Cars in the bike lane? Make 'em pay.
I believed until recently that communities and the local police could work together to protect bike lanes from driver carelessness. Then, one day, two NYPD motorcycles blew past me in the narrow lane.
At first, I gave the cops the benefit of the doubt. When we stopped at the next light, I pointed ahead to where I’d seen three other motorcyclists in the bike lane (flying through red lights, no less). He shrugged, “We all do it.” His buddy piped up, asking if I wanted to drag race. As if life in the bike lane isn’t dangerous enough, we need to add 600-pound NYPD motorcycles to a list that already includes swinging car doors, swerving taxis, double-parking delivery vans, and darting pedestrians. And the situation is likely to get a lot worse when the city puts an additional 10,000 bikes on the road with the rollout of North America’s biggest bike share program in March 2013.
Mayor Bloomberg may have added 300 miles of bike lanes in the last five years, but until they are recognized and protected as legitimate lanes of traffic, he may as well have saved himself the trouble. It is totally normal for cyclists, in the absence of heavy traffic, to be obligated to slam to a complete stop every single block whether to avoid the “door prize” (a swung-open car door) or a FedEx truck in the lane ahead. No wonder cyclists feel entitled to roll through red lights; if they didn’t, they would never get anywhere.
What if bike lane violations carried much stiffer penalties? The City of Toronto tripled fines for handicapped parking violations in 2007, from $150 to $450. California also opted for the stick versus the carrot in its efforts to deter drivers from using their phones behind the wheel: the California Highway Patrol reported a 20% reduction in crashes and traffic fatalities after enactment of fine-inducing distracted driving laws in 2008. In both cases, lawmakers even want to increase the penalty amounts. Fines for unsafely opening doors, double-parking in, or riding a motorcycle in bike lanes in New York City should all
carry a penalty of at least $200 (from $115). These stiffer fines can be used to pay for the additional resources required to enforce the safety regulations.
But before any of that, as my recent bike lane run-in illustrates, Mayor Bloomberg’s administration needs to start with a persuasion campaign within the walls of the NYPD, to convince them of their unique ability to improve the efficiency and safety of city cycling. If they could be talked into trading some of their motorcycle fleet in for a few more bicycles, they might grow more protective of the bike lane network.
They’d be showing by example that cycling is a viable and protected method of transportation while also reaping the many benefits of bike-mounted policing such as getting into hard-to-reach places where crime typically occurs, more clearly seeing and hearing what’s going on around them, and more quickly responding to incidents.
For better or worse, NYPD is our best hope for better enforcement of reckless driving, as advocacy group Transportation Alternatives outlines in their August 2012 report, “Deadly Driving Unlimited: How the NYPD Lets Dangerous Drivers Run Wild.” T.A. argues that by being more strategic with their funding, the NYPD could give its traffic investigators real teeth; they could and should conduct criminal investigations that could lead to charges in all cases of serious injury, not just cyclist death.
A more cyclist-friendly NYPD could and should also be equipped to aggressively ticket the behaviors that leads to injury and death: double-parking in the bike lane, opening car doors into the lane, and making illegal turns. And yes, motorcycles.
You built it, Mayor Bloomberg, and we have come. Thank you for this city full of bike lanes. Now it’s your job to make them safer to use.
At first, I gave the cops the benefit of the doubt. When we stopped at the next light, I pointed ahead to where I’d seen three other motorcyclists in the bike lane (flying through red lights, no less). He shrugged, “We all do it.” His buddy piped up, asking if I wanted to drag race. As if life in the bike lane isn’t dangerous enough, we need to add 600-pound NYPD motorcycles to a list that already includes swinging car doors, swerving taxis, double-parking delivery vans, and darting pedestrians. And the situation is likely to get a lot worse when the city puts an additional 10,000 bikes on the road with the rollout of North America’s biggest bike share program in March 2013.
Mayor Bloomberg may have added 300 miles of bike lanes in the last five years, but until they are recognized and protected as legitimate lanes of traffic, he may as well have saved himself the trouble. It is totally normal for cyclists, in the absence of heavy traffic, to be obligated to slam to a complete stop every single block whether to avoid the “door prize” (a swung-open car door) or a FedEx truck in the lane ahead. No wonder cyclists feel entitled to roll through red lights; if they didn’t, they would never get anywhere.
What if bike lane violations carried much stiffer penalties? The City of Toronto tripled fines for handicapped parking violations in 2007, from $150 to $450. California also opted for the stick versus the carrot in its efforts to deter drivers from using their phones behind the wheel: the California Highway Patrol reported a 20% reduction in crashes and traffic fatalities after enactment of fine-inducing distracted driving laws in 2008. In both cases, lawmakers even want to increase the penalty amounts. Fines for unsafely opening doors, double-parking in, or riding a motorcycle in bike lanes in New York City should all
carry a penalty of at least $200 (from $115). These stiffer fines can be used to pay for the additional resources required to enforce the safety regulations.
But before any of that, as my recent bike lane run-in illustrates, Mayor Bloomberg’s administration needs to start with a persuasion campaign within the walls of the NYPD, to convince them of their unique ability to improve the efficiency and safety of city cycling. If they could be talked into trading some of their motorcycle fleet in for a few more bicycles, they might grow more protective of the bike lane network.
They’d be showing by example that cycling is a viable and protected method of transportation while also reaping the many benefits of bike-mounted policing such as getting into hard-to-reach places where crime typically occurs, more clearly seeing and hearing what’s going on around them, and more quickly responding to incidents.
For better or worse, NYPD is our best hope for better enforcement of reckless driving, as advocacy group Transportation Alternatives outlines in their August 2012 report, “Deadly Driving Unlimited: How the NYPD Lets Dangerous Drivers Run Wild.” T.A. argues that by being more strategic with their funding, the NYPD could give its traffic investigators real teeth; they could and should conduct criminal investigations that could lead to charges in all cases of serious injury, not just cyclist death.
A more cyclist-friendly NYPD could and should also be equipped to aggressively ticket the behaviors that leads to injury and death: double-parking in the bike lane, opening car doors into the lane, and making illegal turns. And yes, motorcycles.
You built it, Mayor Bloomberg, and we have come. Thank you for this city full of bike lanes. Now it’s your job to make them safer to use.