The NYPD's criminal crackdown against cyclists and e-bike riders for low-level traffic offenses has sent shockwaves through the Big Apple's cycling community, with the issuance of "pink summonses" up by more than 4,000 percent during a period when drivers continue to kill and maim with little consequence.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has justified the policy by saying cops are mainly targeting reckless e-bike use in six offenses along 14 key corridors.
This is simply not true. Since the April 28 push began, Streetsblog has extensively documented police over-reaches that have ensnared vulnerable immigrant workers in the enforcement spree — none of it based on any data except the complaints of people who show up at community meetings.
Overall, these stories reveal a picture of haphazard and even hazardous enforcement. We will continue adding in reports from people affected by the criminal enforcement wave. There are petitions to stop it, and multiple community boards and elected officials are issuing statements of opposition, despite Tisch's claim that she is responding to community concerns.
If you have received a criminal court summons for riding a bike, e-bike or other micromobility device, we would love to hear from you. We can keep your experience confidential if you prefer. Please email tips@streetsblog.org or reach reporter Kevin Duggan on Signal.
Welcome to New York!
A Manhattanite was on his second bike ride since having moved to the big city just two days earlier, when a cop intercepted him on Sixth Avenue and 31st Street for going the wrong way.
He had just boarded his Citi Bike e-bike and was riding downtown in the two-way protected bike lane, which suddenly switches to one-way northbound at 31st Street, where the cop yelled at him to stop, before writing him up for going the wrong way.
"I really didn’t know, I just moved here," said the man, who gave his name as Eric.
The new New Yorker said it was easy to miss the switch to one-directional bike traffic, and noted that the location also happens to be a block away from NYPD's Citywide Traffic Task Force.
"I think it’s a little lazy," he added. "If you really want to do something meaningful you should set up better bike paths, better infrastructure."
Biking the wrong way is one of Tisch's six categories that she says warrants a criminal summons.
The Citybikeboy
One of the guys behind the Citi Bike stunt cycling group Citybikeboys, got a criminal summons within days of the new policy when a cop waved him down while he was riding a bike near the Williamsburg Bridge – before telling him he passed through a red light to come over to the officer.
"I was entrapped, 1000 percent, I was entrapped by the NYPD officer," Jerome Peel said. "The cop went to that specific location because he’s going to see the most people running that light.
"What a waste of time, are you kidding me?"
Running a red light is also one of the six categories.
The librarian
A Brooklyn librarian was on his daily commute back home to Queens on his e-bike on May 8, when a cop cut him off at 41st Street and Northern Boulevard and gave him a ticket for going the wrong way.
The city recently converted the quiet, short block of 41st Street north of Northern Boulevard from a two-way into a one-way street, but the book lender did not realize the change because there were no signs – and will now have to go to Queens Criminal Court despite endangering no one.
"It’s a perfect spot for them because the signage is awful," said Alex Mouyios. "On my way to and from work I’m anxious and looking everywhere now [and] I’ve been biking for 15 years."
Whose safety?
A Brooklyn cyclist nearly crashed after a cop stood in the busy two-way bike lane on Chrystie and Delancey streets during the evening rush hour and waved her down for breaking a red light.
"The cop was standing in the middle of the bike lane and just went, 'Stop,'" said Alli Greenberg. "We were basically causing another huge hazard by just standing in the bike lane."
Greenberg said she had been going with the green car light at the time, without realizing the bike traffic light was red. However, she made sure there were no cars around at the time, adding that the real danger on the streets were the cops obstructing a busy path.
"They tried to explain that it was part of biker safety, that it was for my own good as a cyclist that they were cracking down on this," said Greenberg. "They actively made it more dangerous by standing in the middle of the bike lane."
Headphones
Cops gave a court summons to a Manhattanite for riding with headphones in both ears in within the first few days of the crackdown.
It's illegal to cover both ears, but the rider argued that his earpieces were not noise cancelling and that he could hear his surroundings well.
It's also not on the list of six violations the NYPD is supposedly targeting. In fact there were at least two such cases coming before a Manhattan Criminal Court judge when Streetsblog covered a hearing on May 19.
"It just seems like this is a means to use the judicial system to coerce a difference in people’s behavior," said the cyclist, who asked to remain anonymous, after the court appearance that Monday. "The fact that I spent the whole morning sitting in a courtroom dealing with this and now also the fact that I’m technically under a six month probation, … I don't think it’s proportionate whatsoever."
Over the line!
A Brooklyn rider got stopped on Broadway after a cop accused him of not stopping behind the painted line at a light — typical behavior by drivers at just about every city intersection.
"They’re making a big deal about a bike going through a red — when I didn’t even go through a red," said the cyclist, Dwayne Cullen. "That makes me frightened, because they’re kind of just doing whatever they want."
"I’m in an almost twilight zone, like this doesn’t make any sense," Cullen added.
Failing to stop before the stop line is not one of the six violations that Tisch said she was targeting.
Bridge trap!
One cyclist was coming off the Williamsburg Bridge in Manhattan on May 2, when a cop stepped right into the bike path, forcing him to dodge the officer.
"I lock eyes with him, and he decides to walk right into the bike lane while staring at me," said the cyclist, who asked to remain anonymous. "I slam on the brakes, I go around him which means I have to go into the opposite lane."
The rider yelled at the cop because the law enforcement official almost caused him to crash, and then the officer accused him of being "disorderly."
The cop charged him with disorderly conduct and failing to yield to a pedestrian — the pedestrian being the cop. When he protested, the officer threatened to arrest him for obstruction, claiming he had been trying to stop another person on an e-biker. The cyclist did not see another person on an e-bike.
Disorderly conduct is not one of the six offenses. Failing to yield to a pedestrian is one of them, but it is meant to be written to cyclists who endanger pedestrians, not police officers who are issuing the tickets.
Ignorance or carelessness?
A woman got a summons from a cop on Sixth Avenue, despite going with the advance "Walk" signal, or leading pedestrian interval, which has been legal in New York City since 2019.
"I know for a fact I definitely went through that 'Walk' signal," the cyclist, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
The NYPD has kept ticketing people for this legal behavior in the years since, prompting a recent class action lawsuit. The cop dealing with this cyclist also apparently did not care he was writing up a bogus ticket.
"He kind of just shrugged," the rider told Streetsblog. "[I] realized I’m pretty much a guinea pig in this new pilot program."
Locked out
A truly bizarre case came up recently when cops apparently gave a man on a JOCO e-bike a criminal summons for not locking his bike in the East Village, according to a bystander who reported it on Reddit.
A cop apparently told the onlooker that "it's different for e-bikes," but didn't specify which law the rider broke.
At a court hearing earlier this week, Judge Michelle Weber threw out dozens of tickets that had been written without the proper legal code because officers are having a hard time finding the legal justification for their tickets. This one appears to be destined for the same fate, but its recipient will still lose a day waiting in court.
Fractured elbow
A cyclist posted on Reddit that they fractured their elbow after having to swerve out of the way of a cop that tried to stop them "smack in the middle of the bike lane" on First Avenue.
The emergency room visit and the court summons he got allegedly followed the cyclist passing through a red light between 49th and 50th streets; the cyclist said he saw another cop scouting at the intersection, signaling to cops nearby whenever cyclists were breaking the traffic signals.
The cops also arrested a Spanish-speaking moped rider, the cyclist wrote.
"I was pretty banged up and kind of in a state of shock so I didn't know what to say or even how to react," the person wrote on the online forum.
'Blatant lie'
A Queens cyclist wrote a post on Reddit saying a cop wrongfully gave him a criminal court summons for running a red light on Crescent Street.
The rider, who was on an electric Citi Bike, stopped in the crosswalk when the cop wrote him up, which the person called "a blatant lie."
What's more, the cop apparently took her time to write up the ticket in her car, scrolling on her phone, while the cyclist was waiting in the pouring rain.
Missing work
A physical therapist got a criminal court summons for allegedly running a red light on Delancey and Chrystie streets, despite the street being "empty," at the time.
The e-scooter rider said they'll have to cancel appointments and lose income as a result of having to go to court.
"Here is the kicker. If I were in a car and ran the light, I would get a fine and be done with it," the person wrote on Reddit. "No court. No missed work. Even though a car has a much higher chance of seriously hurting someone. But because I am on an e-scooter, I get dragged to court. Makes total sense, right?"
Additional reporting by Sophia Lebowitz
Streetsblog has been covering NYPD Commissioner Tisch's decision to turn traditional traffic tickets into criminal summonses like no one else in town. Here's a full list of our coverage over the past two weeks, in case you have missed something or need a reminder that when there's a big story on the livable streets beat, turn to Streetsblog:
- May 2: "Policy Change: NYPD Will Write Criminal Summonses, Not Traffic Tickets, for Cyclists."
- May 5: "NYPD’s Red Light Criminalization Marks ‘Obscene’ Escalation: Advocates."
- May 6: "As NYPD’s Criminal Crackdown on Cyclists Expands, It Grows More Absurd: Victims."
- May 7: "Komanoff: Tsk, Tsk, Tisch — Criminal Summonses for Cyclists Will Backfire."
- May 9: "NYPD’s Push To Criminalize Cycling Spells Trouble For Immigrant Workers."
- May 12: "Cyclist Launches Class Action Suit For Bogus NYPD Red Light Tickets."
- May 14: "NYPD Admits Bike Crackdown Based on ‘Community’ Vibes, Not Data."
- May 15: "Tisch Rap: NYPD Criminal E-bike Summonses Surge 4,000 Percent."
- May 15: "Quiet Desperation: NYPD’s Tisch Didn’t Tell DOT About Her Crackdown on Cycling."
- May 16: "‘All in the Family’: NYPD Commissioner and Power-Broker Mom Are Both Crusading Against E-Bikes."
- May 19: "A Valuable History Lesson for Jessica Tisch: ‘The Rules of the Road’ Were Written for Cars."
- May 19: Day 1: "Criminal Court Judge Issues Safety Lectures to Cyclists, Including Citi Bike Celeb"
- May 21: "‘Cart Before Horse’: Upper West Siders Demand NYPD Halt Bike Crackdown."
