Blas: Zap delivery biz, not e-bikers

Business owners are the “people with the money,” so they’re the ones who should get fined for illegal electric bikes — and “not necessarily” the workers who make the deliveries, Mayor de Blasio said Friday.

“You see a bunch of [e-bikes] outside a restaurant; it seems like there is an enforcement potential there — whether it’s NYPD or [the Department of ] Consumer Affairs or whatever, so I am intrigued to say the least,” the mayor said on WNYC radio.

De Blasio was responding to a plea from Upper West Side activist Matthew Shefler, who said the city “needs more leadership” to crack down on electric bikes that routinely break traffic laws.

He suggested targeting restaurant owners who allow them rather than the delivery people who use them. “I think [Shefler’s] point is well taken,” de Blasio said. “I am going to definitely look into this. Why not go after the busi- nesses directly? That makes a lot of sense to me . . . There is a real potential danger to people created by these electronic bikes.”

The mayor agreed when radio host Brian Lehrer pointed out that the NYPD has been targeting delivery people who are largely “low-wage” immigrants.

“Without hearing all the facts, I would say there’s a really fair point that would say, ‘Go to the root of the problem,’ ” he added.

“This fits my personal beliefs that when you were dealing with the problems of the free-enterprise system, go to the people with the money, go to the people making the money off the situation, not necessarily the individual worker.

“I think the notion that there must be a strategy where we can go into businesses, I think his point is right.”

De Blasio said about 700 electric bikes have already been confiscated by the NYPD this year, triple the previous year. And he promised to “come back with a fuller answer” after researching the issue.

Normally, riders must pay fines of at least $500 to get their bikes back.

Although popular nationwide, the bikes are illegal in New York City.

Assemblyman Nick Perry (D-Brooklyn) is pushing a bill to legalize the two-wheelers, which are legal in several states as long as they don’t exceed 20 mph.

They’re also making their mark worldwide — accounting for 1 in 3 bicycles sold in the Netherlands.

Go to the people making the money off the situation, not necessarily the individual worker. — Mayor de Blasio on why he wants to fine businesses for illegal electric bikes, not the low-wage deliverer