New York City has spent years adapting its streets to e-bikes and scooters. The legal system is now confronting a more difficult problem: what happens after one of those devices causes a catastrophic injury and the victim discovers there may be no obvious insurance policy standing behind the rider?
That question has moved into City Hall. The New York City Council scheduled a September 30, 2026 joint hearing on micromobility regulation, accountability and safety, with proposals addressing high-speed devices, crash reporting and insurance. One pending bill would require third-party food delivery services to maintain liability insurance covering accidents involving delivery workers using e-bikes or other powered mobility devices while making deliveries or available to make them.
The city's own data show why officials are focused on high-powered devices. In August, the Mayor's Office said 42 online retailers received cease-and-desist orders over illegal motorized devices. According to the city, illegal e-bikes capable of exceeding 25 mph accounted for 45 rider fatalities between 2017 and 2025, or 54 percent of e-bike rider deaths during that period. Illegal stand-up scooters capable of exceeding 20 mph accounted for 14 rider fatalities, or 52 percent of stand-up scooter deaths.
For personal injury attorney and legal analyst Rusty Reynolds, Founding Partner of the Reynolds & Reynolds Law Firm, the debate exposes a practical problem that regulation alone does not answer. "After a serious crash, the injured person needs more than a rule telling us whether the device was legal," Reynolds says. "The victim needs to know who is responsible and where compensation is going to come from. With e-bikes, that answer can be much less obvious than it is after a car crash."
New York's insurance gap is becoming harder to ignore
A pedestrian struck by a car can usually begin with the vehicle's liability coverage. A pedestrian struck by an e-bike may face a different search. The rider may have no dedicated liability policy. The bike may belong to the rider, a family member or an employer. The rider may be making a delivery. A homeowners or renters policy may contain language that becomes relevant, or an exclusion that takes coverage away. Commercial insurance can become important when the crash occurs in the course of work.
That is why the Council's delivery-service insurance proposal is significant from a victim-compensation perspective. The bill would require a third-party food delivery service to maintain insurance for liability arising from accidents involving a delivery worker using an e-bike or other powered mobility device during covered delivery activity. The proposal remains pending, but it puts the coverage question directly into the policy debate.
"If New York is going to depend on e-bikes for a meaningful share of commercial delivery, there is a legitimate question about who bears the financial risk when a delivery crash seriously injures someone," Reynolds says. "The victim should not have to discover after the fact that everyone involved points somewhere else when it is time to pay a claim.
The speed issue changes more than safety
New York City's enforcement push has focused heavily on devices that exceed legal limits. The city says some illegal e-bikes and e-scooters can reach speeds above 50 mph. That matters to injury severity, but Reynolds says lawyers will also examine what the device actually was, whether it was modified and whether it was legal to operate at the location where the crash occurred.
"Calling something an e-bike does not settle its legal status," he says. "If a vehicle has the speed and power of something closer to a motorcycle, the investigation has to address that. What was sold? What was modified? What did the owner know? What rules applied on that street? Those are concrete liability questions."
The Council is considering legislation that would give police a way to test motor wattage and maximum assisted speed when officers have probable cause to believe a micromobility device is illegal. Another proposal addresses advertising for vehicles that resemble e-bikes or scooters but require state registration. Those measures reflect the practical difficulty of identifying high-powered devices by appearance alone.
Pedestrians and lawful riders can both be victims
The liability discussion can become distorted when every crash involving an e-bike gets treated as evidence of rider misconduct. New York's streets produce many different collision scenarios. A pedestrian may be struck by an e-bike. An e-bike rider may be hit by a turning truck. A lawful rider may be injured by a driver who leaves the scene. Two micromobility devices may collide. Each case requires its own fault analysis.
The city's midyear Vision Zero data illustrate that complexity. NYC DOT reported that traffic injuries among riders of e-bikes, stand-up scooters and mopeds were down 7 percent as of May 30, 2026, from 1,114 to 1,036, even as rider fatalities in those categories had increased from 16 to 18 at that point in the year. The numbers do not support a simple story in which every safety measure is moving in the same direction.
"You cannot decide fault based on the type of vehicle someone was riding," Reynolds says. "A legal e-bike rider hit by a negligent driver has rights. A pedestrian struck by a reckless e-bike rider has rights. The evidence decides the case. That means video, witness accounts, traffic controls, speed, right of way, device specifications and, when relevant, work records."
Parents should pay attention to the device, not the label
The youth issue carries particular urgency because powered devices can look familiar enough to parents to be treated like bicycles even when their performance is very different. A family considering an e-bike for a teenager should know the city and state rules, the device's actual maximum speed and whether it can be altered through software or hardware.
Insurance belongs in that conversation. Reynolds recommends that parents ask their carrier how their homeowners, renters and umbrella policies would respond if a child injured another person while using the specific device being purchased. The answer can turn on policy language and the characteristics of the vehicle.
"Parents tend to ask, 'Is this safe for my child?' They should also ask, 'What happens if my child hurts somebody else?'" Reynolds says. "That is not a theoretical concern when a powered device can travel at substantial speed in a dense neighborhood. You want to understand the legal rules and your insurance before the first ride."
After a crash, identify every possible source of responsibility
For victims, the immediate legal work is practical. Identify the rider and owner. Preserve photographs of the device. Determine whether it was modified. Find out whether the rider was working. Secure surveillance video quickly, especially in New York, where storefront, building and traffic cameras may capture a collision but recordings can be overwritten. Report hit-and-runs promptly. Then examine every potentially applicable policy instead of assuming that the absence of auto insurance ends the claim.
New York is actively debating how much regulation micromobility requires. The compensation problem is narrower and more immediate. Someone who suffers a traumatic brain injury, permanent orthopedic damage or months away from work cannot pay those losses with a traffic summons issued to the rider.
"Accountability has to mean more than deciding whether someone broke a traffic rule," Reynolds says.
"For an injured person, accountability means identifying the party who caused the harm and determining whether there is a realistic source of recovery. As these devices become a permanent part of New York transportation, the insurance structure has to catch up with the injuries we are already seeing."
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Devyn Kern is a New York City real estate advisor with the Kantha Team at SERHANT, one of the nation's leading real estate brands. She works with buyers, sellers, renters, landlords, and investors throughout NYC's most sought-after neighborhoods including, but not limited to, Gramercy Park, Greenwich Village, NoMad, Flatiron, and the East Village. In addition to her real estate practice, Devyn is a metro NYC reporter and Senior Editor for The Luxe List International News Syndicate, covering housing, business, consumer, lifestyle, travel, dining, and culture. Learn more at www.DevynKern.com and www.TheLuxeList.com.
Sources
• New York City Council, Sweeping Review of E-Bike and E-Scooter Safety
• New York City Council, Int. 0994-2026, Third-Party Food Delivery Liability Insurance
• NYC Mayor's Office, Cease-and-Desist Orders for Illegal High-Speed Motorized Devices
• NYC DOT, Vision Zero 2026 Midyear Safety Data
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