NYPD Issued Almost 50,000 Bicycle Tickets in 2011

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NYPD Issued Almost 50,000 Bicycle Tickets in 2011
By Alex Goldmark | 02/15/2012 – 6:33 pm

The NYPD doled out 48,556 summonses to bike riders in 2011. That
figure was reported by Executive Officer of the Transportation Bureau,
John Cassidy at a hearing held by the NY City Council Wednesday on
NYPD policies for traffic investigations.

About 250,000 people ride a bike each day in New York city, and about
500,000 ride at least several times a month, according to the New York
City Department of Transportation.

At the start of last year the New York Police Department cracked down
on cyclists breaking traffic laws. Bike community protests erupted,
compromise was gingerly reached, and outrage faded. The pace of
ticketing, however, did not abate.

By the end of 2011, police handed cyclists 13,743 moving violations —
those are for less serious infractions like riding on pedestrian-only
paths in parks, or riding on a sidewalk. Most of the summonses last
year — about 35,000 — were the more serious criminal court summonses
for infractions like running red lights.

By comparison, Cassidy said the NYPD’s specialized truck enforcement
units issued about 25,000 tickets to truck drivers.

Overall, police issued more than 1 million traffic tickets. Cassidy
did not specify an exact number. More than half the tickets he said
were for four categories of infraction: using cell phones while
driving, not wearing a seat belt, speeding, and disobeying signs.

After an extensive crowdsouring sic project to map the scale and
scope of the bike crackdown by Transportation Nation, NYPD leaked to
the New York Post that they issued 14,000 tickets to cyclists who
broke the law between January 1 and May 26, 2011. The Post reported
that was more than a 50 percent jump over previous years.

In New York City, bikes count as vehicles and must obey all traffic
laws unless posted signs or signals say otherwise.
http://transportationnation.org/2012...ckets-in-2011/
-----

- gpsman

On Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:24:24 +0000, Phil W Lee wrote:

gpsman considered Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:06:34
-0800 (PST) the perfect time to write:

x-post to rec.autos.driving, rec.bicycles.tech

NYPD Issued Almost 50,000 Bicycle Tickets in 2011
By Alex Goldmark | 02/15/2012 ¡V 6:33 pm

The NYPD doled out 48,556 summonses to bike riders in 2011. That
figure was reported by Executive Officer of the Transportation Bureau,
John Cassidy at a hearing held by the NY City Council Wednesday on
NYPD policies for traffic investigations.

About 250,000 people ride a bike each day in New York city, and about
500,000 ride at least several times a month, according to the New York
City Department of Transportation.

At the start of last year the New York Police Department cracked down
on cyclists breaking traffic laws. Bike community protests erupted,
compromise was gingerly reached, and outrage faded. The pace of
ticketing, however, did not abate.

By the end of 2011, police handed cyclists 13,743 moving violations ¡X
those are for less serious infractions like riding on pedestrian-only
paths in parks, or riding on a sidewalk. Most of the summonses last
year ¡X about 35,000 ¡X were the more serious criminal court summonses
for infractions like running red lights.

By comparison, Cassidy said the NYPD¡¦s specialized truck enforcement
units issued about 25,000 tickets to truck drivers.

Overall, police issued more than 1 million traffic tickets. Cassidy
did not specify an exact number. More than half the tickets he said
were for four categories of infraction: using cell phones while
driving, not wearing a seat belt, speeding, and disobeying signs.

After an extensive crowdsouring sic project to map the scale and
scope of the bike crackdown by Transportation Nation, NYPD leaked to
the New York Post that they issued 14,000 tickets to cyclists who
broke the law between January 1 and May 26, 2011. The Post reported
that was more than a 50 percent jump over previous years.

In New York City, bikes count as vehicles and must obey all traffic
laws unless posted signs or signals say otherwise.
http://transportationnation.org/2012...ckets-in-2011/
-----

- gpsman

Of course, they padded the figures by issuing tickets for invented
offenses, like "not riding in the bike lane".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzE-IMaegzQ

Have they stopped assaulting cyclists yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRAyZKWEe10

Cool. I like the ending where the guy slams his bike into the illegally
parked cop car.
But that wasn't "padding", as that was the only offense listed or spoken
of. Though they do like to exaggerate the numbers quite a bit.

On 2/22/2012 1:59 AM, Evan Platt wrote:

He states it's not always safest to ride in the bike lane. Agreed. I
don't think anyone disagrees with that. So, when it's not safe, move
out of the bike lane.

You're making the assumption that general traffic lanes are forbidden to
bicycles in the presence of a bike lane. That's not the case at all.

If the cyclist is keeping up with traffic, there's no requirement to
ride in the bike lane. Given the average speed of NYC traffic on many
streets, it's not that difficult to keep up with it on a bicycle.

On Feb 22, 8:42*am, Arif Khokar wrote:
On 2/22/2012 1:59 AM, Evan Platt wrote:

He states it's not always safest to ride in the bike lane. Agreed. I
don't think anyone disagrees with that. So, when it's not safe, move
out of the bike lane.

You're making the assumption that general traffic lanes are forbidden to
bicycles in the presence of a bike lane. *That's not the case at all.

If the cyclist is keeping up with traffic, there's no requirement to
ride in the bike lane. *Given the average speed of NYC traffic on many
streets, it's not that difficult to keep up with it on a bicycle.

Just because there's no requirement doesn't mean you won't get a
ticket/summons for it.

By the way, to my NYC brethren, the cops seem to be out and ticket
happy today.

On 2/21/2012 8:06 AM, gpsman wrote:
x-post to rec.autos.driving, rec.bicycles.tech

NYPD Issued Almost 50,000 Bicycle Tickets in 2011
By Alex Goldmark | 02/15/2012 – 6:33 pm

,,,,,


Well its really very simple you see: all the truck drivers are in
unions, and the bicyclists aren't.

.........

NYC sucks for a variety of reasons IMO; this would just be another one
in the pile. But even if you liked it for some odd reason, it would
still be a lousy place to ride a bicycle.

On a bicycle, the biggest risk you usually face is getting hit by a
motor vehicle. Therefore, riding in an urban area where auto traffic is
dense (heh) is automatically dumb.

gpsman wrote:
NYPD Issued Almost 50,000 Bicycle Tickets in 2011
By Alex Goldmark | 02/15/2012 – 6:33 pm

DougC wrote:
Well its really very simple you see: all the truck drivers are in
unions, and the bicyclists aren't.

........

NYC sucks for a variety of reasons IMO; this would just be another one
in the pile. But even if you liked it for some odd reason, it would
still be a lousy place to ride a bicycle.

On a bicycle, the biggest risk you usually face is getting hit by a
motor vehicle. Therefore, riding in an urban area where auto traffic is
dense (heh) is automatically dumb.

As a single data point, this rider always borrows a bike
when in NYC. I thoroughly enjoy it. YMMV.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Feb 22, 5:14*pm, DougC wrote:


On a bicycle, the biggest risk you usually face is getting hit by a
motor vehicle. Therefore, riding in an urban area where auto traffic is
dense (heh) is automatically dumb.

So by that standard, most people who use a bike for practical
transportation are dumb? Sorry, I strongly disagree.

- Frank Krygowski

On Feb 22, 9:20*pm, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Feb 22, 5:14*pm, DougC wrote:



On a bicycle, the biggest risk you usually face is getting hit by a
motor vehicle. Therefore, riding in an urban area where auto traffic is
dense (heh) is automatically dumb.

So by that standard, most people who use a bike for practical
transportation are dumb? *Sorry, I strongly disagree.

"Nyuh-uh" as a rebuttal is the mark of a moron.

Perhaps you'd care to explain how you find the idea of riding a bike
in traffic a wise and reasoned decision...
-----

- gpsman

gpsman wrote:
On Feb 22, 9:20 pm, Frank wrote:
On Feb 22, 5:14 pm, wrote:



On a bicycle, the biggest risk you usually face is getting hit by a
motor vehicle. Therefore, riding in an urban area where auto traffic is
dense (heh) is automatically dumb.

So by that standard, most people who use a bike for practical
transportation are dumb? Sorry, I strongly disagree.

"Nyuh-uh" as a rebuttal is the mark of a moron.

I don't see yours as being better.

Perhaps you'd care to explain how you find the idea of riding a bike
in traffic a wise and reasoned decision...

We can start with the fact that study after study has found that the
benefits of biking for transportation greatly outweigh the risks. And
of course, by its nature, most biking for transportation occurs in traffic.

In Mayer Hillman's work _Cycling and the Promotion of Health_, Policy
Studies, Summer 1995, vol. 14 (2) he concluded that bicycling has a 20:1
benefit-to-risk ratio in terms of years of life gained to lost. IIRC,
that estimate included benefits to non-cyclists at less risk from car
traffic, pollution, etc.

de Hartog,et. al., "Do the Health Benefits of Cycling Outweigh the
Risks?", Environ Health Perspect 118:1109-1116 (2010) estimated benefit
to risk ratios of 9:1 (in Holland) and 7:1 (in Britain) in terms of
years of life gained to lost, for just the cyclists themselves.

Rojas-Rueda, et.al., "The health risks and benefits of cycling in urban
environments compared with car use: health impact assessment study," BMJ
2011; 343:d4521 studied benefits to risks for those who chose to use
Barcelona's bike share system instead of using cars. They estimated
77:1 for those specific cyclists.

Rabl, A. et. al., "Benefits of shift from car to active transport,"
Transport Policy 19 (2012) 121-131 does its computations based on Euro
costs, rather than years of life. It estimates a health gain benefit
from exercise (bicycling) at 1310 Euros/year, plus a public health gain
of 33 Euros/year, vs. -19 Euros/year cost to the individual from air
pollution, and -53 Euros/year from accidents. For the individual, that
would give a benefit to risk ratio of 1310/(19+53) or about 18:1 in
terms of Euros.

I've got other papers on the topic, but those should give you a start.
I don't know of any studies that have found a net detriment to cycling
for transportation. The supposed detriments are fantasies of the
"Danger! Danger!" crowd. And, perhaps, those who use the word "moron"
in discussions.

--
- Frank Krygowski

On a bicycle, the biggest risk you usually face is getting hit by a
motor vehicle. Therefore, riding in an urban area where auto traffic is
dense (heh) is automatically dumb.

I've been called worse by better, but guilty as charged