NYPD Cracking Down on Brooklyn Bikers
The Brooklyn Paper reports that the NYPD will begin a borough-wide bike crackdown in a few weeks. More moving violations will be issued for the the failure to obey traffic signs and signals, surpassing the speed limit, tailgating, and failure to signal before turning. While the numbers of bicyclists is growing and the bike lanes…
The Brooklyn Paper reports that the NYPD will begin a borough-wide bike crackdown in a few weeks. More moving violations will be issued for the the failure to obey traffic signs and signals, surpassing the speed limit, tailgating, and failure to signal before turning. While the numbers of bicyclists is growing and the bike lanes on Prospect Park West have caused controversy, cops claim the reason for the crackdown is because bike accidents have been up. Some bikers aren’t convinced. Rider Lacy Tauber think cops should “focus on drivers,” while bike advocate Baruch Herzfeld thinks this could further strain the relationship between bikers and cops.
Bikelash! Cops to Crack Down on 2-Wheelers [Brooklyn Paper]
in NYPD speak – crackdown = ticket a bunch of cyclists for a week and then go back to sleeping in their cars the rest of the year.
Insofar as Eastern Parkway is concerned, neither the access lanes as well as the pedestrian walkway medians were plowed for a number of days following the snowstorm. I can’t say exactly when the parks dept/sanitation dept took care of them, but I am virtually certain that it was sometime after Wednesday. This even though the south side pedestrian medians lead to the #3 subway entrance. Perhaps I am mistaken and the area of EP closer to GAP got better treatment, but I know that the Kingston Ave area did not.
I think what a lot of people may have been exercised about is the reports that bike lanes (I presume in Manhattan) were hand shoveled while most local streets in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island had not even seen a snowplow pass by once.
Back to the infractions, I guess there must be a BIG problem somewhere with cycles speeding by a 60MPH, but I know I can no longer achieve that. And, do they really think that a driver to the left of me will be watching out for my right hand signal as I’m riding? One of the best things the police could ticket, in my opinion are all the IDIOTS, cars, cyclists, mothers pushing baby carriages, and ordinary pedestrians who are obliviously on their cell phones, especially as they cruise through intersections. I swear that some of the mothers doing this with their stollers must be thinking, “What the heck? I can always make another kid.”
fsrq, you are my hero.
TD – your analysis is way off because it is 1.6M car trips daily INTO lower manhattan – that doesnt include ALL the other boros and upper manhattan, which has to have at least 10x the 1.6number.
Rob – Pitbulls are not necessarily more likely to bite PEOPLE than Golden retrievers – in fact non-abused pitbulls will genetically be LESS likely to bite humans than most breeds – but when they do bite, they are significantly more likely to seriously injure or kill than any other breed.
Tyburg there have been many crackdown reported on dwi drivers, phone talking drivers, etc…which BTW I am more than in favor of.
quote:
but it’s pretty clear that cars cause more, and more serious, accidents than bikers. where resources are scarce, enforcement ought to be proportional to the potential severity of the consequences for infractions.
um, no. that would be profiling!
*rob*
pitbulls are more likely to bite someone, way more than golden retreivers, but who gives a shit. they both need to be leashed for the protection of people who dont wanna be bitten. so the argument of what is more dangerous IS moot
*rob*
I’m no bike hater but I’ve been nearly hit by them enough times to think something needs to be done.There’s nothing wrong with expecting cyclists to obey the rules of the road, same as car drivers. Sure there will always be jerks out there who don’t, but comparing bicycle and car accidents is futile. The fact that cyclists are a far smaller percentage of accidents than cars still doesn’t remove responsibility from them for riding responsibly or the responsibility from the city to make them follow the rules.
fsrq — “when you are essentially borrowing the road from them” Can I just say THIS is one of the roots of the problem!!?!!
I support ALL traffic laws being enforced. Like I’ve said many many times before, I don’t fee especially safe on the roads in my CAR… never mind on my bike!
When was the last time we saw a NYT article about the NYPD starting a “crack down” on cars and trucks?!
It’s about priorities and the NYPD like low hanging fruit, and not focusing on the MAJOR traffic safety issues.
oops… i did that calculation wrong. that’s 1.6 million daily, not yearly. wow that’s a lot.
well I still think it’s a bad argument!