VOORHEESVILLE — With an observed increase in activity and little in the way of an enforcement mechanism, the village of Voorheesville is hoping that a public-relations campaign aimed at educating residents about safety issues associated with electronic bikes will help make the village safer. 

“It’s become a thing much more quickly,” Mayor Rich Straut said of e-bikes during the September village board of trustees meeting. “We see young people riding in the streets. We see them riding around the park. They’re very fast … We’ve had a couple of complaints about them.”

The board had first discussed the problem in July.

State framework

New York state established a legal framework for electric bikes and scooters in 2020, creating a three-tier classification system to distinguish e-bikes and e-scooters from other motor vehicles.

The New York Vehicle and Traffic Law defines two main device categories: electric scooter and bicycle with electric assist, known as an e-bike.

An electric scooter has, unsurprisingly, an electric motor and is described in state law as a “a type of device with handlebars, a floorboard or a seat that can be stood or sat upon by the operator.”

An e-bike is defined as having a motor whose output is less than 750 watts, includes fully operable pedals to distinguish it from other motorized vehicles, and is not more than 36 inches wide. 

E-bikes must also fall into one of the following three categories: Class 1, pedal-assist; Class 2, throttle-on-demand; or Class 3, high speed, which really has no relevance outside of New York City.

Class 1 e-bikes, which top out at a maximum speed of 20 miles per hour, are pedal-assist only; traffic rules for Class 1 e-bikes are effectively the same as those for traditional bicycles.

Class 2 e-bikes have throttle assistance, which allows the rider to be  propelled by an electric motor without the need for pedaling. 

In addition to operational rules, the state regulation includes specifics on rider age and equipment necessary to operate an e-bike. For example, to legally operate any class of e-bike in New York state, a person must be at least 16 years of age.

Village concerns

During the Sept. 23 village board meeting, Kaitlin Wilson told her fellow trustees that she’d been approached by a couple from Salem Hills “about the e-bike situation” in that neighborhood. “They’re very concerned about kids riding in the middle of the road” and getting hit by a car, Wilson said.

Trustee Jack Stevens said there’d been two recent incidents in his Scotch Pine neighborhood. “One kid ran into the door of a woman,” Stevens said, “and another one ran into the back of a car.”

Straut said he witnessed a young resident who did not yet appear to be 16 years old “riding down the middle” of Maple Avenue during the busy evening commute, while earlier in the meeting he offered a glimpse into one of the deficiencies with the 2020 legislation: New York state’s veneration of home rule. 

The 2020 law granted authority to local municipalities to enact their own ordinances, which has resulted in a complex, often more restrictive, series of patchwork rules across the state.

In Albany County, a handful of cities, towns, and villages — including the county itself — have enacted regulations. None of the eight municipalities that comprise The Enterprise coverage area — Guilderland, Altamont, New Scotland, Voorheesville, and the four Hilltowns — have local ordinances on the books.

In 2021, county legislators adopted the Albany County Electric Scooter and E-Bike Helmet Law, which mandates that “any individual operating or riding as a passenger on a bicycle with electric assist shall wear a helmet.” The law is applicable to all municipalities within Albany County, unless a city, town, or village has its own stricter rule. Other than the 2021 law, there are no e-bike and scooter prohibitions on the county-owned Helderberg-Hudson Rail Trail.

During a village block party the weekend prior to Sept. 23, Straut said he and Doug Miller, the village’s public safety commissioner, spoke with a pair of Albany County Sheriff’s deputies about the situation, and “they said they would keep an eye out for those kind of things,” but since they have duties that extend beyond the village, which does not have its own department, “they can’t can’t be here all the time.”

The village now has to get creative in the face of an age-old dilemma: Without police enforcement, what will stop kids younger than 16 from riding e-bikes? 

On this, the village has the makings of strategy, largely based around educational outreach. The campaign, to be aimed at parents, would communicate the law, safety risks, and expectations of young riders. The information would be pushed out on Facebook, published in Voorheesville’s twice-a-year newsletter sent to residents, and posted on the village website.

The objective is not to be punitive but to ensure safety and prevent further crashes or injuries, and to inform parents “what the law is,” while also conveying that the sheriff is being asked to enforce the regulations.