Everyone loves e-bikes — except some who have to share roads with them

NEW YORK — In all her 36 years of living in Brooklyn’s historic neighborhood of Fort Greene, Maria Ferrari has encountered few things this unsettling.

Ferrari, 69, raised a family here; before she “semiretired” in 2020, she breathed a sigh of relief coming home to peaceful Fort Greene after grinding, grueling days in the soap-opera industry. “I think of Fort Greene as a village,” she says of her tree-lined, brownstone-dense haven. “We have everything we need, right here.” But twice now, she says, she’s narrowly avoided being struck down by cyclists ripping through on electric bikes.

The first time, the e-bike rider was going the wrong way on a one-way street, Ferrari says on a bench in the sprawling Fort Greene Park, with the sound of tennis balls whacking back and forth in the background. The second time, “I swear to God, he was in my face as he passed,” Ferrari adds, her hand six inches from her face. “And he went, ‘Sorry!’ as he zipped by. It’s like” — Ferrari scoffs — “ ‘You’re lucky I wasn’t even faster stepping into the street!’ ”

Everyone loves e-bikes — except some who have to share roads with them

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