Today’s Headlines

  • NYPD Ordered to Crack Down on Cyclists Who Commit “Vehicular Offenses” (Brooklyn Paper)
  • Hit-and-Run Van Driver Leaves 3-Year-Old Brooklyn Boy Clinging to Life (News)
  • Riders Gripe Over MTA’s Long-Planned, Critical Culver Viaduct Rehab (News, 2nd Ave Sagas)
  • Channel That Anger Into Lobbying for a Red Hook Tunnel Bus, Says Cap’n Transit
  • 2010: The Year in NY State Transpo Policy (MTR)
  • East Bronx Bus Routes Pick Up Some of the Service Lost in 2010 (NY1)
  • MTA Rolls Out Its New Branding Campaign — “Improving, Non-Stop” (2nd Ave Sagas)
  • Streak of Alt-Side Parking Rule Suspensions: History in the Making! (City Room)
  • The NYT Travel Guide to Intercity Buses of the Northeast Corridor
  • NYC Bike Commuting, Circa 1950 (Brooklyn Spoke)

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

  • m to the i

    Re: Brooklyn Paper article

    I was in New Haven a few weeks ago and was surprised to see a bike cop on the streets in the late evening and cold weather. Of course, any biker knows the cold is not a big deal when you are moving.

    The NYPD should have cops on bicycles patrolling the streets. Only if some of their own are put in jeopardy by law breaking drivers and pedestrians will we see balanced policing.

  • So this week we’ve seen a MTA fare increase, along with stories of a hit & run driver putting a 3-year old on the verge of death, a taxi cab plowing into a bus stop, a 9-month old injured when a livery cab driver hits a parked car, a mother too injured by an accident to see her young twins. Plus a report of a record run in suspending alternate-side parking rules.

    Among our municipal priorities? “Bikelash,” according to the Brooklyn Paper: an NYPD plan to ticket bicyclists for such offenses as failing to give hand signals when making a turn.

  • Moocow

    I think about these things DK, when I justify running lights to myself.
    Last night on 5th ave near Carroll, in the Slope, a northbound livery cab traveling @55-65 mph in the southbound lane, passing another car, almost clipped me while I was in the southbound door zone.
    Your comment is well put, I just can’t figure out if anyone besides bikers and livable streets people see the craziness of this reality.

  • Larry Littlefield

    We’ll see what they do.

    Meanwhile, can someone ask if it is not city policy to leave bike lanes unplowed? All I know is there was a “bikelash” to plowing the Prospect Park West bike lane, most of it wasn’t cleared, and it is about to snow again.

  • “a borough-wide crackdown that will hit renegade riders for often-overlooked “vehicular offenses” like failing to obey traffic signals and signs, breaking the speed limit, tailgating, and even failure to signal before turning.”

    Tailgating? Really! We can only wonder why Streetsblog continues to take the Brooklyn Paper seriously.

  • I agree with Stacy.

  • Suzanne

    I have to say the bikelash doesn’t surprise me, given all the overblown rhetoric about cyclists and their unmitigated gall in getting a few minor safety improvements. This is really no different than whites, back in the day, protesting that black people were being given “special privileges” by *their* unmitigated gall in trying to move into the neighborhood. Thank you NYPD for giving psychological support to all the backwards, reactionary psychos who want to see us run off the streets, figuratively if not literally.

    Everyone who walks, bikes or drives the streets of the city can see that recklessness is rampant amongst all street users. Not only does this targeting of cyclists not actually do anything to reduce the greatest cause of danger on the streets – ie. cars – it basically declares that cyclists are not only not going to get any protection from them, they’re actively going to be harrassed.

    Those of us who want to see a better NY (and a better world) are going to have to step up our work to fight this garbage, otherwise they’re going to roll everything right back. I guess the good thing is that we’re obviously making a dent, if they’re striking back like this. But it’s time for us to fight back.

  • Eric

    I don’t know why Streetsblog reposts anything from the Brooklyn Paper. The Brooklyn Paper gave the bike vigilante who was going to Crazy Glue bike locks a lot of press. Does anyone see the logic in ordering a borough wide crack down on cyclists who break traffic laws in the middle of the winter?

  • Just because it’s irrational doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

  • Larry Littlefield

    Let’s see what the NYPD actually does.

    All I ask is that if I roll up to a light or stopsign, there are no motor vehicles anywhere, a bunch of pedestrians start to jaywalk and so do I, that either all are ticketed or none.

    And that I don’t get a ticket for not riding in a bike lane that is obstructed, or riding in the door zone. It appears that I will be taking the lane up 8th Avenue and down Prospect Park West for a long, long time.

  • Suzanne

    In light of the fact that cops were giving tickets to people who rode outside the bike lane to avoid their squad car I have to say that’s highly unlikely.

    Welcome to New York City, the corrupt banana republic of the so-called first world.

  • The paper credits “several police sources,” nobody by name. Also, the crackdown “will begin in a matter of weeks.” That means that if it doesn’t happen, nobody has to apologize for passing along false information. The “police sources” can say that the command emphasis changed before implementation.

    Printing unconfirmed rumors like this one doesn’t help the NYPD become more accountable to the citizens it serves.

  • Larry Littlefield

    “Printing unconfirmed rumors like this one doesn’t help the NYPD become more accountable to the citizens it serves.”

    Perhaps it has something to do with the unconfirmed rumors about Sanitation.

    What’s that they say? When the tide goes out you see where the rocks are. The future has been robbed, most of the resulting losses have yet to be allocated, and everyone is looking for a victim. The serfs, future generations and the young are first in line.

  • While some of the specifics in the article are highly dubious (NYPD really plans to ticket cyclists for tailgating?), there’s a difference between printing information from confidential sources and printing unconfirmed rumors. There’s nothing irresponsible about publishing a story based on good information from people who don’t want to be named.

  • Re: NYC Bike Commuting, Circa 1950 (Brooklyn Spoke)

    aka

    “Token” Opposition: http://t.co/aKeHUT1

  • Kaja

    Stop linking the Brooklyn Paper.

  • Moser

    Calling on Streetsblog to stick its head in the sand is ridiculous. Perception is reality in politics, and if this community wants to pretend that cyclist behavior is not a real issue, it’s politics that are going to get all the new bike lanes ripped out in 2014.

  • “There’s nothing irresponsible about publishing a story based on good information from people who don’t want to be named.”

    The irresponsibility is baked in from the source. Whether you think the warning is a good or bad thing, and whether you think the crackdown is a good or bad thing, it’s irresponsible of a “police source” to reveal future plans for enforcement in an off-the-record way.

    In this article, you quote Police Commissioner Kelly by name as suggesting “a combination of education, enforcement and common courtesy.”

    If the top cop can personally announce a crackdown in October, why shouldn’t he announce one in January?

  • Larry Littlefield

    “Through a combination of education, enforcement and common courtesy.”

    Well that’s what I mean by let’s see what the cops do. We could use such a plan.

    PSAs to encourage common courtesy. “Education” as in stopping those who do something slighly dangerous and giving them a lecture. “Enforcement” against those who do something really dangerous, for themselves or someone else. Cops spending some of the day on bikes so they understand the difference between the two.

    The sources in the article imply a campaign of harassment. I haven’t seen it.

  • @Jonathan,

    I got a phone call from one of the senior officers in Brooklyn’s 78th Precinct yesterday giving me a heads up, and asking that I spread the word. He didn’t say “don’t tell anyone where you heard this,” but I don’t think it’s necessary relevant. The fact is that the NYPD is going to step up enforcement, and there’s nothing wrong with the Brooklyn Paper story or Streetsblog’s reporting on it.

    Now, I hope that the increased enforcement will focus on the clearly bad and illegal behavior — failure to yield to peds, salmoning, sidewalk riding — and not on things like proceeding through a red light after a stop when no one’s coming the other way, or, for God’s sake, tailgating. And yes, it would be nice if we also see more effective enforcement of illegal driving, too, which we all know is a far greater danger. But I do think we need to divorce the two, and accept that there’s a lot of room for improvement in cyclists’ adherence to the rules of the road.

    And finally, it would make a huge difference to have some cops out on bikes, which is something we really need to advocate for at every opportunity.

  • Suzanne

    I don’t know. Having black and latino officers didn’t do anything to reduce police brutality against blacks and latinos, people were still getting gunned down for nothing more than going to a bar to celebrate an impending wedding. Seeing as the NYPD are some of the worst traffic offenders I’ve seen, after Fresh Direct drivers and deliverymen on ebikes, its a lot like asking a fox to guard the henhouse.