Henry St. Placard Abuser Fends Off NYPD By Mixing Church and State

At this point, it's hardly news that the length of the Henry Street bike lane was filled with parked cars yesterday (see here and here). Being a Sunday, it was par for the course, though still infuriating, that churchgoers were taking advantage of an informal agreement with the police to snatch that lane away from cyclists and give it to parkers during services. Can it get more outrageous than the status quo? Yes it can.

Ink Lake blogger Peter Kaufman snapped a few pics that nicely capture the multiple layers of exemptions and perks that NYC's entitled motoring class employs at the curbside. A white SUV was parked in the bike lane. On the side and rear windows was printed "City of New York Parks & Recreation, Construction Division, Official Use Only." On the front dashboard sat a homemade placard: "Attending Liturgy: Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral."

From the driver's perspective, this was probably a sensible belt-and-suspenders approach. If the police officer wouldn't give the driver a pass for being a fellow city employee, being at church should put him over the top.

From the perspective of common sense and the law, of course, the doubled-up exemption shows just how absurd the system has become. The city had better hope that its employees aren't attending mass as official business, or this could pretty quickly turn into a matter for the ACLU and not just transportation advocates. And whether it's waiving the rules for city employees or worshippers, the NYPD doesn't have the authority to change the rules for groups it favors and put cyclists' safety at risk in the process.