Friday’s Headlines: Cuomo’s E-Bike Deal Edition

It looks like Gov. Cuomo has abandoned his worst instinct and may not make cycling in New York City even unsafer.

Bike advocates were concerned that Cuomo would insist on a helmet mandate in any bill legalizing electric bikes — even though helmet requirements have been shown to make cycling less safe overall because they tend to reduce cycling, leaving the remaining cyclists unprotected by the “strength in numbers” effect. Also, a helmet bill would kill Citi Bike, whose tens of thousands of daily riders rarely carry helmets. And helmet laws would inevitably lead to police over-reach, especially against people of color.

Fortunately, late Thursday afternoon Zack Fink of NY1 tweeted a mini-scoop: Cuomo has apparently signed off on legalizing e-bikes — but will only mandate helmets if the bike can go faster than 25 mph. Since delivery workers already wear helmets and Citi Bike e-bikes can’t go that fast, this does not at first glance seem to be the disaster we anticipated. Full details will apparently be revealed in the governor’s budget address (coming soon!).

Friday will be clear and cold — and very windy. Stay warm with today’s headlines: