New Scheme By The Meter Maids !!!

This has been the case for as long as I can recall on streets like 3rd street in Park Slope.

Be extra careful parking outside the bike lane stripe too, as they will give a ticket if you're just barely on a bike lane stripe or even if you're just too close to the bike lane stripe in their opinion.

supreme_ian wrote: [quote=sweet tea]i assume you're providing ramps so that bicyclists can ride over your car.

Ive been driving & double parking LONG before there was EVER a bike lane !

more importantly i have NEVER with my own eyes seen a human in the damn bike lane on any of these blocks !!

That doesn't matter. It's like parking front of a broken fire hydrant. You're not allowed or a disabled ramp in the middle of a street which no one uses. In fact double parking in itself is illegal even during alternate. It's only by tradition that NYC overlooks it during alt hours.

by law it is always illegal to double park during ASP.

in practice the police let you get away with it most of the time, doesn't mean they have to.

Idlewild wrote:
That doesn't matter. It's like parking front of a broken fire hydrant. You're not allowed or a disabled ramp in the middle of a street which no one uses. In fact double parking in itself is illegal even during alternate. It's only by tradition that NYC overlooks it during alt hours.

I agree with Ian. This is not about reciting traffic law, it's about how to deal with the chronic problem of parking and getting around the law temporarily. Unless you are an "officer of the Court" why bother stating it's against the law, we already know that! We all break the law. I submit to you Idlewild that your avatar "breaks the law", not traffic just copyright.

modsquad wrote: [quote=Idlewild]
That doesn't matter. It's like parking front of a broken fire hydrant. You're not allowed or a disabled ramp in the middle of a street which no one uses. In fact double parking in itself is illegal even during alternate. It's only by tradition that NYC overlooks it during alt hours.

I agree with Ian. This is not about reciting traffic law, it's about how to deal with the chronic problem of parking and getting around the law temporarily. Unless you are an "officer of the Court" why bother stating it's against the law, we already know that! We all break the law. I submit to you Idlewild that your avatar "breaks the law", not traffic just copyright.

Call Toho studio.

Hate to burst peoples bubble but it's not a scam. People who park in bike lanes are inconsiderate plane and simple. Just because most meter maids were remiss in enforcing the rule doesn't make them wrong for enforcing it now. If the choice is you getting a $125 dollar ticket or a cyclist being forced into traffic I give you the ticket every time. The world would be a better place if we all (and by all I include myself) would step outside our self involved bubble of a life and think about the good of others instead of how they make our lives a little less convenient.

Parking in a bike lane is a quick way to get a mirror ripped off or your car scratched to shit. Beware of those bike messengers.

homeowner wrote: This is what gets me. The number of people using bike lanes Nov-Mar is going to be relatively few, especially in the outer boroughs. While bike messengers may use them in the city, only the hardcore bikers are biking through a NYC winter. Think back to the subway strike of a few years ago. Even then, the numbers of people biking to work didn't appreciate significantly. More people walked and carpooled, simply because riding a bike in 10 degree weather isn't the most fun thing, and add in rain and snow and its downright miserable. Why then take a street like Bedford Avenue which was a heavily used truck route and put a bike lane on it, squeezing all the existing truck traffic from three lanes to two. It just doesn't make sense when there are weeks were there are only a handful of bikers using the lane. As a taxpayer, why aren't my tax dollars being spent on mass transit which has a much larger usage than on bike lanes which are used on a regular basis by a very tiny minority of residents?

The kids' playground across the street from me is empty this time of year and will stay that way until the spring. Wanna stop putting taxpayer dollars into that too? It would make a great municipal parking lot.

I ride my bike to work all the time. The reason that i sometimes avoid bike lanes is that they are so crowded with double parked cars and (worse yet) lawbreaking drivers who endanger my life by using it as a passing lane. I'm happy to give you a guided tour on 3rd Ave one day and we'll see how far we can go before having our path blocked. If the laws were strictly enforced and it were practical to ride in bike lanes, I'm sure lots more riders would do so. That's why you only see a "handful" of cyclists in the lane.

And yes - some cyclists behave irresponsibly, and i'm not here to defend that. But let's not pretend that a cyclist breaking a traffic law presents nearly the danger that a driver breaking the law does. When drivers stop double parking, passing in bike lanes, speeding, making illegal broken U-turns, etc, I'll be the first one to support ticketing for cyclists who disobey the law. Until then, let's acknowledge that the drivers who break traffic and parking regulations are in far greater supply and present a far greater danger.

Idlewild wrote: Actually a cyclist passing the red or riding on the sidewalk presents huge dangers. It works both ways with bikes and cars.

right, a 200lb cyclist+bike vs a 2000lb car.

since F=MA the car kills you, the bike, not so much.

Idlewild wrote: Actually a cyclist passing the red or riding on the sidewalk presents huge dangers. It works both ways with bikes and cars.

For the record, I'm not an apologist for cyclists who break traffic laws, and I acknowledge that some riders present a danger to others. I'm just as happy to hassle a cyclist on a sidewalk as i am a driver in a bike lane. But let's not pretend that the bicycles present nearly the danger that cars do. Each year hundreds of pedestrians are killed by cars in NYC, and that usually includes a dozen or so on the sidewalk. I doubt that you could find more than a couple of pedestrian deaths caused by cyclists.

Physics is a funny thing - a 200 pound bike/rider combo traveling at 15-20 mph doesn't do the same damage as a 2000 pound car doing 30-40. Don't hassle me for having a BB gun if most folks are walking around with machine guns.

Idlewild wrote: The 200 pound cyclist breaking a red and having a car smack into him is clearly a danger to him or herself and the driver if said cyclist goes through the windshield. What also amazes me is I see more cyclists doing this with their kids riding on the back. And for the record I am not pitting cars against bikes, but acknowledgement should be made that if you're on a set of wheels and you act recklessly you are a danger to yourself and everyone else near you.

i will, and have readily acknowledged that. And as i've said, I am not excusing them.

Now i'm waiting for drivers to acknowledge the dangers they create for cyclists when they make illegal u-turns, pass in bike lanes, park in bike lanes, etc. This thread was started when the OP referred to ticketing those who blocked a bike lane while double parking as a "scam". Being ticketed for blocking my safe route to work is not a scam - it's the law. The fact is that traffic enforcement agents sometimes look the other way if you double park during street cleaning, but it must be done so w/o blocking the bike lane. Nothing unclear or scam-like about that.

homeowner wrote: This is what gets me. The number of people using bike lanes Nov-Mar is going to be relatively few, especially in the outer boroughs. While bike messengers may use them in the city, only the hardcore bikers are biking through a NYC winter. Think back to the subway strike of a few years ago. Even then, the numbers of people biking to work didn't appreciate significantly. More people walked and carpooled, simply because riding a bike in 10 degree weather isn't the most fun thing, and add in rain and snow and its downright miserable. Why then take a street like Bedford Avenue which was a heavily used truck route and put a bike lane on it, squeezing all the existing truck traffic from three lanes to two. It just doesn't make sense when there are weeks were there are only a handful of bikers using the lane. As a taxpayer, why aren't my tax dollars being spent on mass transit which has a much larger usage than on bike lanes which are used on a regular basis by a very tiny minority of residents?

First of all, a lot of people still bike in the winter. Especially short distances around Brooklyn because we all know buses and the G train don't run that frequently.

Second of all, I find the 'my tax dollars' argument to be very troublesome. Do you actually know what the funding looks like for biking versus, say, highways and roads? Beyond that, I almost never ride in a car (not taxis or anything), so why should MY tax dollars go to repairing roads that are partially worn down by people who drive to work or drive to the grocery store?

I really don't like the 'my tax dollars' argument, especially for something that's as relatively small budget as painting bike lines on roads.

Boygabriel wrote: [quote=homeowner]This is what gets me. The number of people using bike lanes Nov-Mar is going to be relatively few, especially in the outer boroughs. While bike messengers may use them in the city, only the hardcore bikers are biking through a NYC winter. Think back to the subway strike of a few years ago. Even then, the numbers of people biking to work didn't appreciate significantly. More people walked and carpooled, simply because riding a bike in 10 degree weather isn't the most fun thing, and add in rain and snow and its downright miserable. Why then take a street like Bedford Avenue which was a heavily used truck route and put a bike lane on it, squeezing all the existing truck traffic from three lanes to two. It just doesn't make sense when there are weeks were there are only a handful of bikers using the lane. As a taxpayer, why aren't my tax dollars being spent on mass transit which has a much larger usage than on bike lanes which are used on a regular basis by a very tiny minority of residents?

First of all, a lot of people still bike in the winter. Especially short distances around Brooklyn because we all know buses and the G train don't run that frequently.

Second of all, I find the 'my tax dollars' argument to be very troublesome. Do you actually know what the funding looks like for biking versus, say, highways and roads? Beyond that, I almost never ride in a car (not taxis or anything), so why should MY tax dollars go to repairing roads that are partially worn down by people who drive to work or drive to the grocery store?

I really don't like the 'my tax dollars' argument, especially for something that's as relatively small budget as painting bike lines on roads.

Bike lanes are being sold as an alternative to the use of cars. The transportation alternative folks tout them as being another way to reduce the amount of car traffic currently clogging streets. Why then is it troublesome to ask whether or not the money would be better spent on another type of transportation alternative such as mass transit? It seems to me that there are plenty of people (elderly, disabled, parents with multiple small children) for whom the addition of buses or bus routes would be preferred over bike lanes. For me its not a car vs. bike argument, its what is the best use if you are looking for non-car alternatives. The decision to go with bike lanes means money is not being spent on other things, and I simply wonder if there is any logic behind why the decision for bike lanes has been pushed in a place where public transportation alternatives could be expanded or further developed?

As for the "a lot of people bike in the winter", I'd suggest to you that there is a pretty narrow demographic of people who bike year-round (young, mostly male, single, with no kids). Bike lanes are supposed to encourage people who don't actively bike to feel safe to use it as an alternative means of transportation. Among that group I don't think that biking in the snow or the rain is a realistic option such that they'll opt to hop on their bike in February to run the kids to the museum or library.