The NYPD has drastically escalated its crackdown on e-bikes since Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office at the start of the year, new police data shows.
NYPD officials reported that 55% more moving violation tickets were issued to e-bike riders during the first eight months of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025. Police also seized 973 e-bikes — more than double the 415 seized last year.
The crackdown represents a tricky balancing act for Mamdani, an avid cyclist who has expressed concerns that additional policing of e-bike riders will disproportionately hurt delivery workers. But a spate of deadly collisions involving e-bikes and e-scooters, including one that killed a 17-year-old boy who was riding an illegal e-bike near City Hall last month, has prompted growing calls for the mayor to take action.
Mamdani earlier this month issued cease-and-desist orders to dozens of online vendors — including Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Walmart — directing them to stop selling illegal e-bikes. E-bikes that can go faster than 25 mph and e-scooters that can exceed 20 mph are prohibited on city streets. Mopeds that do not have vehicle identification numbers or license plates are also illegal.
Prior to that, City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced a plan to consider 17 bills to create a new regulatory framework for e-bikes.
It’s a politically thorny issue for the mayor, who has advocated for delivery workers. He’s pinned much of the blame for dangerous e-bike riders on app companies like GrubHub and Uber Eats because they give workers a financial incentive to speed in order to make more deliveries. In March, he announced the end of criminal summons for cyclists, a policy enacted under previous Mayor Eric Adams. Critics accused Mamdani of emboldening reckless behavior such as running red lights and riding in the wrong direction.
But the latest NYPD data shows stepped-up enforcement under Mamdani, especially this summer. More than half the moving violations officers gave to e-bike riders this year came between May 27 and Aug. 9, according to the NYPD. Police officials said they began targeted enforcement of illegal e-bikes at busy corridors like bridges.
Ligia Guallpa, the executive director of Los Deliveristas Unidos, said any increase in police enforcement disproportionately affects roughly 70,000 delivery workers who rely on e-bikes for their livelihood. She said workers, who are largely immigrants, are increasingly afraid of police amid the rise in federal immigration arrests under the Trump administration.
“More ticketing and policing is not going to change the reality in our streets,” she said.
She urged the city to promote trade-in programs rather than seizing illegal e-bikes, citing reports from workers who say they have lost thousands of dollars due to tickets and confiscated e-bikes.
“The fact that we continuously blame delivery workers and overpolice and ticket workers is problematic,” she said.
NYPD spokesperson Erika Tannor said police do not ask anyone they ticket about their immigration status.
Some cycling advocates have started to welcome the intensified enforcement efforts as the illegal e-bikes that can travel faster than 30 mph have become more common on city streets.
Ben Furnas, the executive director of street safety advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, said the enforcement push matched what he has heard anecdotally from cyclists. Both Mamdani and Transportation Alternatives have expressed support for a City Council bill that would ban the sale of e-bikes that can go faster than 20 mph.
“It's positive to see some increased focus on this,” he said. “Ideally, these devices would be stopped well before they're used over the bridges.”
The NYPD reported that during the first six months of the year, police inspected 51 brick-and-mortar stores and said none were found to be selling illegal motorized scooters.
Police have also teamed up with the city transportation department on an educational campaign to tell shop owners what types of e-bikes and scooters are street legal, and which ones aren’t.
