In the competition to use city-issued parking placards to immiserate the greatest number of bus-riding New Yorkers, the 13th Precinct on the East Side of Manhattan gives the cops and court officers of downtown Brooklyn a run for their money.
It's not quite the all-day, every-day bus lane blockage you see on Livingston Street in Brooklyn, but when the 13th Precinct decides to occupy a chunk of the Second Avenue bus lane, they really commit. And they slow down the bus for very large numbers of people -- the M15, which plies First and Second avenues, is the second highest ridership bus route in the city, carrying about 45,000 trips each weekday.
Personal vehicles and squad cars from the 13th Precinct routinely obstruct the Second Avenue bus lane in the vicinity of 20th Street, stealing time from transit-riding New Yorkers.
Reader Rich Mintz posted reports of pervasive Street Cheating during the afternoon rush on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. Each time, police were hoarding between two and five blocks of the bus lane, he says.
We've added Rich's submissions to our Street Cheats map. The reader response since we called for entries has been a little overwhelming, and we're working through a backlog. In addition to placard cheats, people are sending us pics of squad cars obstructing streets and sidewalks, as well as chronic bike and bus lane blockage by non-government vehicles (mostly delivery trucks).
We plan to map it all, and we're working on streamlining our system so we can process all the entries efficiently. In the meantime, please keep sending your Street Cheats photos to tips@streetsblog.org.
