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A group of New Yorkers mowed down by reckless e‑bikers will sue the Mamdani administration — accusing the mayor of letting the growing menace to pedestrians run wild.
The lawsuit against Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration, expected to be filed Thursday, will target Hizzoner’s March executive order that stopped enforcement of minor e-bike violations — a policy critics say has turned city streets into a Wild West where pedestrians and everyday cyclists take their life into their own hands.
“No mayor has the power to suspend the laws the City Council and state Legislature passed to keep New Yorkers safe – yet that is exactly what this directive does, turning our sidewalks and crosswalks into a lawless free-for-all,” said Jim Walden, chair of NYC Common Sense, which will file the suit alongside crash victims and City Councilman Frank Morano (R-State Island).
That legal challenge lands as community members on the Upper West Side accuse a powerful pro‑bike, anti‑car nonprofit— Transportation Alternatives, backed by major delivery companies—of overriding neighborhood concerns to drive a bike agenda that benefits Amazon and other corporate players more than local residents.
Manhattan’s Community Board 7 voted at a June 2 meeting to endorse the Department of Transportation’s plan for a two‑way protected bike lane on West 72nd Street linking Central Park to the Hudson River Greenway — despite loud opposition from locals.
Board member Jay Adolf argued the board was ignoring its own constituency in favor of Transportation Alternatives, whose supporters arrived early and filled the limited seating.
“It’s our job to represent the people in our community and our community is overwhelmingly concerned about this proposal,” he said, announcing he would vote against the resolution.
About 80 people signed up to speak in favor of the redesign and around 60 against.
“It seems to me that a majority of the people who spoke in favor were either wearing T‑shirts that said ‘Families for Safe Streets’ or stickers in support of it,” Adolf said, noting that Families for Safe Streets is a spin‑off of and still works closely with Transportation Alternatives.
Transportation Alternatives has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from major delivery companies including Amazon, Uber, Lyft, Lime and UPS — firms that profit from fast, unimpeded e‑bike and e‑cargo trike delivery.
Community Board 7 resident Janet Schroeder, who leads the E‑Vehicle Safety Alliance and wants more enforcement of e-bikes, claimed Transportation Alternatives blasted out emails to mobilize supporters to show up early to the meeting.
Transportation Alternatives denies doing anything improper.
But the fight over 72nd Street has brought into focus a wider backlash against dangerous e‑bikes and lax enforcement — as pedestrians argue walkers are left in the crosshairs as delivery companies expand bike operations into every corner of the city.
Opponents of bike lanes say they are not troubled by traditional bicycles but by high‑speed electric vehicles causing a spike in injuries, even though city figures show only about 10% of New Yorkers regularly bike.
An NYU Langone study published in April of more than 900 trauma patients at Bellevue Hospital found that “micromobility” crashes grew from under 10% of bike and scooter trauma cases in 2018 to more than half by 2023 — and now account for nearly 7% of all trauma admissions.
One‑third of patients suffered traumatic brain injuries, more than two‑thirds were admitted and about 30% needed intensive care.
Pedestrians struck by e‑bikes experienced brain injuries at almost double the rate of riders.
Pamela Manasse, who lives on the north side of 72nd Street and is among those backing more e-bike enforcement, said she was left paralyzed on her right side after an e‑vehicle crash.
“Protected bike lanes protect no one when riders speed and go barreling the wrong way,” Manasse said. “These are not bikes. These are motorized vehicles.”
But even as injuries mount, the Mamdani administration is reshaping bike infrastructure to accommodate faster and higher volumes of e‑bike traffic. The mayor picked Transportation Alternatives veterans for roles in his administration, appointing the group’s former executive director Ben Furnas to his transition and naming former public affairs official Elizabeth Adams as his “fast and free bus” adviser.
City Hall announced it will double the width of a protected bike lane on Sixth Avenue between 14th and 31st Streets, saying wider lanes “allow faster riders, including e‑bike users.”
The administration’s “bike boulevard” plan in Queens would create a continuous corridor through Astoria and Woodside, despite FDNY concerns about emergency access.
Mamdani — an avid bicyclist — has also revived or expanded protected bike lane projects across the Bronx and Brooklyn, moves frequently praised in DOT releases by Transportation Alternatives executives.
Critics argue these wider, more continuous lanes function as high‑speed arteries for delivery workers, shifting risk onto pedestrians who must cross what amounts to an additional traffic lane.
“People have to run for their lives to cross the street now,” said Julie Harvey, who was struck by a cyclist last month in the Upper West Side.
But Transportation Alternatives has actively lobbied to block stricter e‑bike regulation.
The group in 2024 led opposition to “Priscilla’s Law,” which would have required license plates and registration for e‑bikes, arguing it would harm delivery workers.
Financial disclosures show the nonprofit’s funding from delivery‑linked companies surged after the bill’s introduction, including six‑figure support from Amazon and Uber and major donations from Lyft, Lime and UPS.
Critics say that pattern undercuts the group’s image as a grassroots safety organization.
“Transportation Alternatives is very elitist,” Schroeder said. “If they cared about safety, they would support accountability for e‑bike riders who hit people.”
The result is a city increasingly building infrastructure that benefits Transportation Alternative’s delivery giants, even as City Hall publicly positions itself as tough on those same companies, with the Mamdani administration bragging last month it had recovered more than $9 million in unpaid idling fines from Amazon’s delivery network.
A press release from City Hall said “no company – no matter how large or powerful – is above the law.”
Questions about Transportation Alternatives’ influence extend to community board involvement as well.
A community board 2 member at a May 21 meeting publicly pressed Transportation Alternatives organizer Emily Jacobi on whether the group had lobbied board members without filing required disclosures for a bike lane on Lafayette Street.
Jacobi insisted the group had not done any “nefarious lobbying” — and had simplyshared data with “people interested in street safety.”
The board member replied, “If you are lobbying the board you’re required to disclose that to the city — not just to us.”
Transportation Alternatives denied any unregistered lobbying in a statement to The Post.
Locals like Tom Cunniff, who lives on Fourth Avenue and 10th Street, are opposed to the project because it will have a two-way bike lane run down a one-way street.
He said his wife was hit and knocked to the ground by a cyclist looking behind him while driving the wrong way on a one-way street.
“We know that there’s no accountability. There’s no policing of any sort. As evidence of that my wife has been hit and knocked to the ground by a cyclist going the wrong way on a one-way street and looking behind him,” Cunniff said at a community board meeting in May.
The Mamdani administration is planning to release a detailed proposal for a 10‑mile east‑west “bike boulevard” corridor in central Brooklyn that Transportation Alternatives had been pushing through its “Build the Bergen” campaign.
Sandy Reiburn, a Fort Greene retiree, said she fears for her safety and that of her neighbors as the Mamdani administration clears the way for delivery companies’ e‑bikes to hurtle through the streets near her home on Bergen Street.
“Transportation Alternatives does their dirty work — they say ‘safety for bikes’ — it’s like a constructed, malevolent propaganda mission and, of course, the taxpayers are screwed because we’re the ones stuck paying for the roadways that benefit their investors,” Reiburn said.
“It’s double‑talking BS,” the 81‑year‑old added.
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