Cop Blocks Bike Lane To Ticket Cyclists For Not Using Lane

boygabriel

Ugh. Is this the NYPD's idea of bike law enforcement?

I'm all for promoting bike safety, but the rank stupidity involved here boggles the mind.

http://gothamist.com/2010/10/27/cop_blocks_bike_lane_to_ticket_cycl.php wrote: Cop Blocks Bike Lane To Ticket Cyclists For Not Using Lane[/url]



Sometimes the NYPD's inanity is so perfect, so immaculately risible, that you just want to burst into applause and toss a bouquet of roses onto the hood of a squad car. Today is one of those days. According to a tipster, a cop parked in the bike lane on First Avenue near 14th Street proceeded to write tickets for cyclists who weren't using the bike lane, because they had to ride around him to get by. This is presumably part of the new crackdown on scofflaw cyclists, and hey—sometimes you have to destroy a bike lane in order to save it. (How come there's never a clown cop around when you need one?) Our source says:

This morning I received a ticket on the corner of 14th and 1st for not riding in a bike lane. The lane was being blocked by a cop car and as I pulled around it a cop pulled me over and informed me of my infraction. About 5 or 6 other cyclists got the same treatment. The cop later moved his car so that it wasn't in the bike lane (but was now parked squarely in the turning lane).

A couple of other cyclists got pulled over, but argued with the cop that they had to leave the lane because he was parked there—those people were allowed to ride on. After pulling a bunch of us he must of realized how stupid his logic was and decided to cross to the other side of the road (where the bus lane is) and pulled a cyclist from there.

Our unlucky tipster says his ticket is for $130 for "Reckless operation of bicycle." We've put in a request for comment with the NYPD press office, and we're sure they'll get back to us STAT. In the meantime, here is the city's law about cyclists and bike lanes:

34 RCNY § 4-12(p) Bicycles. (1) Bicycle riders to use bicycle lanes. Whenever a usable path or lane for bicycles has been provided, bicycle riders shall use such path or lane only except under any of the following situations: (i) When preparing for a turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway. (ii) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, motor vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, pushcarts, animals, surface hazards) that make it unsafe to continue within such bicycle path or lane.