Thank you, Mayor de Blasio. This year got off to a bumpy start, but the mayor’s statements on Queens Boulevard and now this are very refreshing.

Interesting to see what’s going on with bike infrastructure in Australia.

Oh no! Car drivers cannot endanger people until Friday!

“Fortunately,” next week things are back to normal.

It’s nice that they are doing something but this seems kind of perfunctory. They basically just gave a warning to drivers that NYPD will be enforcing the law for a week and then it’s back to business as usual. That said, it will be safer for cyclists during that week and that’s a good thing. Hopefully some good data will come out of it to show how much of an impact enforcement can have. We miss you, JSK.

photo insists on going down under

Photos are Your friend in these situation

The second part is pretty typical though; once a cop pulls someone over, they’re not going to pull others over until they’re done with you, unless something really egregious happens.

We can only hope that there are some cops who take these things seriously.

I have been battling one particular Domino’s Pizza store about their constant blocking of the bike lane on Onderdonk Avenue in Queens. I have spoken a few times with the community relations officer at the 104th Precinct, and he was very encouraging. He said that he would be paying attention to the matter, and wrote back to me telling me of ten summonses that the police have written over a couple of days last week.

Cooperation by the police is especially important because police neglect only encourages bike-lane blocking. When you tell someone, however politely, “Excuse me, but you are parked in a bike lane”, you will frequently get the response “the cops don’t care” or “a cop just passed by, and he didn’t tell me to get out”.

The people at the Domino’s go so far as to say “the cops let us park in the bike lane”! And they are not far from correct. The community affairs officer told me to call 311, and to compile the results and send them to him. But, on a couple of recent calls, the result was that the officer who investigated just said “car belongs to Domino’s”, as though this justifies its being in the bike lane. So, while the 104th’s community affairs officer’s attitude towards cars double-parked in the bike lane is most welcome, it’s clear that that attitude is not shared by all of his colleagues.

But let’s see what the results will be of the calls to 311 that I will inevitably make during this week . I wonder if the mayor’s initiative will make any difference.

By the way, I have also been in touch with a top staffer at City Council Member Antonio Reynoso’s office; luckily, this offending Domino’s is in the district of Reynoso, a rare politician who is willing to identify himself with bicyclists’ interests. Reynoso’s office tells me that they have visited the store, and that they will be meeting with Domino’s executives.

I am hoping for the best; but still, I know better than to actually believe that good things are afoot.

I ride by there all the time as I live a few blocks away. Nothing seems to work on that block.

“NYPD launches special one week initiative… to do their f-cking jobs”

Soooo tempting!

But the problem is that there are so many of them. Even if you did do the inadvisable thing and flatten one car’s tires, there are many more of them where that one came from.

This is also what makes calling 311 a bit tricky: odds are that the particular car that you report will be gone by the time the cops get there, as any one car is usually in the bike lane for only about fifteen minutes. But the cumulative effect is that there is always a line of Domino’s cars in the lane all day.

And then there’s the knock-on effect: customers who pull up and see four Domino’s cars in the bike lane just fall right into this, and pull into the bike lane themselves.

I think what is most galling is the attitude of the Domino’s people. They don’t even act like they’re getting away with something; these dirtbags actually think that they have the right to systematically break the law! When I complain to them, they tell me “we’re working”, as though that’s an excuse.

I can assure you that, if I were breaking the law while I was on the job, my employer would tell me to stop, or perhaps even fire me. And I have a good union! How this company can condone constant law-breaking, such that their employees actually believe that it is their right, is mind-boggling.

Too much, too little, too late to try again with you
We’re in the middle of ending something that we knew
It’s over, Oh, it was over

I don’t know that the company gets hit with any fine at all. As far as I understand it, the drivers just pay their tickets. (At one time I thought that the company reimbursed the drivers for their tickets; but every Domino’s employee, manager, and executive that I spoke to denied this.) So, the key really is enforcement, so that the drivers no longer think that parking in the bike lane is a good risk to take.

I am hoping that the company can be moved by Reynoso’s office; the idea is that the Council Member’s eventual meeting with company executives can make it clear to them that they are being bad neighbours by tolerating and even encouraging this illegal practice. When I realised that this was going on in Reynoso’s district, I had to try to involve him.

Oh, I have been doing that for the past two years. I first visited the store several times to talk to the manager. This is when I first heard the remarkable excuses that “the police let us park in the bike lane” and “we can park in the bike lane because we’re working”. After getting precisely nowhere, I then called up the regional manager whose name was posted inside the store. Over the past two years I have spoken to three people who have held that post; only the first one showed any interest, and the later two blew me off.

I then found the number of the company’s security director for the Northeast. I reached him, and was pleasantly surprised by his total apology, by his direct acknowledgement that this should not be happening, and by his unequivocal statements of intent to stop this behaviour. A few months later, his tune had changed; he was exasperated and defeated, and expressed to me that he could do no more. He no longer returns my calls.

I have given all the contact information of the managers and executives to the police and to Reynoso’s office. I assume that the Council Member’s people were able to get through to them, because the staffer at Reynoso’s office says that they will be meeting soon with company executives. So let’s see if they can get any results.

I don’t deny that it’s hard to find parking around there. But the fact is that this is not the community’s problem; it is the company’s problem. Their employees have the same obligation to find legal parking that the employees of the deli across the street have, and that the employees of the every other business on that street have — not to mention everyone who lives on that street.

Or, as you suggest, they could be granted a loading zone. Still, a loading zone wouldn’t be the length of four or sometimes more cars, which is how many of them can be in the bike lane at once. So even that probably wouldn’t cure the problem.

If they cannot run their business within the confines of the law, as everyone else is expected to do, then they just need to move that store somewhere else. That would be the best outcome for all involved.

why in the world are these pizza delivery guys driving at all ? they can’t be saving time by delivering via cars. They certainly aren’t saving money. How big is the service area ?

which Domino’s is this and what is delivery geography ?

It is located on Onderdonk Avenue between Putnam Avenue and Cornelia Street. I would guess that it delivers all over Ridgewood.

They could start with their own.

How about “forcing” NYPD’s hand to issue tickets? What I’m thinking is get a hydraulic moving jack and turn the car 45 degrees to block the road, then find the nearest cop and tell them about it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000H3TSIU

Not really a good idea, but maybe things would change.

I’m beginning to think the correct move is to buy your own tow truck. Just start removing these cars permanently, one at a time.

The street is extremely narrow, and very busy. A bicyclist who attempts to go around the blocked bike lane is very likely to be in conflict with a steady stream of passing cars.

There are businesses and and homes that line Onderdonk Avenue on the entire route of that bike lane. Yet it is only in front of Domino’s that the lane is constantly blocked, sometimes for the entire stretch of street between Putnam Avenue and Cornelia Street. This one business has no special right to break the law; they should be finding legal spots, just as everyone else on that street is expected to do. It is important that this problem with Domino’s be addressed, or inevitably the tendency to park in the bike lane will spread as other people notice that there is no penalty for this illegal act.

And the Domino’s drivers aren’t just sitting in their cars; they are parking their cars in the bike lane as they go inside and get their orders. As I mentioned earlier, the result of this is that the bike lane is blocked every day from morning until night.

During last week’s initiative regarding bike lanes, I noticed an improvement, as that lane was mostly clear when I passed it. Also, the 311 call that I did have to make last week resulted in the police telling the obstructing driver to move his car, rather than in their saying “it’s a Domino’s delivery car” as though that is a good reason for parking in a bike lane.

I expressed my thanks to the 104th Precinct’s community affairs officer for his attention to this matter, and also my hope that the attention will keep up even after the initiative is over. I will take note of the situation as I pass by every day both on my commutes and in pleasure rides; and I will keep in touch with the precinct and with the City Council Member’s office.

Thanks. It’s a big frustration, and one that has been going on since the bike lane went in there two summers ago.

I was basically banging my head against the wall and losing all hope until I talked to this one particular officer at the 104th. I will admit that I don’t usually have good things to say about the NYPD; but this guy has been very encouraging. It seems that he, like the late Inspector Ameri, is one of the few there who understand that they cannot just give a wave of the hand to drivers who create unsafe conditions with their law-breaking.