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As there is on the last Friday night of every month, there was a Critical Mass ride last night. It doesn't seem to have been the worst CM, by far, but it still wasn't exactly a walk in the park. While we haven't seen any confirmed reports of arrests, it is still early... Suckapants reports (we loved typing that):
Critical Mass was an odd one last night. the cops were in full form, helicopters, mad-dash pursuits, lying in wait, the usual shenanigans. except this time they weren't arresting people (although i did hear of a couple). this time they were handing out $200 summonses, plus 1 point against your license. mostly for running red lights, although apparently they would give you one even if you didn't, it just depended on whether or not they could catch you. it is definitely a sign of de-escalation, but perhaps a double-sided one. you no longer have to go spend your friday evening and saturday morning in the tombs. . . but now you're saddled with a $200 fine and marks against your driving record. and that's just on a first offense, next time you ride and get a ticket the fine is much larger. sort of making Critical Mass something only the very wealthy can afford. and i could be wrong, but that doesn't really seem to be the ecomonic bracket most riders are coming from.
So now it's all about the money, eh Bloomie? We'll see how this tactic goes. Though honestly, there has to be a better way for the City to be dealing with this. There just has to be.
Anyway, were you there last night? How'd this CM go for you?
More photographs are on flickr here, a recent Villager story on the current legal situation of CM is here, and some idiots recently vandalized some Brooklyn Industries over their co-opting of "Bike Culture".
Update: The editors over at the Daily News don't care much for Critical Mass.
Photograph from everyday_i_live's flickr stream.
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Well, if they are actually breaking that law, the question becomes: is the fine legally excessive?
"...mostly for running red lights, although apparently they would give you one even if you didn't, it just depended on whether or not they could catch you."
if they are going to ticket people, fine. i think anyone who runs a red light deserves to be ticketed. either cyclists want to be afforded the same rights as cars or they don't; they can't claim rights that are convenient.
but it goes both ways. the police have to be consistent, too. ticketing people who didn't do anything? imagine sitting in your car and getting a ticket while stopped at a red light just because the cop couldn't catch the car in front of you that ran the light!
both sides would have more of a leg to stand on if they were consistent.
what the hell? $200 fines and points against license?
What if you don't have a driver's license, which many NY'ers don't?
And, still the same ole cat and mouse tactics.
Some cop is gonna have a heart attact, soon.
There were only 2 actually arrested this month. Disorderly Conduct charges and impounded bicycles. One of the officers actually told me that he was told by his lieutenant that they were NO LONGER allowed to hit us with the Parading Without a Permit charge anymore. So that's why they've resorted to this lame ticketing.
The red light thing is funny, because as any cyclist who rides downtown knows, the entrance to the Holland tunnel is a hot bed for blocked traffic and people "running" red lights by sitting in the middle of an intersection. If the police actually cared about the scourge of traffic voilations like disobeying red lights, they would be out in force every weekday from 4:30PM to 7PM on Varick and Spring.
drama queens on bikes
Although i don't support the amount of effort the police is putting into this when they could be using those resources to curb actual crimes, it seems they have found a loophole. if they start getting on this $200 fine thing enough to induce the riders to stop for reds, it would severely cripple the "Mass" half of the critical mass, since it would break it up into small groups. I was actually moving the night of the RC critical mass, and i was halted by a rider right in front of the car at A and 3rd for five (5) red/green lights...it did suck.
i more or less agree with the daily news stance.. what's more, why aren't these people using their abilities to protest to protest against something useful, rather than giving bicyclists a worse name than they already have? or is that the point, so that people always hate bicyclists because, stereotypically as well as often enough in reality, they _do_ disobey traffic laws and cause serious hazards for pedestrians.
AlexQ: ..."serious harm for pedestrians."
*Cars* pose about 500% more threat to a NYC pedestrian than cyclists. They have killed a couple hundred peds a year for some time. Studies show that most drivers speed most of the time and that there are hundreds of thousands of red lights run every day in Manhattan. Ticketing rates are very low considering this. NYC Cops generally don't even cite a driver when they kill a ped.
Writing posts like yours about cyclists when we have this kind of an issue with motorists is pretty strange, don't you think?
I've more or less been doing nothing worth mentioning, but eh. My life's been really bland today. I don't care. I've just been letting everything happen without me these days. That's how it is.