David Siffert-Candidate-Response to email from CARR RE Priscilla's Law

Here is the thoughtful response to Brown's inquiry about how Siffert would handle the public safety crisis & Priscilla's Law. I responded by further asking about** vicarious liability.** Would the apps-in addition to being responsible for registration and issuing license plates be liable for infractions, ********** RESPONSE FROM DAVID SIFFERT********** Thanks to both of you for reaching out on this! I have a two year old, who I usually bring around in a baby carrier, so I have had a lot of particularly scary encounters with e-bikes and very much understand we have a real problem. I also know how under-reported actual bike collisions are, having many close friends and family members sustain serious injuries and never report them. Rather than Priscilla's Law as-is -- which, honestly, is extremely unlikely to pass -- I would like to put the obligation on delivery apps and Citibike. The reason being that many undocumented people rely on e-bikes, and they are unlikely to register their bikes, often for good reason. This will result in a situation where (a) they will get pulled over for plate violations and be put in danger and (b) our systems to enforce the law on them will be ineffective, and we may wind up with more lawlessness. So here's what I propose: the delivery apps are required to do the registration for each bike that is making deliveries for them, and required to give a license plate to the driver of the bike. We can do something similar for Citibike. This will also allow for certain kinds of automated enforcement that don't rely on NYPD being on every corner -- as I'm sure you know, their idea of enforcement is to let anyone going too fast zoom right by and only stop people biking slowly and safely for minor infractions. I should mention that the current version of Priscilla's Law has no co-sponsors in the Senate and only 4 co-sponsors in the Assembly, so I think putting all our eggs in that one basket for bike safety may wind up an uphill battle. I think requiring the delivery apps and Citibike to do the registration will be a lot more likely to pass. We could do that as an amendment to Priscilla's Law or as a separate bill. I also want to say, once again, how committed I am to dealing with this issue. It affects me and my toddler personally.