The Few: Cops Wrote Just 32 Tickets to Drivers Blocking Bus And Bike Lanes Last Week
Justice took a holiday.
Cops across the entire city collectively wrote just 32 parking tickets in three key categories last week, the NYPD’s own data reveals.
That’s right — across the more than 6,300 miles of roadway throughout New York City, the NYPD’s nearly 34,000 officers ticketed only 10 drivers for blocking bus lanes, 12 drivers for parking in a bus stop and 10 drivers for parking in a bike lane in the seven days covered by the NYPD’s latest data sheet, July 20 to 26.
Put another way, out of the millions of vehicles in New York City on any given day, cops only caught 32 of them parking illegally last week.
One street safety activist was stunned that the numbers were so low.
“Drivers who block the bus stop, bus lane … or bike lane should expect to get a ticket. This is a clear-cut matter of good governance and public safety,” said Ben Furnas, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives. “It’s concerning that the NYPD is writing hundreds fewer tickets per week than they did last year for illegal driver behavior that slows bus riders and endangers pedestrians and bike riders. NYPD should be a partner in, not an obstacle to, achieving the mayor’s ambitions for safe streets and fast buses.”
The document with the shocking data is posted once a week on the NYPD website here. So there is no confusion, here’s a screenshot:
The 32 tickets written by cops in those seven days is 83-percent fewer tickets than cops wrote for the same offenses in the same week last year, the same data sheet shows. The NYPD does not maintain a public database of old weekly TrafficStat reports, but Streetsblog analyzed a sample downloaded earlier this summer and found that the department previously issued two- to five-times as many tickets for these offenses each week. (One note: The weekly TrafficStat reports described above do not include tickets written by traffic enforcement agents, who are civilian employees of the department.)
The NYPD also publishes the above data broken down by each of the city’s 78 precincts. So to better understand last week’s stunningly low level of enforcement, we analyzed the individual precinct reports from each precinct’s website. Here’s what we found:
- In 23 precincts — more than one-quarter of the city’s stationhouses — cops wrote zero bus lane, bus stop or bike lane tickets last week.
- In 16 precincts, cops wrote no parking tickets whatsoever. So that means more than 20 percent of the city’s 78 precincts did not write a single parking ticket last week.
- Total parking tickets written in the seven-day period represent a 49-percent drop in ticketing compared with the same period last year.
The same data compiled for the entire 28-day period (June 29-July 26) show similar trends: all parking tickets are down 18 percent, compared to the same period last year, with bus lane, bus stop and bike lane tickets leading the way with a 41-percent decline.
There could be reasons why ticket writing would decline in that period — the World Cup and other policing expediencies, of course — but why would ticket writing for bus and bike lane violations be down by much higher percentages than overall tickets?
Michael Sutherland, the senior policy and legislative analyst at Open Plans, said the low numbers indicate the need for a change in strategy.
“Inconsistent enforcement is the reason illegal parking is so rampant: lawbreakers know there’s little chance they’ll get caught,” said Sutherland, whose organization shares a parent company with Streetsblog. “To stop the chaos on our streets we need automated parking enforcement. Automated enforcement has been shown to be hugely effective in reducing illegal behavior, and all road users — pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike — deserve the right to get where they’re going safely and quickly.”
So what does the NYPD say?
Remember, the reporting above is based on a single sheet of paper that the NYPD posts on its website every week. On Thursday at 4:14 p.m., Streetsblog wrote an email to the NYPD press office asking a single question:
“Can you please explain why officers wrote so few parking tickets last week?”
Two hours and twenty minutes later, a department spokesperson, who declined to provide a name, wrote, “We need more time to respond to non-breaking news questions. We will get back to you tomorrow [Friday].”
This story was posted at 4:14 p.m. on Friday — exactly 24 hours after we posed a single question to the NYPD press shop.
We’ll update this story if the NYPD responds.
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