New York City Council joint oversight hearing on micromobility, 30 September 2026

What PEVRA is asking the Council for

An electric unicycle is unlawful in New York City by drafting accident, not by decision. State law defines an electric scooter as a device with handlebars, a floorboard or a seat, and defines a self-balancing device as two non-tandem wheeled. A one-wheel device fits neither, so it falls into the residual motor vehicle class, which it cannot register for. No legislator voted for that.

Three asks:

• Pass a resolution calling on Albany to fix the definition. Assembly bill A5446 does it in one clause: one wheeled or two non-tandem wheeled.
• Regulate by function, not by shape. Weight, speed and motor power, so the bills before the committees do not deepen the accident by adding another silhouette definition that leaves another device undefined.
• Include these riders in the enforcement and battery-safety programmes the Council is building. In particular, break out device type in the targeted-enforcement reporting, with electric unicycle as its own line: today the summons data has no category for it, so the Council cannot see what enforcement is doing to these riders.

How to take part

Written testimony goes to the Council's testimony address and is accepted up to 72 hours after the hearing; the agenda itself lists no address, so confirm with Transportation committee staff the week before. To testify in person, register on the Council site before the hearing; each speaker gets two to three minutes.

PEVRA's full written testimony is in the repository at docs/alerts/2026-08-28-nyc-council-micromobility-position.md.