By: Avid Cyclist Staff – June 30, 2026
NEW YORK – City Councilman Frank Morano, alongside several local residents, has filed a lawsuit against Mayor Zohran Mamdani regarding his decision to overturn a criminal enforcement policy for e-vehicle violations earlier this year.
Morano, who serves the 51st Council District, is pursuing the lawsuit in a personal capacity. According to the documents filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Morano stated he “personally witnessed a noticeable decrease in reckless e-bike ridership” under the previous rules. He is supported by eight residents who report having been injured or experiencing near-misses with e-vehicles.
The lawsuit claims that e-vehicles, such as e-bikes and e-scooters, “now run wild in New York City, traveling at high rates of speed, blowing through stop signs and red lights, barreling through crosswalks and weaving through streets and bike lanes, often in the wrong direction. … The situation is safe for no one.”
To combat these dangers, former Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch introduced a policy in April 2025 that issued criminal summonses for e-vehicle traffic violations. The lawsuit argues that because e-vehicle operators are unregistered, standard civil summonses lacked deterrent power and were frequently ignored.
Data cited in the lawsuit indicates that average fatalities, crashes, and injuries dropped by approximately 30% between April 28, 2025, and May 27, 2026. During this period, the NYPD issued roughly 21,000 criminal court summonses for cycling-related offenses, a significant jump from the fewer than 1,200 issued in the four months prior to the enforcement change.
Mayor Mamdani, who assumed office on Jan. 1, 2026, issued an executive mandate two months into his term that barred the police department from using criminal enforcement for e-vehicle violations, which previously required riders to appear in criminal court and risked bench warrants or arrests for no-shows. In a March 18 press release, Mamdani explained that e-bike riders and cyclists committing traffic offenses—such as running a stop sign—would now face the same civil summons process applied to motor vehicle drivers.
“This change ensures accountability while ending a punitive system that has disproportionately burdened working New Yorkers,” the release noted.
This comes months after using the issue as a campaign plank promising that New Yorkers “would have safer streets to bike on”. He is now reversing that, and almost making it a sanctuary city for e-scooter and e-bikes to speed at will declaring that laws will not be enforced.
Furthermore, Mamdani and the New York City Department of Transportation launched a safety training initiative for delivery workers. They also collaborated with the City Council to develop legislation aimed at addressing “unsafe practices by third-party delivery app companies — practices that often incentivize dangerous riding through unrealistic delivery times.”
The lawsuit contends that Mamdani’s mandate was not supported by data or studies, relying only on the assertion that Tisch’s policy unfairly targeted food-delivery workers. Additionally, the lawsuit states that “the Mamdani Policy Directive creates a severe, disparate impact on the elderly and disabled New Yorkers, who rely on the safety of public sidewalks and crosswalks as a matter of basic mobility and survival.”
The plaintiffs are seeking to have the mandate declared arbitrary and capricious, arguing it breaches the separation of powers doctrine, is pre-empted by state law, and violates both the New York City Human Rights Law and the Americans with Disabilities Act. They also request the awarding of attorneys’ and experts’ fees, along with any further relief deemed appropriate by the court.
