A pair of young e-bike riders accused of interfering with a Glen Cove police traffic stop has renewed attention on the bikes and electric scooters — and on the sometimes confusing line between legal micromobility devices and electric vehicles that are not permitted on public roads.
Glen Cove police recently identified two youths, believed to be 13 or 14, who allegedly approach-ed officers during a traffic stop on Shore Road, cursed at them and then falsely claimed that the driver of the vehicle they had stopped had a gun. Police said the youths were also suspected of riding recklessly elsewhere in the city, and damaging property.
“When you’re telling officers that the person has a gun, you’re raising that stress level exponentially,” Lt. John Nagle, of the Glen Cove Police Department, said.
The episode came at a time of growing concern about how e-bikes and scooters are being used around Glen Cove. Janet Tipton, a Sea Cliff resident, said she has twice encountered a young rider on Glen Cove Avenue in the middle of the road, cutting her off and performing wheelies.
“Its very scary when you have a kid on one of those bikes riding in the middle of the road and then cut[ting] you off on Glen Cove avenue popping wheelies,” Tipton wrote in response to a Glen Cove Herald Facebook post seeking community experiences.
Glen Cove resident Ann Marie Martinez, described similar incidents in Village Square. “These kids should wear helmets and follow the rules and obey Police Officers,” she wrote. “At Village Square they ride around with People walking and doing Wheelies.”
Other e-bike and scooter riders, however, say the behavior of some young people has contributed to a perception that does not reflect everyone who uses them. Donovan Lebrun, who said he has ridden an e-bike in Glen Cove for about a year, said he tries to stay off sidewalks and out of pedestrians’ way while riding to and from the high school.
“I believe Ebikers are misunderstood,” Lebrun wrote. “I do believe the public doesnt like them due to other kids my age riding them recklessly but I think they need to understand its not all bad riders going around.”
The Police Department has maintained what it describes as a zero-tolerance approach to illegal e-bikes and riders who violate traffic laws. Daniel Flanzig, a Sea Cliff attorney who specializes in bicycle and micromobility law, said that an important distinction is often lost in the broader debate: Legal e-bikes, e-scooters and higher-powered electric motorcycles are not the same thing.
Under state law, Class 1 e-bikes use pedal assistance and provide motor assistance up to a limit of 20 mph. Class 2 bikes, which have the same 750-watt motor, can use a throttle to propel the bicycle without pedaling, but are also limited to 20 mph. Class 3 bikes can reach 25 mph, and are permitted only in New York City. E-scooters, meanwhile, have handlebars and a standing floorboard, and may not be operated above 15 mph.
Vehicles that fall outside those classifications are increasingly referred to as “e-motos.” “That’s kind of become the nomenclature for these devices, e-moto, which are really like electric motorcycles, and fall well outside the class of any kind of legal device in New York state,” Flanzig said.
Enforcement, he explained, has become particularly complicated in Nassau County. The county has been enforcing a 2006 provision of its code that treats Class 2 e-bikes and e-scooters as motorized vehicles. Flanzig has legally challenged that enforcement, arguing that county code conflicts with the state law that legalized e-bikes and e-scooters in 2020.
The devices can provide transportation for people who cannot or choose not to drive. Cost, physical limitations or simply not owning a car can make micromobility an important alternative, Flanzig said. “They are affordable, they are accessible, and they get you from point A to point B,” he said.
Education, he added — particularly for parents — will be an important part of addressing illegal devices and unsafe riding. Flanzig is board president of the New York Bicycling Coalition, which he said is working to develop educational programs with schools. Because riders must be at least 16, he said, e-bikes should not be showing up at middle schools.
Flanzig said that parents and retailers may become a larger focus of efforts to keep illegal e-motos off public roads. “It really comes down to a point-of-sale issue first,” he said. “If you can’t get them, then we don’t have a problem.”
In Glen Cove, police said their immediate goal is to make parents aware when young riders are using the devices illegally, and to prevent reckless behavior from escalating into something more serious.
“You can’t be driving these e-bikes when you’re 14 years old around the neighborhood,” Nagle said. “So hopefully we can educate the parents and let them know that this is what your kids are doing.”
