Riding in New York City is tough enough. The DOT has finally started seriously putting bike lanes up all around the city yet often the last thing you see in a bike lane is an actual bike because it's littered with double-parked cars, used as a loading zone for trucks, an extension of the sidewalk for pedestrians and joggers, hot dog cart parking and other street venders, makeshift motorcycle express lanes... You name it and you'll find it illegally littering the landscape of New York City's bike lanes.
It's illegal to park, stand, stop or otherwise block a bike lane. Its a $115 dollar fine.
Bike lanes are an active lane of traffic. Yet every time I set out on my journey to and from within these city limits on my bike there are a plethora of scofflaws and plain idiots in cars and trucks using the bike lane as their own personal parking.
Get your collective illegally-parked asses out of the bike lanes! (I've seen time and time again, a car illegally parked in the bike lane right in front of an available, legal parking spot! WTH?!?)
Just today, riding my bike in the bike lane up Chrystie Street just below Broome Street there was a red Chrysler sedan illegally parked, completely blocking the bike lane. It had its hazard lights on but no one was in the car. It literally took up the entire bike lane on an incredibly busy thoroughfare coming straight off of the Manhattan Bridge. There were tons of trucks and cars flying by making it incredibly dangerous for cyclists to dive into the on-coming traffic to avoid the illegally parked Chrysler.
I simply turned around and went on a search for a Traffic Enforcement Agent or a cop. I found a T.E.A right down the street on Chrystie between Canal and Grand. I said, "Excuse me, sir, but there is an illegally-parked car blocking the entire bike lane. Its against the law and a $115 fine.". I pointed up the road at the red car and the T.E.A shook his head in agreement and said, "Yes, I see the car. I'll head over. Thank you". The T.E.A then immediately proceeded to walk up the street and ticket the scofflaw. I stopped in front of him, took a picture and thanked him kindly. He nodded, smiled and went back to writing the $115 ticket. Excellent. Now enjoy that $115 fine. Kisses!
Nicely done. Too bad T.E.A.'s are probably unlikely to ticket pedestrians. However, they'd be able to hand out tickets en-masse, but I doubt they'd want to deal with the person-to-person hassle.
ReplyDeleteHopefully if the traffic in the bike lane gets heavy enough, the pedestrians will get back on the sidewalks out of self-preservation rather than to get slammed into by bikes.
ReplyDeleteYou might try using a fog horn as a way to alert people in your way who walk on the bike lane.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see someone hop a 69er up and over that car.
ReplyDeleteToo bad he didn’t ticket that humonguous pothole in front of the car, though…
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your post and put a story on my blog with a link back as this was awesome!
ReplyDeleteYay for you! I'm way too lazy to actually to do what you did but I think it's awesome. Bike lanes are a love/hate for me. They offer a false sense of protection and usually I feel better off just riding in the street. My greatest fear, more than anything, is slamming into a car door. It haunts me!
ReplyDeleteha, awesome! good stuff
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