New York City became the first major US city to enact a speed limit for ebikes when, on October 24, 2025, it passed a 15 MPH limit. I’ve been testing ebikes for more than five years in this lovable urban death maze I call home, and I’ve yet to see anyone obey it in the three weeks the law has been live. Moreover, I’m not sure how they expect to enforce it, and whether it’s even safe.a mixed bag, to say the leastEbike classifications are broken down into three classes, and even the slowest classes exceed the new 15 MPH speed limit. I’ve ridden a lot of ebikes from manufacturers all over the world over the past five years, and not one actually limits you from pedaling faster once the electric motor’s power cuts out.I’d doubt that ebike manufacturers are going to make specialized models that cut the power to the wheels above 15 MPH. They make speed-limited versions for larger markets with such limits, such as a cluster of European countries, but I seriously doubt they’d do it for one city.That leaves compliance down to the riders, and even if it’s just the extra three miles per hour on tap from even the slowest ebikes, who’s going to abstain when it’s so easily available, knowing there’s little chance a cop is around the corner with a radar gun to track them.Neither is it difficult to get an analog, non-electric bike past 15 MPH. How would somebody notice whether that bike that zipped by was an electric bike with the hand throttle pinned to 20 MPH or an old-fashioned, all-person-power bike being pedaled to 20 MPH or faster?The new law puts riders in a bind. When I’m in a bike lane on a fast ebike, sure. I try not to zip past anybody too closely or rampage through the lane when slower bikes, electric or not, are ahead. That’s just common courtesy. Ebikes moving through bike lanes at fast speeds is a hazard. I’ve been on both ends of that experience, as the passer and the passed.If they want to enforce a measure to keep slower cyclists safer in bike lanes, start with getting the damn motorized scooters out of them. I bike frequently in the bike lanes here, and not a day passes where I don’t hear the gasoline motor of a road-legal scooter close in on my back and then zoom by at 35 MPH. It’s always felt far more dangerous than an ebike passing me from behind.But even though the city has been building new bike lanes at a decent rate in recent years, it’s also a given that at some point during any journey, you’re going to have to bike in the road with the cars, and New York City traffic is challenging, to say it in the kindest way as possible.Any boost of speed isn’t just a way to shave seconds off my bike commutes. It’s also a major aspect of safety. When I’m stuck at 17 MPH in the road with no bike lane, I feel far less safe than when I’m zipping along at 28 MPH on a class three ebike.The latter is fast enough to keep up with traffic and not become a rolling roadblock, which just pisses people off to the point that they tailgate you or veer into oncoming traffic to pass you.I’ve been on both sides of that showdown, too, as both a cyclist in the road with a car breathing down my neck and as a driver stuck behind a cyclist who’s pedaling like they’re in quicksand.When I’m a pedestrian facing down a bike, it isn’t the fast ebikes that grate my nerves as much as the people who ride them on crowded sidewalks. I’d rather see that eliminated before I saw them shaving off a few miles per hour for bikes ridden in the street.The post New York City Adopts 15 MPH Speed Limit for Ebikes appeared first on VICE.