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(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) The crackdown on cyclists who break NYC traffic law is widespread around the city, but concentrated most heavily on Manhattan’s West Side, Downtown, near the East River bridges, and in Downtown Brooklyn according to Transportation Nation’s crowdsourcing project and other reporting. That’s also where past monitoring has shown the heaviest bike riding in New York City.The most common violation was running red lights, which brings a fine of up to a $270, just as it would in a car if issued by a police officer. (Drivers caught by a red light camera pay a $50 fine.) Riding on the sidewalk was also frequently cited, earning cyclists in our survey $25 and $50 fees, sometimes more depending on the danger it caused.
Mapping the Tickets
WNYC has requested data from the NYPD on the number and locations of cycle summonses several times, starting in March. With no response from NYPD, we asked our readers and listeners to help us map the scope of the crackdown, as laid out in the map above.
This week, the NY Post cited an unnamed police source saying there have been almost 14,000 tickets issued to city cyclists so far this year–a jump of almost 50 percent over the same period last year–and that the tickets are scattered widely around the city but with far fewer in Staten Island and the Bronx. Neither the NYPD nor the Bloomberg administration would confirm to WNYC that those numbers are accurate, but the figure seems probable given our past reporting and other efforts to quantify the crack down. The geography is also consistent with our crowdsourced findings.
Red light running was the most common offense, though riding on the sidewalk was close behind, especially in the outer boroughs, where cyclists cited poor road conditions or safety as an excuse for riding on the sidewalk. If you click through the pins on the map above to read the “stories” of the tickets, many describe the circumstances and conversations they had with police.
According to this sample, it is fairly common for ticketed cyclists to beat the ticket in court, though many did not win their cases.
Who Is Getting Tickets
Richard Vaudrey, an Australian student who was ticketed for riding on the sidewalk felt it was unfair because he was going “slower than a walking pace” and he says it wasn’t unsafe. He writes, “I used to be impressed that in NY there is a cop on every corner — now I have a different opinion!”
Numerous cyclists admit they regularly run red lights, and several made the case it was a reasonable thing to do. Gal Potashnick was ticketed for running a red light on Bedford Ave in Brooklyn. Like several others, he thinks that’s OK sometimes. “In the case of red lights and stop signs, I feel that if the intersection is not full of foot traffic or heavy car traffic, and it’s not peak travel time, yielding should be OK. It doesn’t make sense to sit and wait at a light when there is no one else on the road, and stopping at every red light and stop sign is extremely inefficient.”
Some other cyclists also lobbied for what they call the Idaho Stop: treating red lights as a stop sign that you can go through if there are no pedestrian in the crosswalk.
That kind of reasoning about the letter of the law is exactly what drove pedestrians to write us to laud the NYPD for ticketing cyclists more this year. Stephen Loges was “mowed down” by a bike in Central Park and wants cyclists to behave better. He writes, “walk just a block or two down any street or avenue and you’ll see at least a half dozen violations by people on bikes: running red lights, riding the wrong way, riding on the sidewalk.”
By contrast, food deliverymen don’t seem to see a rise in ticketing. We spoke with several of them in some of the highest-ticketed areas. None had received a ticket while working, nor knew of any other delivery person who has been ticketed. Though several did say they are aware of the crackdown and now stop at lights when police are present.
A Quick History of the 2011 NYC Bike Ticketing Crackdown
Cycling has more than doubled in NYC since 2006. As more and more cyclists roll onto city streets–carrying with them the age old New York habit of running red lights and riding the wrong way down streets–complaints to city agencies jumped. Then, in mid-January, as we’ve been reporting, the NYPD initiated Operation Safe Cycle, a citywide step-up in enforcement of cyclists who violate the traffic law.
There have long been tensions between New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, which bubbled into the press during the snow storms, when Sadik-Khan seemed to blame Kelly publicly for the Bloomberg administration’s inept handling of snow removal during the blizzard of 2010.
Shortly after the city launched Operation Safe Cycle a memo on what and how to ticket cyclists was distributed within the NYPD. The initial mid-winter ticket blitz immediately attracted the ire of hard core cyclists who felt the brunt of it. Central and Prospect Parks became the flash points for the police policy after hundreds of tickets were given out to cyclists during car free hours when cyclists claim it is safe to ignore signals if no pedestrians are present. The memo also appeared to carry instructions that were contrary to the law, in some cases.
Over time, and after multiple meetings between NYPD, elected officials, cyclists, anti-bike lane advocates, and other community leaders, a consensus was reached that the best policy for ticketing cyclists in Central Park was to focus on safety for pedestrians, which means allowing red light running in some cases.
Ticketing remains widespread and common throughout the city.
The Law, and What’s Next
A bike counts as a vehicle in New York. As such, it must obey the Vehicle Traffic Law code. Fines for bike offenses are just like fines for driving offenses, they can vary depending on circumstance and level of infraction.
Building on the Central Park consensus to focus on dangerous cycling, there is talk of a general “truce” between cyclists and police. Paul Steely White, the head of Transportation Alternatives met with the NYPD Chief of the Transportation Bureau, James Tuller, earlier this month.
“We brought with us a number of recommendations,” Steely White told Transportation Nation. “Those included more police officers on bicycles,” which would send a law and order signal that cycling is a legitimate mode of transportation, and cyclists need to abide by the law. He also asked for enforcement guidelines that focus on the most dangerous infractions, such as riding against the flow of traffic, riding on the sidewalk, and for officers to exercise some discretion to target cases where there are pedestrians present and cyclists not yielding.
Steely White said he also asked for and “alternative sanction program,” like that of Portland, where police issue warnings, cyclists can go through a punitive class and pay a nominal fee for some infractions. “They seemed very open. We were taken aback at how open they were,” Steely White said. Since the meeting, Steely White says he’s heard fewer complaints from cyclists of tickets for non-dangerous behavior.
When asked to confirm that a citywide consensus might be in the works to change police ticketing policy, NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Public Information, Paul Browne replied, “no.”
Ticketing is here to stay, just as bikes are. But what earns you a ticket, may be slowly evolving.
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What’s an “anti-bike lane advocate?” That doesn’t sound like advocacy at all.
Why do the police give delivery people a break? Just because they are working doesn’t mean they have more reason to break the law then someone commuting 10 miles.
Also, why are pedestrians allowed to jaywalk all day long without fines?
ticketed on West 96th/Amsterdam – riding on the sidewalk – went to court but the police never turned in the ticket
but it was dismissed
The other day I was driving through an intersection in Ditmas Park when a bicylist ran the red light and crossed my path. I missed him by about 6 inches. It is simply preposterous to suggest that any vehicle on the road should not be subject to the rules of the road.
It’s just absurd to force cyclists to adhere to laws that were created for vehicles 100 times heavier. What pedestrians object to are cyclists who endanger them, mostly by failing to yield. That should be the focus of enforcement. I treat red lights as stop or yield signs, depending on the situation, and I will continue to do so as long as I ride. Or move to Boise.
@#4 Freddy – I agree that there should be a crack down on dangerous behavior, but it sounds like the cyclist you describe was a danger primarily to himself. Yesterday on Greenwich St. in Lower Manhattan I witnessed a car service blow through a red light – ostensibly to make the yellow, but he didn’t even come close. Funny thing is that there was a cop watching the intersection and he did nothing. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to who gets ticketed.
Great Project. How about a couple more where people can report
(a) cars parked or driving in bike lanes
(b) delivery guys biking on sidewalk – I am always seeing them in front of our building – only children should ride on sidewalks in use.
I have tried for 2 yrs to get some politicians,city workers,police or news people to deal with the problem of motor cycles and scooters parked on the side walk. they take their license plates off and the police can not give them tickets. The precinct must come and try to find the vin number issue a ticket and then call the one truck in all of NY to come and take it away. I have tried to change the law or suggest they put a boot on these bikes so they can not move till they pay up. I gave 18 to 25 each day parked in a 4 block radius. it is illegal to park on the side walk and illegal to take your license plate off. We are loosing lots of revenue for the city.
Can you help me in tackling this problem.
I’ve had the pleasure of twice spending a week cycling in and around Copenhagen. Of course the numbers of cyclists vastly outnumber those in NYC. The numbers only work because, by and large, the cyclists follow the rules (of course there are violations – just as with drivers in the US). They stop at stop lights; generally ‘Idaho stop’ at stop signs; walk bikes on sidewalks or pedestrian plazas (most of the time); and follow the peculiar left-hand turn convention (cross the street you’re turning on to, wait for that light, then make the turn).
If cycling is to grow in NYC, it needs to shed its ‘outlaw’ image, and riders are going to have to accept that the rules of the road apply to them. I don’t agree that the NYPD ticketing ‘blitz’ makes sense, particularly where the infractions are invented by untrained or uncaring cops. But as a cyclist – who as a pedestrian was almost mowed down a week ago by a wrong-way bike messenger while I was crossing in a cross walk with the light – I welcome that there is some effort going on to enforce the basic safety rules.
Whether laws need to change (the “Idaho stop” being one example) can wait. If we can build the numbers, then the changes can follow.
these new bike lanes are a joke and reverse the idea of alternative transportation. Who ever created them must ride at 5 miles an hour or have a bike from the 1800′s.
Without traffic one can get around the city very fast on a bike. But the cars are what are in the way. And these bike lanes make things way worse with people walking in them and cars cutting them off to make turns, no bike can ever get up to full steam while in them.
Since I ride fast I take the bus lane and pass cars and the busses no problem and make it from the lower east side to the upper east side in 12 minutes or so. That’s alternative transportation. Not these BS green walk ways where a biker can’t get up to speed and keep it safely.
The reason I think having to wait at red lights is silly, is that the lights aren’t timed for bikers, they are timed for the cars. So while the lights might be very efficient for cars, on a bike you are stopping every two blocks because you are not fast enough to utilize the lights. If I were to wait at every red light, I may as well turn in my bike and start walking again. I am not saying blow through the intersection, I am saying slow down or stop, survey the scene and then if it is safe or not inconveniencing anyone you should be allowed to go.
As a biker unlike a car we are propelled by our legs and not by gas. This means that starting and stopping is not the easiest thing. It takes a lot of energy. Having to wait at red lights are something I would take a lot more seriously if the city would consider timing the lights for bikes as well as cars.
‘New York’s Finest’ STILL do not enforce existing traffic laws. … I suggest bicycle proponents take a ten minute walk and count the number of bicyclists who 1) ignore red lights, 2) ride in the opposite direction of traffic, 3) ignore the bike lanes, and 4) ride on the sidewalk.
I was mowed down by a bicyclists in Central Park. I was in the crosswalk, crossing with the light. He thought he was in the last leg of the Tour de France. What did the cops do while I was waiting for an ambulance? Took my name, address, and phone number. Despite there being dozens of witnesses, they didn’t even take the bicyclist’s information or file an accident report.
I’m all for improving the air quality in the city and reducing automobile traffic in NYC. But traffic laws MUST be enforced. Bicyclists should be licensed and license plates required on bikes. Three traffic law violations and both should be revoked and the bike confiscated.
Force is mass times velocity squared. A car weighs about 2 tons, so a car has 10 times the force of a bike if they go the same speed. I get somewhere about 3 to 4 times faster on my bike, so I generate 9 to 16 times as much force on my bike as walking.
Cars are not bikes and bikes are not pedestrians.
It seems silly to me to say that a bike running a red light should get the same fine as a car running a red light, but it also seems silly to argue that a bike running a red light is like jaywalking.
I would like to see public policy that reflects the reality of the relative risks.
So dumb… So my dad was beginning to ride his bike home at almost 11PM after work, and the neighborhood is quite deserted. YET he still gets stopped (while a few other bikers go past). He was going into the street off the sidewalk at the end of the sidewalk, since the street was parked full of cars so he couldn’t get off the street directly outside his work.. And now he got a court order…
These selfish bike riders think they can violate the law because they are smaller than cars. It does not seem to occur to them they can also cause a vehicle accident that is just as dangerous. To the Australian who was riding only at a walking pace not the sidewalk: at what speed should it become a violation to ride on the sidewalk? Would it be OK if every bike rider rode on the sidewalk as long as they all rode at walking speed? What a dope.
No mercy for cyclists who break the law. Fact: Friend left my Williamsburg apartment building, and BEFORE SHE COULD CLOSE THE DOOR BEHIND HER, she was slammed to the ground by a delivery man on his souped-up bicycle. She was seriously injured, and the consequences extended far beyond her stay in the hospital. Two years prior, a friend in Fort Greene watched as her dog’s leg was cleaved from its body thanks to a cyclist speeding down the sidewalks of DeKalb Avenue. Here in central Williamsburg,it is predominantly delivery men on bikes who pose a serious hazard to pedestrians. I’ve not yet seen a ‘hipster’ speed down the sidewalk as I do the COUNTLESS deliverymen. I’m all for alternative modes of transportation, but the idea that pedestrians are overreacting to bikes on sidewalks IS ABSURD. The police precincts are full of statistics of pedestrians seriously injured, or killed, by bicyclists riding illegally on sidewalks.
Everyone needs to chill out. There is no doubt that wreckless bikers should be stopped and ticketed as much as wreckless cars and wreckless pedestrians should. But a bike is not car, nor a pedestrian, and unfortunately the bikers are sharing a lane with cars. Bikers should definitely not be blasting through reds, and the Idaho stop is more than reasonable. However, the law is committed to treating bikes and cars the same way. People are making it loud and clear that bikes and pedestrians are not the same. Different laws for peds and bikes, there should be different laws for bikes and cars.
Let’s face it people, its all about money. I am terrified to do anything in this city any longer from taking a bike ride to walking a poodle for fear of getting a ticket. Oh yeah, playing an acoustic guitar in central park! There are actual crimes happeing all over the city, I think the cops should focus on that and let people use common sense about how to ride a bike – its too much.