Defines the term "electric assisted bicycle" for purposes of the applicability of the vehicle and traffic law; requires persons sixteen years of age or older to wear a helmet when operating an electric assisted bicycle.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1618--A
2013-2014 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 9, 2013
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GANTT -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Transportation -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to the defi-
nition of electric assisted bicycle
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The vehicle and traffic law is amended by adding a new
2 section 102-c to read as follows:
3 § 102-c. Electric assisted bicycle. A bicycle with two or three wheels
4 which has a saddle and fully operative pedals for human propulsion and
5 also has an electric motor. The electric assisted bicycle's electric
6 motor shall: have a power output of less than seven hundred fifty watts;
7 have a maximum speed of less than twenty miles per hour on a paved level
8 surface when powered solely by such a motor while ridden by an operator
9 who weighs one hundred seventy pounds; and be incapable of further
10 increasing the speed of the device when human power is used to propel
11 the device at or more than twenty miles per hour.
12 § 2. Section 125 of the vehicle and traffic law, as amended by chapter
13 365 of the laws of 2008, is amended to read as follows:
14 § 125. Motor vehicles. Every vehicle operated or driven upon a public
15 highway which is propelled by any power other than muscular power,
16 except (a) electrically-driven mobility assistance devices operated or
17 driven by a person with a disability, (a-1) electric personal assistive
18 mobility devices operated outside a city with a population of one
19 million or more, (b) vehicles which run only upon rails or tracks, (c)
20 snowmobiles as defined in article forty-seven of this chapter, [and] (d)
21 all terrain vehicles as defined in article forty-eight-B of this
22 chapter, and (e) electric assisted bicycles as defined in section one
23 hundred two-c of this article. For the purposes of title four of this
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00592-03-3
A. 1618--A 2
1 chapter, the term motor vehicle shall exclude fire and police vehicles
2 other than ambulances. For the purposes of titles four and five of this
3 chapter the term motor vehicles shall exclude farm type tractors and all
4 terrain type vehicles used exclusively for agricultural purposes, or for
5 snow plowing, other than for hire, farm equipment, including self-pro-
6 pelled machines used exclusively in growing, harvesting or handling farm
7 produce, and self-propelled caterpillar or crawler-type equipment while
8 being operated on the contract site.
9 § 3. The vehicle and traffic law is amended by adding a new section
10 1238-a to read as follows:
11 § 1238-a. Additional provisions applicable to electric assisted bicy-
12 cles, operators and passengers. 1. In addition to complying with all of
13 the rules, regulations and provisions applicable to bicycles contained
14 in this article, an electric assisted bicycle as defined in section one
15 hundred two-c of this chapter shall comply with the following require-
16 ments:
17 (a) Meet the equipment and manufacturing requirements for bicycles
18 adopted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (16 C.F.R. 1512.1, et
19 seq.) or the requirements adopted by the National Highway Traffic Safety
20 Administration (49 C.F.R. 571.1, et seq.) in accordance with the
21 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 (15 U.S.C. Sec.
22 1381, et seq.) for motor driven cycles; and
23 (b) Operate in a manner so that the electric motor is disengaged or
24 ceases to function when the brakes are applied, or operate in a manner
25 such that the motor is engaged through a switch or mechanism that, when
26 released, will cause the electric motor to disengage or cease to func-
27 tion.
28 2. Notwithstanding the provisions of section twelve hundred thirty-
29 eight of this article, no person less than sixteen years of age shall
30 operate or ride as a passenger upon an electric assisted bicycle, and no
31 person sixteen years of age or older shall allow any person less than
32 sixteen years of age to operate or ride as a passenger upon such bicy-
33 cle.
34 3. No person sixteen years of age or older shall operate or ride as a
35 passenger on an electric assisted bicycle unless such person is wearing
36 a helmet meeting standards established by the commissioner. For the
37 purposes of this subdivision, wearing a helmet means having a helmet of
38 good fit fastened securely on the head of such wearer with the helmet
39 straps securely fastened.
40 4. (a) Any person who violates the provisions of subdivision two or
41 three of this section shall pay a civil fine not to exceed fifty
42 dollars.
43 (b) The court shall waive any fine for which a person who violates the
44 provisions of subdivision three of this section would be liable if such
45 person supplies the court with proof that between the date of violation
46 and the appearance date for such violation such person purchased or
47 rented a helmet.
48 (c) The court may waive any fine for which a person who violates the
49 provisions of subdivision three of this section would be liable if the
50 court finds that due to reasons of economic hardship such person was
51 unable to purchase a helmet or due to such economic hardship such person
52 was unable to obtain a helmet from the statewide in-line skate and bicy-
53 cle helmet distribution program, as established in section two hundred
54 six of the public health law, or a local distribution program.
55 5. The failure of any person to comply with the provisions of this
56 section shall not constitute contributory negligence or assumption of
A. 1618--A 3
1 risk, and shall not in any way bar, preclude or foreclose an action for
2 personal injury or wrongful death by or on behalf of such person, nor in
3 any way diminish or reduce the damages recoverable in any such action.
4 6. A police officer shall only issue a summons for a violation of
5 subdivision two or three of this section by a person less than sixteen
6 years of age to the parent or guardian of such person if the violation
7 by such person occurs in the presence of such person's parent or guardi-
8 an and where such parent or guardian is eighteen years of age or more.
9 Such summons shall only be issued to such parent or guardian, and shall
10 not be issued to the person less than sixteen years of age.
11 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
