With the current NYC administration's history of arresting critical massers, all the recent reports of the NYPD "cracking down" and giving bicyclists tickets, and now seizing bikes for being locked to city street signs and poles, I took it upon myself to ask the mayor what's up with this.
Anyway here's what I wrote. What kind of boilerplate response do you think I'll get?
I have a question regarding the attitude taken towards bicyclists in the past several years. Recently the NYPD has shown an increased effort in giving bicyclists tickets for minor offenses including: failure to have reflectors or bells installed on a bike and not riding in the bike lane. Our community has also noted that the NYPD is seizing bikes that are locked to street poles or signs. It is already difficult commuting in this city, but to have the police issue tickets rather than doing productive things including removing taxis from our bike lanes makes it even harder. What are you doing to correct this? As far as I can tell from the all of the bicyle advocacy sites, bicyclists are well within their rights to drive on the road including riding in car lanes when no bike lanes are present. There doesn't appear to be any law that states that reflectors and bells be installed to legally operate a bicycle. The bike community is large in New York City and our voters want to know what you will do to protect our rights. President Bush has taken an interest in bicycle advocacy, why isn't the administration of the greatest city in the world doing the same?
This mayor and the NYPD administration really have it out for bicyclists for some reason. Is it some quality of life agenda for gas guzzlers? Bikes take up little room and have as much right to use the road as cars.
Comments
10/28/05 @ 19:21
i recently saw a great film about the relatively recent nypd crackdown on cyclists called 'Still We Ride.' if you haven't already seen it, i suggest you check it out wherever you can - for more info see www.stillweridethemovie.com.
10/29/05 @ 07:25
Yes, I've seen the trailer for Still We Ride via a link on the Freewheels Bicycle Defense Fund site. I've been wanting to see the film, but haven't ordered it yet.
11/10/05 @ 13:44
Firstly, I'm on the side of the cyclist. But I did think that bells and reflectors were a legal requirement in the USA as well as here in the UK. There are various laws about having to be visible to other traffic in the dark (even if you ride mostly in the daytime - same applies to cars, doesn't it?) and the bell or horn is a 'warning instrument' that you are supposed to have. Again, same goes for cars. Having to comply with those two rules is a small price to pay when you consider that either of them could help to save your life.
11/11/05 @ 01:01
If you become more familiar with what has been happening since the Republican National Convention in New York, you will see that the history has not been about cyclists rights, but about the mayor's office identifying cyclists as a nuisance and systematically finding ways to target and control certain types of cyclists, especially messengers. They do all this, but they do very little to control the reckless drivers who drive and park in our bike lanes. There's something wrong here. Judging from postings around the web, the ticketing occurrences have been happening mainly around midtown.
Time's Up has the run down on bicyclyst's rights. Personally, I think it's absurd that I have to have a bell. If I have to do that, I'd rather install an Air Zound Horn and really make my presence known.
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