos agents capitalists goobers who just want to watch the streets descend into chaos so they can peddle an app to “fix it”; centrists who want everyone get along; conservatives who want to define what freedom of movement means based on their own, limited worldview; “conservatives” who are just sorta mean and a little dumb; and everyone who has a little sprinkle of a lot of these qualities and leanings.
Where’s the community for this? On what grounds did these politicians logick themselves into this position and what’s the consensus/consent argument that gets them to back off? This problem will resolve itself?
No, these bills are seen as action against a problem that’s seen as worthwhile. On its face, they are—and that’s insidious. But the people who have made the problem are also defining the meaning of the world problem. Who watches The Watchmen if there are no Watchmen but we believe there are because the watchers say there are?
Third: Administration and implementation.
The practical reason these bills are doomed to the dumbwaiter of delusion is the implementation and action (and money and time) required to administer them. I’m going to structure this question as a series of questions that haven’t been answered yet.
Who is going to pay for any of this?
Without a dedicated funding source, this type of law is called an unfunded mandate at all levels of government. The City/State directs its administrative organizations/authorities to act on the law that compels them to…but doesn’t identify a source of funds or underfunds the activity. Seriously. Standing up a new project inside a rigid organization that requires a lot of coordination is not particularly challenging but it could be expensive to make sure it’s done correctly, once. But maybe nonce.
How will the responsible agencies generate these dollars?
There’s something smaller here that astute readers should also want to know: how are these dollars generated? Federally, the failsafe that no one recommends is literally printing the money with the full faith and credit of the US Government. States, it turns out, are not allowed to print their own money. So the money must come from: an additional tax or a reallocation of other funds. It would be helpful for our bill sponsors to identify these sources and then allocate them to anything else.
Who implements the rules set forth in the law?
Who is ultimately responsible for bringing the law from zero to not-zero? This one feels tricky considering the concentric nature of the bills. If the City passes the law and the State does not, DOT will likely need to be responsible for implementing the Council’s will. But…DOT has never registered vehicles before and there’s no expertise built in. If the State passes the bill and the City does not, there will likely be a new vertical inside the DMV, which saddles an already strapped organization with new responsibilities. Still: this process already exists…but does this then apply to all e-bikes across the State? Either way, the administration and marketing of this plan feel expensive, don’t they? All these agencies have better things to do with their time.
Who enforces them?
Laws require enforcement, or they’re just…suggestions. Do we want to organize enforcement within DOT? Or do we want to saddle the police with MORE BUDGET to run down unlicensed e-bikes? This feels like a job for the City even if the State registers the vehicles. But how do all these organizations coordinate and collaborate to make sure enforcement is equitable and the strong arm of the law isn’t simply used to bully immigrants, low- or non-English speakers, and poorer New Yorkers? This bill doesn’t smell right to me—EVEN IF—the intent isn’t predatory there are unintended consequences that might divide New Yorkers even more than we’re already headed. Instead, we can ununintend them.
What metrics and measures of success prove this policy’s merit?
How do we measure the success of this program? Is it “number of vehicles registered per ____,” because honestly, who cares? Is it the delta between crashes and serious injuries before and after the program’s implementation? How do we know what level of impact the law will have on street safety? Is it the number of insurance claims filed because the incidental parties can know more information about the crash? What is this? How does this help anyone? Bueller?
How does all of this get reported?
It doesn’t. These bills are stupid as hell. Shabazz is right. Go check out Oonee.
The City Council and the State Legislature both represent New York City’s people and interests in different ways. The concentrism causes a ton of authority problems but also acts as a safeguard to prevent stoopid laws from running amok. This method works when there’s a clear delineation; also note that the state will _always_ have the final say as, despite its role as a global financial and cultural powerhouse, New York City exists as an administrative entity as the pleasure and behest of New York State.
I can imagine a situation where the state is responsible for issuing registrations and licenses at the DMV but the City is responsible for enforcement. The mechanism that authorizes the State to charge a reasonable fee is both included here and in revenue authority; the State can additionally bestow part or all of the privilege to the City to collect infraction fees. But who would do it? Would DOT need to allocate resources it doesn’t have via an unfunded mandate to enforce a law that doesn’t solve any problems as promised? More police?* The rabbit hole goes deeper.
*No.
I will argue that the driver, whose sole objective is to operate a 4000-pound deadly metal murder machine safely, is always at fault when it collides at medium speed with a 200-pound blubber bag. But this argument likely alienates drivers whose response to every stimulus has to be perfect and will often find impersonal language to absolve themselves of responsibility: “What if this thing happens? How am I supposed to be responsible for every movement on the street? What if that cat jumped out of nowhere?” Humans naturally do this. Drivers wrap themselves in this bullshit.
I’m not going to libel anyone and say where they fall on my Matrix of Things I Care About.