Community Op-Ed: The bike stops here: Removing illegal vehicles for a safer New York

Public safety has always been the North Star of this administration. Keeping our city safe is not just about crime stats — it is also about how people are feeling. And New Yorkers have strong feelings about illegal mopeds and scooters, especially when they are driving the wrong way down streets, on sidewalks, or in the dark without any lights, and when they are modified to increase noise and disturb neighborhoods.

The rise of the moped era has terrorized many of our pedestrians. Seniors and older adults are afraid of being run down right on their own block. Parents are afraid their children can be injured by someone popping a wheelie. And everyday residents dread that sound as they hear it approaching.

But sometimes the use of these illegal vehicles is more than a danger or a nuisance, sometimes it’s criminals. Criminals often use illegal mopeds and ghost vehicles to ride around and snatch cell phones, jewelry, and wallets from New Yorkers, or worse, to flee after committing a shooting, robbery, or another violent crime.

Our administration will not tolerate crime or riders who think the rules don’t apply to them; that’s why we have been taking action on this issue since day one. And as summer starts and more of these vehicles are out, we have ramped up enforcement all over the city, leading to us to confiscate and impound more than 100,000 of these vehicles since 2022. That’s over 100,000 ghost vehicles with forged, illegal, or no license plates, including over 62,300 illegal two-wheeled vehicles. These vehicles — which are often unregistered, uninsured, or stolen — are often used in crimes or implicated in accidents. They also deprive law-abiding taxpayers of millions of dollars in unpaid tolls and fees.

We have been clear: We are not going to let people live in fear, and we are not going to look the other way. Last week, we sent another 200 of these illegal vehicles to their final destination: the scrap heap. We crushed these vehicles, instead of reselling them, so they can never be used in a crime or to terrorize innocent New Yorkers again. Whether we’re getting illegal guns or illegal ghost cars off our streets, when it comes to public safety, we are literally crushing it.

The destruction of these illegal vehicles sends an important message to everyone who drives on the streets of our city: No one is above the law. If you drive an illegal vehicle in New York, you will face the consequences. And so will your ride.

And the numbers show that our effort to rid our city of these vehicles is helping us deliver a safer city for residents of the five boroughs. This year has seen a nearly 86 % decrease in grand larceny patterns, as well as a 68 % decrease in robbery patterns involving mopeds. More broadly, there has been a 57 % decrease in all index crimes reported involving mopeds year-to-date. This is all in addition to our efforts that have driven down overall crime across our city; with the continuing drop in major crimes we’ve seen in April, May, and so far this month, we are on track to have our sixth straight quarter of declining crime.

I want to thank NYPD Commissioner Tisch, Sanitation Commissioner Lojan, and the men and women at both New York’s Finest and New York’s Strongest for helping us get these illegal vehicles off our streets, once and for all. Thanks to their efforts, New York City remains the safest big city in America and the best place to raise a family. But it is also a place where you can live knowing your city is looking out for you — day and night, in schools and in subways, on the streets and on the sidewalks.