why haven't these things been banned

It always falls back to 'they need them for work'.

surprised that the insurance companies aren't stepping in

I would like to see better enforcement of traffic rules with e-bikes too.

It’s one thing when pedestrians walking at 3pm violate rules. Bikes at 10-15 mph requiring active effort and attention are another thing. E-bikes on the sidewalk zipping around at 25 mph while delivery worker looks down to see address, not so good.

The other day, I saw a scooter going 25mph+ the wrong way on a bike path in a pedestrian-heavy location, not giving right-of-way to pedestrians as was their right for crossing said bike lane.

i ride home up a busy narrowed one way street(because the city approved sidewalk use for restaurants where they shouldn't). At least once a week i have to navigate a delivery person salmoning and expecting to move out of his way.

banning the sale but not the use

https://electrek.co/2023/03/07/nyc-banning-electric-bikes-without-ul-batteries-fires/

While I support well designed products (assuming UL certification = well designed), the ban pushes additional cost onto the purchasers, generally a group of people who are not rolling in lots of spare cash, and which is only a marginal solution. As the article points out, the problem is with poorly repaired or modified batteries and non-authorized chargers. Initial UL certification isn't really going to address that.

Another in a string of recent idiotic statements from the mayor. (Recent blatherings that hint of either his incompetence or that he's juiced to the eyeballs on something: that religion/state statement; stating that that masks not be worn in stores so as to reduce crime, and now this).

@Aaron - the challenge here is also.. what's another law on the books if it won't be enforced? Will the sales ban be enforced as well as the legal pot licensing in which we have 1000s of illegal stores openly advertising and about 3 legal ones?

Note that all those unlicensed dispensaries actually have signs on door saying to take your mask off. Why? Because they are basically cash businesses and have been attracting armed thefts. Look at the string of smoke shop shootings in places like LES and Brooklyn. Lot of unintended consequences & cascades of crime from not enforcing the law up front.

If we can't shut down the 99.9% of illegal dispensaries knowing that theres a list of only 3 legal ones, how do we expect NYPD to catch non-UL batteries? They gonna go through store inventories? LOL. How long til you get fake UL stickers being plopped onto every unsafe device. Good luck.

Finally we will have years of use of existing unsafe batteries, plus people continuing to buy from out of state / black market , so again.. this will be hugely infective but qualifies as "doing something" for appearances sake.

E-bikes were illegal unless DOT-compliant (brake lights, turn signals, etc) and had to be registered, insured, operated by a helmet wearer possessing a motorcycle license, etc. just like any motor bike until the pandemic. Oddly, that remains the case for bikes or scooters motorized by engines. The legalization of e-bikes was roughly the equivalent of announcing that a Prius can drive on sidewalks and requires no insurance or safety protocols. But ebikes were used with reckless abandon before the city blessed them 2 years ago, and they will continue to be so used regardless of any regulation.

I find it interesting that there is mass acceptance that e-bikes aren't "motorcycles." Between empty bike lanes, closed streets (called "Open Streets"), "Road Diets" (like narrowing 8th Avenue down to 2 lanes to cause Congestion On Purpose), dining shacks, the suggestion to remove the BQE altogether, etc, etc, etc TransAlt/StreetsBlog/OpenPlans has captured a significant portion of NYC government beginning with Polly Trottenberg (take a look at Clinton Street between Grand and Delancey. The entire area was City owned land until recently, so the streets could have been redesigned/widened/whatever. Instead they redesigned the approach to the Williamsburg bridge forcing cars off of wider roads and onto this one at the same time as making an extra wide bike lane here and having no place for vehicles to pull over even though the entrance to brand new buildings are here. As a result, this stretch is heavily congested even when the Williamsburg bridge is empty with virtually no traffic on it).

For decades Transportation Alternatives has preached Congestion On Purpose mandates to fight evil cars. Now we have the worst congestion in the country (recently topped Los Angeles) with increases pollution and casualties (both cyclists and pedestrians) but the proposed solution is more of the same. Advocates are actually preaching "We have to cause congestion to solve congestion."

At the same time we are on the verge of implementing Congestion Pricing even though the majority are against it (what do you expect when the less than 1% of NYers who commute by bicycle are flooding social media calling the 45% of NYC households who own cars "The Minority") and the Mayor is crying that we need more people to come to the affected area.

This is a larger issue than e-bikes. TransAlt has always been against ANY enforcement against any cyclists. 30 years ago they came to our block association meeting on West 9th Street. When one of the residents complained that there was an issue with cyclists riding the wrong way down our street and often coming close to hitting pedestrians crossing, the response from the head of the organization was simply "our members wouldn't do that." They also respond routinely today to any complaints that bicycles don't pollute at all and they don't kill anybody. Of course, the fleet of trucks which redistribute and maintain city bikes pollute plenty.

I'll stop here because I could keep writing pages and still not fully explore the issue. However, in the private sector buildings are already exploring banning e-bikes.
https://www.urbandigs.com/forum/index.php?threads/e-bikes-dangers.670/#post-5767

I also point out that there have been bicycle deliveries in New York City for a century before we allowed e-bikes.

BTW I am absolutely pro-imigration. But as someone who owned multiple businesses in a Third World country we have to acknowledge that immigrants from these places bring standards and practices from those countries along with them. If we neither teach them nor regulate them and merely shrug it off with "they need to do that to make a living" we shouldn't be surprised as NYC comes to resemble a Third World country. And it's not just cyclists - the lack of motorist following laws is booming as well. I almost got hit by a car with NJ plates and an illegal dark plate cover yesterday as they made an illegal right-on-red without even stopping. When I go down Broadway in Brooklyn I see every kind of bad driver behavior possible; same anywhere near Parsons/Jamaica Ave or Main Street Flushing.

This will not end well and the concept that getting rid of all cars/trucks will fix it is a TransAlt wet dream which will wreck the economy of NYC and eventually cause worse flight than 1960s.

I'm glad you brought this up. I had a handymen for a few days last year from Sri Lanka and he said the vast majority of his compatriots come here and carry on exactly like they did in their homeland. They don't bother registering their cars etc. Go to Jackson Heights the double parking is off the hook. And look at the driving habits of the typical Uber cabbie. Not good.

LOL
When I saw the thread title, I thought this would be about the drug pusher littering the board.

Made me think HFScomm of years gone past came back as a pharmaceutical rep or something