There’s a problem unrelated to illegals being bused or flown in from out of state or so-called gun violence that New York City Mayor Eric Adams is warning Big Apple residents puts them in danger of injury or even death, and I’ll admit it caught me off guard at first. It’s the batteries of electric bikes, or e-bikes, accidentally catching fire.

via AP:

NEW YORK (AP) — After a series of fires involving faulty e-bike batteries including a recent blaze that claimed four lives, New York City officials announced Sunday that they are receiving a $25 million emergency grant from the federal government to fund scores of charging stations citywide.

Adams spoke about the grant from the Department of Transportation at a news conference, which was attended by NY’s two Democrat U.S. senators who doubtless were instrumental in helping him swftly secure the money from Washington, D.C.’s coffers.

The announcement comes after a lithium ion battery caught fire and engulfed an e-bike shop in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The fire and thick smoke spread to apartments above the shop, killing four people and injuring three others, including a responding firefighter.

In the days since, New York City officials sought the public’s help in cracking down on unsafe e-bike shops and fire officials issued at least 10 citations to shops for improper handling of the batteries.

The problem of e-bikes catching fire is a bigger one than most people realize, as these statistics show:

New York City has seen over 100 fires and 13 deaths this year linked to e-bikes, more than double the total number of fatalities from last year, officials said.

Adams said at the news conference:

This means that residents will no longer need to charge the e-bikes in their apartments — what we find to be extremely dangerous, particularly when you charge them overnight.

The mayor isn’t exaggerating about the risks. But the issue with these e-bike lithium batteries being charged overnight appears to be a familiar one to at least some people who ride them. By total coincidence, I learned about this a few days ago, while chatting with the owner of an e-bike. (And though this is completely anecdotal, I feel it brings some context to an otherwise two-dimensional news piece.)

Our conversation took place on board of one of the city of Phoenix’s Light Rail trains, with him standing with his bike as we moved through the suburban area where I commute to the grocery store. After I asked him about how long it takes for his mode of transportation to juice up again, the man mentioned in passing that the only possible downside to the bikes is when recharging them; the batteries can overheat and catch fire if someone tries to charge them too long (for example, overnight/eight hours). Instead, he said, at least on his specific model, the full charge takes between four to six hours.

So, what is NYC’s solution to this hazard? The aforementioned, $25 million public charging stations, paid for by the American taxpayers—and cracking down on small businesses, of course:

City officials said they’d previously fined the shop for its e-bike charging practices, though inspectors reportedly did not check to see if the store was selling reconditioned batteries on a recent visit.

Under new guidelines, fire officials will be directed to respond to complaints about e-bike batteries within 12 hours, rather than the previous policy of three days.

It seems to me that instead of trying to blame this dangerous situation on the bike shop owners, they could just pay someone to make a non profit PSA about—I dunno—not overcharging the batteries. That would make too much sense, though.