By Bob Tannenhauser
Personal electric vehicles (PEVs) are now permitted on Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) property and onboard mass transit (except express buses), according to an announcement made by the MTA on April 24. The policy is designed to increase access to mass transit for people “who do not live within walking distance of a transit station,” one of the goals established by Extending Transit’s Reach, the MTA’s Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Micromobility Strategic Action Plan, issued in January.
A resident of Queens, Alex is a doorman on the Upper West Side. He used to drive to work and park on Central Park West, until the protected bike lane installed in 2019 eliminated around 400 spots. Now he rides his e-scooter from his apartment to the Woodside Station, rides the subway with it to the Columbus Circle station, then hops back on to finish his commute to the West 80s. “I love it,” he told the Rag.
But what about the dangers of PEVs, primarily fire? And won’t they impede the comfort of other riders?
“Safety is the MTA’s priority,” said MTA Chief Safety & Security Officer Patrick Warren. All policies and procedures concerning the transport of bicycles apply to PEVs. There are also specific guidelines and rules for PEVs:
- Charging of PEVs in or on any MTA train, subway, bus, platform, station, facility, or terminal is prohibited
- Walk with it, don’t ride it
- If the PEV can be folded, it must be folded, or compacted and carried, except for on MTA express buses. Any form of PEVs, including foldable permissible PEVs, are prohibited inside MTA express buses.
- PEVs must remain powered off during transport
- Doors, seats, aisles and emergency equipment must be kept clear
- PEVs and their batteries must never be left unattended, discarded, stored, locked to any MTA asset within the system, or abandoned for any reason
- Cannot exceed 100 pounds in weight
- Must have a wheel diameter not exceeding 27 inches nor be more than 80 inches long or 48 inches high
- Hoverboards are not permitted in the system
- Must use batteries that are Underwriter Laboratory (UL) certified and listed
- Must not emit environmental contaminants
- Must not have damaged batteries
- Property of a shared or rented PEV provider (e.g., Citi Bike, Lime, Bird, Lynx, etc.) into the system is not allowed
How these rules and procedures will be enforced remains to be seen, as does the impact of noncompliance on rush-hour commutes and the safety of commuters.
“All it takes is for one small battery cell to be defective, overcharged or damaged, and a tremendous amount of energy is released in the form of heat and toxic flammable gases all at once,” said Daniel Murray, the Fire Department’s chief of hazmat operations, in The New York Times in March. The fires are also very difficult to extinguish. Only certain types of fire extinguishers are effective.
The danger, therefore, lies in the use of “off-market, refurbished, damaged, or improperly charged batteries,” The Times said. Although the MTA rules require UL certified batteries, the safety of commuters will ultimately depend upon compliance and enforcement.
Commercially purchased batteries are fine. The batteries become dangerous when people take them apart and mess around with them, which does happen quite frequently, or when they get damaged in an accident. Ultimately though it’s like everything else in the Subway, all you can do is hope for the best.
The bicycles on subway cars are more of a threat just because they block doorways. This is extremely dangerous. They have to be there though because those guys have to get to work and that’s important so we live with it. Like I said, all we can do is hope for the best.
Every word of your first sentence is wrong. I had a number of very popular brand name cell phone auxiliary power cells one of which proved to be defective and caused a catastrophic fire that nearly killed my spouse and me. Every item we owned had to be destroyed or cleaned because lithium battery fires release hydrofluoric acid gas which is highly toxic and can cause electronics to have secondary fires years after exposure due to hydrofluoric acids highly corrosive nature.
Spreading dangerous false information is highly irresponsible. Think before you submit on a topic you are clearly not familiar with.
Steve,, great new slogan for NYC…”…all we can do is hope for the best.” If some enterprising person sells t-shirts with this slogan, I would definitely buy one. I’m not in New York, just a visitor…love NYC. Take heart man, we all feel that way sometimes, even us out here in no-man’’s land. Come to think of it, “What were they thinking?!” Is another possible slogan for just about anywhere! Keep the faith!
Yes that is brilliant – a new slogan “all we can do is hope for the best”
“All you can do is hope for the best” is not exactly how public safety is normally pursued!
Jerry, I’m sure Kansas Flyover was being sarcastic.
More regulations of evehicles not less
No one listens to the people who actually live in the city. We know the hazards; the MTA ignores potential dangers. Yet another reason to avoid subways and buses.
I can’t wait for the next fresh hell to be unleashed.
You mentioned not listening to people who live here, but the reality is that most working-class people in the city want to use bikes and especially e-scooters. Personally, I take my scooter on the subway all the time. Eric, do you have a problem with that? There are more hazards associated with traditional modes of transportation than with bikes and scooters. It’s time to stop sensationalizing this issue and allow people to find easier, quicker, and more affordable ways to travel around the city.
It’s important to remember that not everyone is a reckless rider or driver, and not everyone on a scooter is looking to commit a crime. Let’s move past these stereotypes and recognize that bikes and scooters can be a valuable form of transportation for many people in the city.
And yet when they asked people in Paris, well of 75% of voters said they did not want electric scooters in the city? Could it be that what you want is not what “most” people want.
Hi Ali,
Lifelong New Yorker here.
I take the bus and subway all the time – to work 5 days a week and on weekends.
And pay my fare.
(And pay taxes)
No I do not want bikes and scooters on buses and subways – already crowded and stressful enough…..
All sounds great except no one will enforce those rules.
Absolutely right! Safety is the #1 priority but not enough cops to take care of the crime already there. Wait until someone tries riding the scooter on platforms and collides with someone waiting for a train. There is no reason for a motor on a bike or a scooter whether it’s a battery or something else and if you’re going to have a motor get a license plate and insurance to protect the public from the accident you may be in (and protect you too)
No one enforces rules now for the disabled in wheelchairs. Now this?
There is no room for people with walkers, rollators and wheelchairs on many, many many busses. You can wait almost an hour if there is even a bus driver who will let you on. Sometimes they will NOT ask people to give up the wheelchair seats.
Safety issues are clearly NOT a priority. You think the average person using these ebikes and especially the ones you rent are going to even know how to ensure they are safe? Come on. Get real. Look at all the fires with idiots who put those bikes in their homes. Lives have already been destroyed. Imagine being in a subway car when one of these goes up in flames. A lawsuit waiting to happen with death and injuries. Ridiculous idea.
Re: “You can wait almost an hour if there is even a bus driver who will let you on. Sometimes they will NOT ask people to give up the wheelchair seats.”
WRONG! I use a full-size motorized wheelchair and use MTA buses to travel our city. NEVER, lemme repeat, NEVER, have I had a driver who would not let me on! AND, every one, male or female, has helped secure the chair in the space reserved for them.
I’m usually a rather cynical person, but I have absolute RESPECT for the drivers.
So very dangerous! As if e bikes and scooters/ mopeds aren’t dangerous enough as it is. Now those who do not follow laws on the streets wonts follow them on subways either!!
Wonderful news. Looking forward to thinking and praying and thinking and praying for the 6 people mowed down and onto the train bed by e-scooters speeding on the platform in 2024, and the 22 people dead and 36 injured by the “DeKalb St. e-bike fire of June 16, 2025”.
So the MTA thinks there is room on buses for scooters and bicycles?
BTW bicycles-scooters already siphon from mass transit usage.
Allowing them on subways further siphons from buses – people could take a bus to a subway, but won’t.
“Alex” mentioned above could have taken a bus to the subway.
I love this! 13 different rules. They forgot to add rule #1, pay your fare! They can’t enforce that one, they’re gonna come down with a tape measure and enforce “Must have a wheel diameter not exceeding 27 inches “???
Sure…
“Must use batteries that are Underwriter Laboratory (UL) certified and listed”
While certification is a Good Idea, can FDNY, the MTA, and pretty much every else finally wake up to the fact that UL is **NOT** the only game in town? There are a couple of dozen similarly reliable and officially recognized National Testing Labs:
https://www.osha.gov/nationally-recognized-testing-laboratory-program/current-list-of-nrtls
Well, there’s a long list of added safety issues. There are definitely added crime issues, This is one added reason that, after decades of subway reliance, I’ve dropped out. I’m not alone on this.
This is totally crazy. These rules will not be enforced. Police don’t even enforce riding on sidewalks or bikes going through red lights. Do the people who make these decisions even ride buses or the subway?
I’m pretty sure they don’t ride public transportation or they wouldn’t allow this insanity. They all drive to work and park wherever they please, so they know nothing about public transportation. If you have a motorized vehicle, use it on the street. This is dangerous and a really bad idea.
WAY too much turnstile jumping and/or jimmying. And they’re gonna enforce rules for ebikes?
No, people will know which stations to use where no one looks while people open the door for them to get in.
The real fun begins when they try to get into and out of the train.
I guess the worst case scenario is if one of these things explodes on a subway car where the doors to the adjoining cars are locked. I think if someone pulls the emergency cord the train stops but all doors remain locked. Can any MTA people reading this confirm what I have written?
This is nuts…
There’s not even enough room for an obnoxious stroller on the subway . WTH with motorized vehicles? What next -allow people to bring their cars on the train? Rather than impair everybody’s safety, just add docking stations near the subways. It’s simple and less hazardous. I’d love to see how people get these things through turnstiles and down the stairs. Oh wait, they’re not taking the stairs. They use the elevators which are ostensibly are for people who are on crutches or have seriously mobility issues. — and all those stroller people who often take up at least 50% of the elevator space. This is the stupidest thing I’ve heard in a long time.
nachocheese-
i’m a parent.
i am assuming the comment is about really big strollers like uppababy (which many people have) – not smaller “umbrella” strollers….?
Why does it matter what stroller? You can’t put a very young infant into an umbrella one. I’m amazed that people are “liking” the post that calls strollers obnoxious. Same people like to show “compassion and empathy” for the homeless and migrants. What a hypocritical society we are…
When my daughter was a baby I used a carrier and then when big enough an umbrella stroller. And yes those huge “chariots” for kids are obnoxious on a s
Crowded subway. And now along with e-bikes and scooters
Oh, give me a break. A carrier is good for only certain duration of time. After that a very young infant needs to be in a full-sized stroller. And yes, they need to go to various appointments like doctors and such as my preemie had to.
Obnoxious strollers? How do you feel about wheelchairs, they also take lots of room, also obnoxious?
Hi DM,
I am a parent too.
But also a friend of a family with an 8 year old who must use a wheelchair.
Presumably it would be ok for a child who must use a wheelchair?
My comment meant that should be ok for both strollers and wheelchairs be on a subway. As a matter of fact they should be accommodated as a priority. Sorry you read it differently.
An obnoxious stroller? Can you imagine what a person with this attitude towards infants would do if they need to make their war with their scooter?
Well said. Just go ahead and yell at those obnoxious babies and toddlers getting in your way – since they’re clearly not people with limited mobility or human beings who deserve just as much as you do to be on the subway (or even exist in the space/time continuum).
Don’t be afraid, just yell at them, they won’t say much back. You’ll win. Strategy of a winner. True winner at life.
I have been yelled at when my son was in a stroller. One young guy even pushed the stroller which almost got jammed by the doors.
So it is OK to:
not pay the fare.
take a bicycle or scooter and take up room on buses and subway.
take an e-device and endanger everyone.
smoke pot.
in the meantime, the MTA keeps cutting bus frequency, bus routes and bus stops.
folks who do the right thing – use mass transit and pay the fare – just get screwed.
Nothing. Nothing will go wrong. Stop egging on the hysterics.
My larger concern is if they allow rental e-scooters throughout NYC.
The issue with scooters is they don’t have docking stations and end up littering sidewalks, plazas and parks (as opposed to the e-bike rentals, Citi-Bike, that are returned to rental stations.
In other cities that have the scooters, they end up all over the place, look horrible and are tripping hazards. Even in stereotypically orderly Germany, they are a mess. Paris is trying to deal with the problem now;
“Green Savior or Deadly Menace? Paris Votes on E-Scooter Ban”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/01/world/europe/paris-electrict-scooter-referendum.html?searchResultPosition=1
They are not a mess in Dubai. Docking stations, well defined lanes, even the ones shared with pedestrians are very safe. Everyone behaves as there’s enforcement.
If concerned, people should call the MTA and State reps Brad Hoylman and Linda Rosenthal
These two phased themselves out of the constituents concerns long time ago
I guess we just have to wait for one of these e-bike batteries to explode on the subway for the MTA to understand the danger.
Do Patrick Warren (the MTA’s so called Chief Safety Officer!) and Transportation Alternatives have a plan to inspect batteries coming onto public transportation? A couple of days ago I was in a subway car with 2 delivery guys and their e-bikes – I was pretty nervous imagining the horrors of being trapped on a subway train on fire.
Regarding Lisa Daglian and the PCAC….their website states PCAC was created to “serve as a voice for users of the MTA system in the development and implementation of policy, and to hold the MTA board and management accountable to riders.” Maybe riders who would rather not experience an underground train fire should be taken into consideration when they set their policies.
An e-bike appeared in the subway I was on the other day and I immediately switched cars.
Bicycles have always been allowed on subways, so why not e bikes.
Exploding batteries!
And bikers are not riding them on a subway which I can’t expect from the ones who use scooters
Just wait until one of them explodes
I’m horrified and it has nothing to do with batteries. I’m thinking about how much room the bikes will take up on already cramped buses and subway trains. And, of course, that the chances of enforcing regulations are akin to the proverbial snowball. And whose bright idea was this anyway?
Transportation Alternatives. A well funded lobbying group supported by private investment firm and by the ride share companies (Lyft-Citibike) and food delivery services like GrubHub, Door Dash.
I’m a senior citizen. Given the recent crime statistics, I would be an easy target. Then there is the problem of filth coming from homeless sleeping on the trains. In light of this, I wonder what the MTA brass is thinking, Those are complicated rules to enforce. Does the MTA put the battery police in every car and bus? I wonder what the MTA brass is SMOKING, given it’s total divorce from reality.
Regarding these new MTA bike rules, the high brass are completely divorced from reality. Are they going to put the bike police in every car? These rules seem too complicated and impossible to enforce. Then there are the existing problems of mugging and filth from homeless sleeping in the cars.
As a senior with mobility challenges, I already struggle for space on the elevators in the subway. Strollers, bicycles, e-bikes, scooters, suitcases, and equipment being hauled through the subway system, take up a lot of space. With this new ruling, I expect the situation to get worse. I’d like to see able-bodied people carry their bicycles and suitcases up the stairs, rather than crowding out the disabled on the elevators. Only about 25% of the subways are accessible for people with disabilities. I fear that the increase in PEVs will greatly decrease access.
It only takes one battery to blow up on a crowded subway, especially in a tunnel. I can see the headline: “fifty dead, seventy in the hospital with severe burns.” Good luck!
Subway free for five years and staying that way.
I’m curious about your stance on people taking their scooters on the subway. As an example, I regularly take my 50-pound scooter with a 10-inch wheel on the subway without any issues. So, what additional regulations do you think should be enforced on people like me who use the subway with their scooters? Let’s stick to the facts and use real examples rather than making up hypothetical scenarios.
Ali,
I don’t think it is ok for people to take scooters or bikes on buses or subways.
Actually they should pay 2 fares as they are taking up space for 2+ people.
As long as you can put it in your lap or hold it off the floor when standing I have no issues
I’ve lived in this city a long time and I think this is the most incredible thing I have ever heard from a city related agency! Right now buses are overflowing with elderly and disabled riders with walkers. Then there are baby carriages. And shopping carriages. You can hardly get through when you get on a bus stumbling over all the apparatus already there. And they’re going to put e-bikes and mopeds on them too??
But to put them underground too? Well I live in a building where e-vehicles are not permitted. But it’s ok to invite them where they can ignite in a subway car under my building!
This is utter insanity which now seems to be ruling our city. It’s not bad enough that e-vehicles are completely unregulated and have caused pedestrian injury and even death because there is no regulation or enforcement. And then we’re going to have them riding the loop in Central Park too? If this sounds more than coincidental to you well you’d be right. This is the result of a lobbying campaign by Trans Alt funded by an investment banker and Lyft who owns Citibike along with other such companies as well as food delivery services to capture and commoditize our streets, our sidewalks. We’ve added 65,000 deliveristas to the streets of NY. Has anyone even considered if we can handle that many on our streets? Trans Alt has helped to eliminate parking for a vision of a bike-centric NY. without personal cars. Now apparently they will endanger our residents as they come for our parks, subways and buses.
Mayor Adams who came on as this Everyman, a former cop up from the housing projects which is a great NY story. Yet now it seems he’s dancing with the developers, the lobbyists like Trans Alt and encapsulating it all by calling it the City of Yes. Well to many of the disabled, the elderly, pedestrians and people who must drive in order to work-in other words taxpayers, this is the City of No!! It’s a city being robbed its quality of life to profit big corporate powers.
We had a transit system that not so many years ago was on life support. It was an accident waiting to happen. So now the MTA has actually improved it largely with the now resigned Andy Byford from London. Not satisfied with its success the MTA once again is making the transit system an accident waiting to happen.
In Florida bikes and scooters are placed on the outside of a bus on a rack. Time for racks on MTA buses. Had a person on a bus with scooter the other day , bus was crowded and several people tripped over scooters as the pot smoking owners was oblivious
Would you put your bike or scooter on the outside of a bus in NY? You wouldn’t have it for long if you did.
John-
Buses should be slowed further so person can put a bike on a rack?
Everyone on the bus should wait for the bicyclist?
I have lived on the UWS for 45 years and this is the stupidest ‘change’ ever. E bikes and scooters etc are mechanized transport and they all should be required to have a license and some sort of insurance (other cities and states have these requirements). But, it seems that the e-bikes can go anywhere on any street regardless of the rules and laws. I’d like a listing of summonses issued for the traffic violations alone. Is there such a thing? Are there any rules? I have never heard of anyone getting even a ticket.
If, as it seems, the city cannot figure out how to make us safer from battery fires, why is the MTA loading on additional iffy circumstances?
And, just when was this approved by the MTA and did any private citizens get any notifications of at least a do nothing prior hearing?
Thanks Westside Rag for running this article, did they not even let you know ahead of time?
Incredibly the New York Times has not even bothered to report on this!
5,000-pound SUVs Now Allowed on Streets — What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
i don’t think allowing PEVs on subways and buses are a good idea. one reason that was not stated is that quite often the subway cars and buses are crowded or very crowded and there is just not room for them. i think the answer to the problem of commuters having to ebike to the subway or bus stations far from their homes is that parking for these PEVs need to be built near subway stations and key bus stops.
Great idea larry w !!
“Let no one be confused by the propaganda notion that this is all about ‘saving the planet’ or ‘car violence’ or open community spaces.’
It’s all about investors who have created a money-making bonanza for their bottom line-namely transportation and ride share apps!
The fewer the privately-owned vehicles, especially without adequate transit access, the more dependency New Yorkers will have on alternate car and ride share profiteering.
People need to understand the underlying scheme!”
Write and call your elected leaders. Take the survey from the Central Park Conservancy on their website. Write to the MTA!!
Take back your city!!
This is a disaster waiting to happen. Supremely ill advised!! Perhaps having dedicated cars for these vehicles?? Otherwise. NO!!!!! Impossible to enforce.
That’s it I am not paying the fare anymore . Like it’s not enough that you have homeless people smoking and peeing in the subway cars now i have to beg for some space in the cars . Looks like law abiding citizens have no rights in this city anymore .
You people need to get a grip on reality. Stop with the hysterics. Bikes have been allowed on the subway for a very long time. Allowing e-bikes isn’t going to change anything. The danger from e-bike batteries is almost entirely when they’re charging, and that’s not happening in the subway.
DS – There is no room on buses and subways for transportation-vehicles.
FYI – DSNY concerns about batteries in trash…
https://gothamist.com/news/lithium-ion-batteries-a-growing-fire-hazard-in-nyc-garbage-trucks-dsny-says