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NYPD Cycling Crackdown Nets Over 1,000 Tickets

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The NYPD is making good on its promise to crackdown on cyclists who ride through red lights, go the wrong way on streets, or pedal on sidewalks. The Post reports that cops handed out nearly 1,000 tickets to bicyclists in Manhattan in the first two weeks of January. 315 were issued in Brooklyn and 167 were written for cyclists in Queens. "It's an all-time high," one high-ranking source told the tabloid, while another NYPD source says, "I think the moral of the story is it's not just obey the rules of the road, but to utilize the bike lanes and safety first." Speaking of bike lanes, two City Councilmen from Staten Island are joining forces to try and stop their rapid expansion.

James Oddo and Vincent Ignizio have fired off a letter to Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith and Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, demanding to know why the bike lanes aren't subject to the city's lengthy environmental-assessment process. "The creation of bike lanes and the removal of vehicle travel lanes represent a major reordering of Department of Transportation priorities that may affect the environment and appear to qualify" for environmental review, the two say in the letter. Oddo, incidentally, was reportedly instrumental last year in pressuring the DOT to remove the Father Capodanno bike lane on Staten Island.

The Councilmen want the city to either subject the bike lanes to the lengthy review process, or allow other "minor" traffic changes to bypass the review. But DOT spokesman Seth Solomonow tells us, "Routine changes like turn lanes, traffic signals, bus lanes or one-way conversions do not require this kind of review. Safety is at historic levels, and we have made numerous improvements to mobility across the city, including [Staten Island]."

And Caroline Samponaro at Transportation Alternatives says, "Bike lanes are necessary and life saving street improvements that enable New Yorkers of all ages and abilities to ride safely. Bike lanes are to biking, what sidewalks are to walking. The DOT is already required to present their bike lane projects to communities for local input via the Community Board. The Councilmember should be focusing his energies on getting his concerned constituents to Community Board meetings in his district, rather than creating unnecessary red tape for life saving street improvements."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By John Del Signore in on January 24, 2011 2:28 PM

Comments [rss]

  • Critical Mass wanted to raise awareness for cyclists. Awareness is raised and you're getting all the attention you wanted and rightly deserve. I say job well done!
  • lightstays
    I think we need to go back to the days of Quicksilver starring Kevin Bacon. New York was still unpussified and drivers who cut off cyclists got loogies hocked in their mouths and their faces bashed in.

    But seriously, if Bloompuss can't figure this bike lane shit out, he should just ask the Dutch, or the Germans, or the Swiss. They're only about 10 light years ahead of us with sustainable transit.
  • cmdrogogov
    Yet another reason why buying a bicycle bothers me. I have absolutely no faith in the fairness or professionalism of NYPD in this matter.
  • valeriob
    Tickets are an idiot tax.
    The Lottery is a poor tax.
    Scratch-offs are a homeless tax.

    Any questions?
  • If life weren’t so short, I’d read all 115 comments now. Having skimmed the first few, and a few in best rated, I think I got the drift. So much blame going back and forth! The real culprits are policymakers who force us to live and die by a flawed system. Why do we “need” traffic lights? To break the priority streams of traffic so others can cross. Replace priority with equality, and you remove the “need” for lights, and the need for speed, enabling all road-users to interact sociably and take it more or less in turns. Don’t believe me? See FiT Roads – Roads FiT for People, especially Parts 1+2 of the videos linked to the photos. There’s a bit about cyclists in Part 1. From Martin Cassini, UK
  • Might work in some places (parts of Brooklyn) but the more commercial districts are dangerous. NYC, is a thriving city of commerce. It has it's nice residential areas, but I would not want to be on a bike at say Canal and Hudson streets.
  • Given a culture of equality, and roads designed to express a social context, and freedom to use our own judgement, it could work almost anywhere. To some extent it's location-specific, e.g. multi-lane junctions are likely to need signal control at peak times, but by and large, FiT (filter in turn) is a silver bullet for most of our (largely self-inflicted) problems on the road.
  • Good for city's revenue. Cyclist are being targeted because there are lots of bad riders out there.
  • Fronko
    What is the Post doing quoting Norman "Donut Run" Steisel, the former sanitation commissioner, on the subject of bikes? The guy is opposed to one bike lane and suddenly he's an expert? Not one quote from real advocacy groups, only one from him, representing his group of NIMBYs. The minute they rip out the Prospect Park West bike lane, if they ever do, is the minute Norman Steisel stops caring about bike lanes. This is the kind of journalism one expects from the Post, unfortunately.
  • m015094
    I'm all for the increased enforcement as long as I'm allowed to run over jaywalkers and hit cars with my bike pump that are parked in the bike lane.
  • JarekAF
    You do realize that TIME'S UP is the name of the most radical of all the pro-biking activists in the city?

    And stop w/ the straw man ("So leave alll cyclists alone") pro-cycling people who said that are the minority, and you know that, or should know that.

    Bike people just want sensible enforcement. So, turning without hand signalling = $200+ summons, and stuff like that.

    But bikers are all in favor of cracking down on sidewalk riding, wrongway riding, and most red light running.
  • villagegal
    if only that were so..
  • Rod
    yeah, I'm with her.

    i tell new cyclists to ride AGAINST traffic as it is safer for them. ditto sidewalks. and red lights.

    the ISSUE is that they must respect others and yield when they don't have the right of way.
  • Right or wrong, Kelly doesn't like bikes. that, and a mass of quality of life complaints, caused the crackdown. Kelly does what he wants and if you are breaking the law you will be singled out. This is not like critical mass, they are ticketing people that are legitimately breaking the law. Remember when the president was coming to town and they just clipped the locks of every bike they found and them them in the back of a truck? Kelly does what he wants.
  • ganghiscon
    They must have ticketed every cyclist on the road in the past two weeks. Of course the NYPD decides to do this when it's been unusually cold and snowy for almost a month. Too lazy for a crackdown in the warmer months and, in the long run, nothing will change.

    And seriously, just start ticketing bike lane blockers. On 43rd Ave in Queens alone they'd make a couple thousand a day.
  • PhotoR
    The city would net MILLION$ more if they had a ticketing blitz on illegally blocking bike lanes.
  • kevd
    i'd love to see how many of these are thrown out.
    i'm guessing - 1/2, minimum. but that isn't the point.
    the process is the punishment.
  • So the city doesn't want anymore bike lanes but they're happy enough to hand out tickets to cyclists and abuse that money for other purposes? What a joke!
  • Automocar
    I've lived here a long time (probably too long), and I truly am starting to despise this place with every fiber of my being.
  • random transplant
    What criteria is there for an environmental review? I'm guessing these co - sponsors to be don't know yet. They aren't optional, right? You either go through one or you don't, right?

    Did anybody read the second half of the article?
  • NlGGAZ
    The worst part about all this? It's the worst weather and environment to bike out there right now. I mean you have to be superhardcore to bike in this inclement weather, you have to wear tons of clothes and you have to maintain your bike and you have to avoid all the ice and snow banks. and what do you get to show for your zealous adherence to saving the planet and not polluting the earth? a 200 bike ticket. Fuck the NYPD!
  • Communist
    Carbon offset to deliver your bike parts to manufacturer and then to your local bike shop will never be compensated for even if your whole generation of children will do nothing but ride bike 24/7.

    Why don't you start walking everywhere like me and save the earth? Save a planet and stop polluting the earth!

    And where did you get tons of cloth? Did they make it for you huh? Factory? Do you know how much babies you killed by buying that winter cloth?

    Wear some discarded trash bags or second hand clothing if you really care about earth like me. Don't make me catch you in new outfit son.

    And stop using the damn internet, do you know how much shit you just emitted by posting that comment?
  • cmdrogogov
    Walking six miles into work and back every day isn't practical for someone on my schedule. A bicycle is still far superior in every way to the economic and environmental costs associated with owning a car.
  • Rod
    all my clothing and bikes are hand-me-downs.

    idiot.

    not everyone is a consumerist airhead like you, pops.
  • unretrofiedforu
    You're not saving the planet and not not polluting the Earth just by riding a bike.
  • cmdrogogov
    that is an incredibly idiotic statement.
  • Rod
    no but riding a bike proves we are infinitely less selfish and lazy than pedestrians who use mass transit and cars.

    and so there should be a pollution tax.
  • Yeah, I come in from the suburbs. 11 degrees and I should peddle in? Some day you will have a real job, with real responsibility's , making a real contribution to this city and then maybe you would understand
  • cmdrogogov
    I find your post offensive and disrespectful, because I do all of that and more and yes, I used to cycle 3 miles both ways (in my officewear) to start my commute.

    Right now the only thing stopping me is the - surprise! - lack of a cycle lane in several key stretches of road and the fact I still need to spec out a new bike.

    Posting hurf blurf about cyclists not making a contribution to the city is unfair to those of us who hold down good jobs and want to help make the city more than a smog-choked concrete graveyard whilst working an exercise regimen into our daily commute.
  • CircularOdyssey
    I come in from Queens. It was cold today and I peddled. I am a cancer researcher. Does that sound like making a real contributions to this city to you?

    Please just ignore Rod. He does not speak for me as a cyclist. Nor does TA. Or Critical Mass.
  • Newhce
    The problem is the amount smug given off by bikers. There is a huge cloud of it over Williamsburg at all times, it seems.
  • Williamsburg is changing as a neighborhood. The hipsters ruined a nice neighborhood and left it with over priced condos, stores selling useless crap, loud clubs and galleries that contain art I wouldn't hang on my fridge. It's now becoming gentrified and more of a family neighborhood. This will lead to inevitable conflicts (check out the increasing 311 noise complaint stats at nyc.gov). So the heard will move elsewhere. Bushwick has started to go and I head a few hipsters have metastasized to Ridgewood.
  • cmdrogogov
    Oh please, Williamsberg was a utopian paradise before the evil hipsters moved in?

    Unfortunately 'gentrification' does come with its own drawbacks, but I really would rather have hipsters than, say, the indigenous population of Crown Heights or Brownsville, for example.
  • Rod
    you just hate hipsters because they have all their hair
  • Communist
    Do you meet up with Prius owners and jerk each other off bi-weekly while moaning 'Green', 'We are less selfish', 'Pollution tax'?
  • smorrebrod
    There's two reasons someone buys a Prius. One, because of the image and the ability to gloat about saving the world. The other is that they realize they'll do a lot of driving in the city (people who lug shit around like cameras and tripods), and that it's one of the most efficient cars for that purpose. They're going to save a lot of gas and a lot of money.

    The same goes for bicycling. There's image, and then there's the practicality of it. It's a combination of the two.
  • Rod
    no. I don't like prius drivers. those are for assholes who are almost as lazy and selfish as you.

    i like bikes. because I'm not lazy. like you.
  • c257119
    I've been bicycling for more than 30 years almost daily. I've never hit a person or animal, but I have been hit/hospitalized by a cab. This occurred when I was paying attention only to lights and street signs: the law. Now I pay attention only to people (in vehicles, on streets, sidewalks, jaywalking, etc.) and animals, not lights and signs. I ride the 'wrong way', on sidewalks, through lights, using commonsense to survive, protect all creatures and reach my destination. This works well. I haven't been injured nor caused injury since.
  • cmdrogogov
    You should perhaps treat the law with a little less contempt.

    Traffic lights and signs are there for a reason and if you're unable to use the roads whilst fulfilling your contractual obligation to obey traffic laws, it is my opinion that you should be punished as any other vehicle operator should.

    You should not be riding on the pavements/sidewalks as even a low speed collision with a pedestrian (hint: young kids and the elderly use sidewalks alot) could result in a fatality.

    I'm sure you put a great amount of faith in your reaction times and spatial awareness but please do not be so arrogant as to assume that your faculties are infallible.

    This is why I'm in favor of boosting cyclist numbers by putting in more cycle lanes - however it HAS to come with acceptance of responsibility on the part of cyclists or the entire system will not function as it should. Understand that you have to set an example and most of the resentment towards cyclists will melt away.
  • c257119
    I'm sure you put a great amount of faith in your reaction times and spatial awareness but please do not be so arrogant as to assume that your faculties are infallible.

    I put as much faith in my reaction times, etc. as you do crossing the street and walking on the sidewalk. I know accidents can happen. If I'm on a bicycle on a sidewalk I am far more alert than normal because it's a pedestrian/walker/stroller/wheelchair/scooter/etc. space. On sidewalks I've not hit/run-into anything yet. I move at walking pace or slower and take up less space and have more control than if I were walking the bike (I practice balance).

    Bicycling in NYC, generally, won't become safer until all people treat cyclists as vehicles. Presently, most people see them as dangerous pedestrians (see http://blogs.reuters.com/felix.... When exiting a car, they don't, for example, let a cyclist pass before opening the door. If the bicycle were a car, they be more careful/considerate.
  • Precisely. The paraphernalia of traffic control demands undue attention. It flouts basic safety principles by taking our eyes off the road. When we're free of controls, we're free to act according to common sense, common courtesy and context.
  • TheFlatMan
    Keep up the good work NYPD. I hope they keep ticketing when the spandex wolfpacks come back in the spring and summer.
  • Rod
    actually, the cops just told me I can sideswipe you any time you jaywalk, so I'll be seeing you soon!

    (but you won't be seeing me! ha ha)
  • Communist
    No they did not, and you are too much of a pussy to do that anyways because you will get a beat down of your life.

    Cops just told me I can side swipe jay walkers in my car too *rolls eyes*
  • Rod
    wrong, because after I hit you I just show the cops my PBA card and they pat me on the back.

    sucker.
  • johnnieutah
    "Spandex Wolfpack" - best band name ever?
  • sound like a Flock of Seagulls cover band
  • How many people died in car crashes while we (the people and our employees) were busy cracking down on cyclists who hurt people's feelings?
  • Don't know but one cyclist was killed biking on the BQE at 4 AM in January. Bet the hipsters family wishes NYPD had pulled him over before he did something so stupid.
  • Yeah, I'm sure the unidentified 40 year old man on a bicycle at 4:00 AM on Atlantic avenue was a hipster. How about you show some fucking respect.
  • He was not on Atlantic avenue, he was on the BQE
  • on the BQE entering at Atlantic Ave according to every news story. Or did you just stop at "Cyclist" and "Brooklyn"
  • Nope, stopped at the police report which said BQE
  • you know drew, everybody on a bike is a hipster.
  • IvoryJive
    or a Spandex Menace. Or a Chinese deliveryman. Or a messenger. Or a yuppie. Or an elitist fashionista. Or a hippie.

    Yeah all the stereotypes get pretty tired. Anyone can ride a bike.
  • TheFlatMan
    "Anyone can ride a bike." Yeah, that's the problem.
  • IvoryJive
    Biking is convenient, efficient, healthy, economical, environmentally-friendly, and even a three-year-old can learn to do it safely. The only problem is that more New Yorkers aren't doing it. Maybe the fact that only 6.5% of the city's streets have bike lanes, and that the NYPD feels the need to be "cracking down" on them could help explain why. If only 6.5% of the city's streets had roadways and the NYPD was cracking down on car drivers, I don't think you'd see too many people driving cars either.
  • Rod
    exactly: half the drivers in NYC in autos have no license.

    guess we need to harangue our city council goons on that.
  • cr17
    SwampYankee = Aleksey Korzun?
  • Communist
    cr17 = hipster?
  • cr17
    cr17 = commuter cyclist
  • nope. A nickname not uncommon in some parts of New England. it generally means someone that has been here since the Mayflower put is not rich or an aristocrat. Usually a poor farmer or miner, but he can trace his roots to before the revolution.
  • kevd
    Ummm. Not exactly.
    Someone from Rural, SE New England.
    Anglo stock. And very much not a descendant of anyone on the Mayflower. Not puritanical in religious observance. The term comes from rural famers who fled to the swamps when the Redcoats marched through.
    Basically, southern new england hick.
    Wait, what does this have to do with bike tickets again?
  • cr17
    I would like figures on how many of these tickets issued go the distance. By "go the distance" I mean how many of these people actually go to court and are required to *pay* whatever fine is associated. I'm willing to bet that a large amount of these tickets get dropped for a number of reasons, likely because they're issued tickets for courts that don't handle cycling cases, the cops don't bother to show up, or the ticketed cyclist shows up with her/her lights, etc, etc, etc.
  • Communist
    All of them will go to court since they are un-employed hipsters.
  • anon_cyclist
    As a matter of fact, I know people who are not unemployed hipsters going to court for their tickets and having them dismissed already.

    So, yea, I'm also curious as to how many are dismissed and how many aren't.
  • almost any ticket for not riding in the bike lane can be successfully fought. All you have to do is take a picture of something obstructing that bike lane, which shouldn't be difficult since they exist every block. If you run a red light, that's all on you though...
  • In my experience not many will be dismissed. NYPD has this pretty well structured and the courts usually work with them so the cop is there all day for his tickets. If people choose not to show up, well thats a warrant, and they will bite you at the worst time. Not unusual for prospective employers to check warrants. Also, if you have an outstanding warrant and pick up another violation, you are probably going to have to see a judge before you are released.
  • cmdrogogov
    Most of these tickets will probably not go through the courts but specialized outsourced agencies who will try and fob you off before tying up court resources.

    Unfortunately, unless you happen to have visual and time stamped proof that you did not commit the infraction, you are still likely to get fined even if you do attempt to fight the ticket.

    Unless you know somebody who can make it go away, of course...
  • Rod
    actually a bunch of us had tickets as a group, and the tickets were of course all 100% fake by the NYPD, and I had photos so we were looking forward to kicking ass in court, but when we got there the judge just tossed them all out automatically because they were so stupid!
  • cmdrogogov
    appeal.
  • They are not going for you en-mass this time. One at a time, for a long time
  • Rod
    and I've gotten a few tickets on my bike over the years and I've never paid one and they never issued any warrants and it never showed up ever, even when the NYPD runs my ID.
  • They will show up. Lot of times they show up when you are applying for a job or closing on a house or something.
  • cr17
    And what exactly is "your experience?"
  • 51 years, no tickets no accidents. Most of that time living in NYC. Born and raised
  • again, with no tickets or accidents, what is your experience?
  • only that of an excellent driver and having been a long time resident of NYC
  • random transplant
    My family & friends in New England would suggest you might not be a swamp Yankee if you spent your life in New York City.

    Kinda hard to tell if your just making stuff up or not.
  • Travel, school, perhaps friends and family from New England that visit. It's a big world out there.
  • random transplant
    Its a big world, sure, but NY & NE have been mixing it up ever since before they killed the railroad line.

    You can't be a proud blue collar Yankee who spent his life in New York City. I'm surprised you didn't pick that up from your family & travels.
  • Rod
    but YOU were talking about the COURTS, remember, grandpa?

    alzheimer's is kicking in at 51?

    God really DOES hate you!
  • You still believe in god? Probably a branch of that bronze age middle eastern cult. It's a miracle someone as backwards as you even knows what a wheel is, much less can ride on them!
  • If it gets cold enough ask nicely and I'll let you know what fire is
  • you're arguing both an intimate knowledge of nyc traffic court and that you're an excellent driver who has no tickets or accidents, therefore, no knowledge of traffic court. can't have it both ways chief.
  • Guess there is no way I could work in the system, eh?
  • Rod
    you're just afraid to tell us of all the times you were busted.

    it's cool. we can keep your secret from your wife.
  • you could, but i don't know why you wouldn't have posted that five posts earlier, instead you wasted time talking about what a good driver you are.
    look, i'm just pointing out the holes in your argument, if you can't see around that, i REALLY hope you don't work in the court system
  • from his previous comment: "at my age, with no accidents, living in the zip code with the lowest rate of crime and car thefts in the county"
    i'm guessing none.
  • I had occasion to drive over the Williamsburg bridge and up 1st avenue a few times on Saturday. During that time frame I saw a total of 2 bikes! and they were both delivering Chinese food! What a waste of time and money these bike lanes are. What is wrong with our hipsters? They want this to be Copenhagen but they can't be bothered to use the bike lanes in the cold? Got to say it was plenty warm in my care. and I got street parking all day
  • JarekAF
    Sorry you didn't see anyone on the 1st ave bike lane this week and thus, in your opinion, making it a waste but I'll just share my usage and what that bike lane means to me.

    I had to work both days this weekend. I live in the Lower East Side and work in Midtown. I don't usually bike to work during the week (because I usually wear business casual clothes during the week and I don't want to sweat in them or put them in a bag and get all wrinkled) though I do sometimes. But I can wear whatever on the weekends and since I don't have a car, biking to work on the weekends is good exercise.

    I biked to work on Saturday and Sunday afternoon (in the freezing cold) and I used the 1st ave bike lane up til 34th Street (where it terminates).

    So, just letting you know, that some of us do use that bike lane. And if the bike lane went all the way to midtown (42nd street) then I'd be open to riding to work during the work week because, without the bike lane, you have to pedal real hard to keep up with traffic (from 34th til 42nd street) which gets me all sweaty.
  • johnnieutah
    I actually DID ride my bike on Saturday. It was so cold I doubt I'll be doing it again before the thaw.
  • Rod
    what's your insurance bill?

    just curious.
  • specifically, about $1200 a year for 4 cars. I guess thats mostly liability as I am a low accident risk.
  • Rod
    that's not bad! what town is that?

    of course, that's $1200 more a year than I give those do-little crooks.

    and I spend nothing per year on gas either.

    I'd say God likes one of us more!
  • Rod
    and therein is the REAL reason peds and cars hate us cyclists: we transcend the MTA and the gas companies insurance companies.

    you're probably even jealous of my fine spandex threads!
  • at my age, with no accidents, living in the zip code with the lowest rate of crime and car thefts in the county....pretty low actually. I'm old and have never had a ticket or been behind the wheel during an accident.
  • random transplant
    ....So....why not rant on whatever craigslist is local to you?

    Even the mayor doesn't want you driving in to town on aimless joyrides going up and down up and down all day.

    Local commuters of all sorts pretty much agree driving suburbanites have influenced city planning too much already. Take a train if the drivers and bikers bother you.
  • Ah, was actually doing business.
  • random transplant
    So sorry the commuting workers from nearby and locals get in the way of your weekend "business". We should obviously be hanging on your every word about how our modes of transport interrupt you. Call ahead next time you have weekend "business" - maybe they'll give you an escort.

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