**LOVE** how that pic captures a big res “PARK” sign, with a arrow towards the side of the road…

Rules of the City of New York, § 4-08 (e)(9): ”It is against the law to park, stand or stop within or otherwise obstruct bike lanes.”

I think I’ll print this up on business cards and I can pass them out during my travels. I will probably go broke doing so.

I can’t tell for sure, but it looks like both the bike lane and the sidewalk are blocked here.

MyBikeLane is still available! (offer only valid in Toronto)

http://www.mybikelane.to/

The cars parked illegally on the sidewalk all appear to be personal cars. Their owners could obey the law (by looking for legal parking on the street, or by paying to park in a private garage, or by finding some other means to get to work, such as transit or biking) if they had any incentive whatsoever to do so.

If there is insufficient parking space for NYPD vehicles themselves, then sufficient nearby curbside space can be converted to no-parking-except-NYPD-vehicles.

on twitter it is called: @ourbikelanenyc

So most of the time, cops are parking illegally in these pictures. In the rare instance they are actually responding to some sort of emergency, where do we want them to park when on a one way street with one car lane and one bike lane with parking on both sides?

a. In the bikelane
b. In the car lane

I personally prefer a. but am curious what everyone else thinks. My logic is I would rather be the one to look around, change lanes, then move back to the bikelane rather than having a car zoom into the bikelane as they pass the cop car.

Around precincts, the answer is very simple. Designate a specific number of on-street spots for exclusive NYPD use. Many of our police officers have no choice but to drive from their homes to their precincts, and we should have no problem accommodating them.

This would get officers’ personal vehicles off of sidewalks and out of bike lanes. The only problem with this is that local residents would flip out over the loss of free on-street parking. But if that’s a sacrifice that has to be made in the name of safety, the city should do it.

I don’t have a problem with a cop (or anyone else for that matter) parking in the bike lane in an emergency situation. lights are flashing, people are going to go slow.

there is a flickr group that has been in existence for over 2 years now http://www.flickr.com/groups/copsinbikelanes/

I don’t know for a fact, but I’ve heard that police officers don’t exactly get to chose where they work or their work hours, so even if they live in the city proper they could have one hell of a commute.

Plenty of people have “one hell of a commute,” but if they’re not police officers, nobody offers them free unrestricted parking on the sidewalk or bike lane or bus lane of their choosing.

Why was uncivil servants taken down?

where else are they going to park? pay for a spot so the city pays the city? next time you have someone try to prey on you by following you up to your door or try to jack your iphone, they’ll just be like “hey, get a description of that guy, we can’t find a spot, could be another 10 mins”. Seriously guys, you are going to judge what is a legit call and what is a rub and tug break? Maybe they’re collecting witness statements. Maybe they’re watching porn on break, either way get over it. The bike lane is ALWAYS shared with vehicles, just wondering what city you think we live in? One with alleys for delivery and garbage that cops can park? Sorry, maybe chicago or portland. You can always move back there.

I didn’t write the law. And I don’t begrudge anyone making a quick delivery. And I certainly believe that an emergency vehicle on a call can use the bike lane. The issue here is cars and trucks using the bike lane as a de facto parking lot.

Let’s face it, most cyclists are simply entitled pricks that don’t follow traffic laws, expect pedestrians and cars to give them the right of way — even if they have the stop light, and are always complaining about others not sharing the road. (Yes, I have a bike, but I might be the only one that stops at a stop sign or light.)

Just for the record, I’m not afraid of my non-iPhone getting extra-stolen if we ever achieve a law-abiding police force in New York. And even if that were the outcome, I’d chose lawful policing.

This thing where we point out police wrongdoing and the rote police response is “we’re going to let the other thugs hurt you if we can’t police entirely on our terms” only reaffirms the need to clean house.

Just to be clear: your attitude is the root cause, I would argue, for the hundreds of people killed and injured on New York City streets every year. You want to live in Tough New York where cops do as they please and the rest of us just suck it up, no matter how much damage is done. I recommend you go to the homes of the families of the those hundreds of people killed and injured and explain to them your pro-police abuse philosophy.

The reason that I tend to think that I’m the only one is that, on my daily commute, I see any number of cyclists passing me at red lights when the cross-traffic clears, and I almost never see someone waiting with me at the light.

Of course I know that I am not literally “the only one”; but the fact is that we who stop at red lights are vastly outnumbered by those who (motivated either by selfishness/negligence, or by a self-serving rationalisation) do not.

But today I had a small success. As I was going south on Pearl St., I was stopped at the light at Beekman St. A cyclist was about to pass through the light, and I called out “red light”. He stopped, and we began talking.

When I mentioned to him the importance of not giving our enemies free ammunition and of not feeding into the negative stereotype of cyclists who think they’re above the law, he said “I’m on board with that” — and then he actually thanked me! I wanted to kiss him (but I somehow restrained myself).

Interesting that, in light of a photo of a police car illegally parked in a bike lane and a row of personal cars illegally parked on the sidewalk, your conclusion is that “most cyclists are simply entitled pricks that don’t follow traffic laws.” That’s not the conclusion I draw from the photo.

it would be very funny to watch police vehicles search for available curbside parking while someones bike is taken and rode off down an unobstructed bike lane. while the victim complains that the cops took to long, the officer can hand them frank dells suggested business card and say “sorry im late parking was a bitch”… yea that will go over well

It was on my daily commute route. I bike a decent amount but not a ton, so the amount of space I cover has been pretty limited. Fortunately the user submissions are changing that!

For any non-emergency response (such as your example of collecting witness statements) they can park on the other side of the street and block one of the several traffic lanes, which would not put at risk the lives of the most vulnerable street users. There is almost always a better option than the bike lane – they just don’t recognize cyclists as citizens worthy of their protection.

So, instead, they create unnecessary hazards (in complete violation of the explicit NYS laws put in place to limit their abuse of authority).

I’ll stay right here and fight for my rights, thank you very much! If you can’t understand the need for the police to obey the law and respect the lives of the citizenry, perhaps you shouldn’t be living here.

If you don’t like the law, work with your legislator to change it.

But you’re going to have to make a much more coherent argument.

How are restaurants and delis harmed if police have to park their personal vehicles in a legal place on their way to work? I would argue their employees who make deliveries by bicycle are much safer and more efficient when they don’t have the unnecessary danger created by law-breaking cops.

How is official City business harmed when the police don’t openly break the law? I would argue that removing the constant air of corruption would make it easier for all departments to perform their overall work. The requirement for the officers to park their personal vehicles legally would have no other material effect on City work. No other department would have to spend an extra second doing anything if NYPD officers had to plan a few extra minutes of their own time to get to work because they weren’t allowed to park in the crosswalk anymore.

This would be a huge improvement for everybody. It is your attitude and the lawless cops who are damning the city!

i cant wait to contribute to this!! i am gonna take a picture every single day of all the cars that park on my sidewalk blocking the entire thing! sometimes they are so close together i get to scrape my hamper between them 😀