More power to you…and the lock clippers!!!

Rogue cyclists above the law…film at 11pm. Cyclists seen pedalling unlawfully on two wheels (two wheels? how can this be safe?)instead of the state-mandated four wheels. Cyclists seen using their own power to move from point A to point B without licences???? No lines to register their bicycles at DMV before hitting the road? What’s next? People walking from place to place without insurance and licenses?

Ah. That was good fun. I’m glad that a lot of the people who post comments here are so far out that they are entertaining. People who complain about bicycles being locked around street signs make about as much sense as people who complain about strollers. They just sound like people who cannot accept that they have to share the sidewalk with other city-zens. In other words, if this is your biggest problem, then you’ve got it pretty good.

I never knew there was anything illegal about parking using a lampost or sign post, i assumed maybe a bus pole was off limits, where else can we park? but honestly unless there is some sort of education program about these things, the average person won’t know. In London UK, when i got a bike, all my friends told me i needed lights or the cops would give me a ticket without me even asking. no one has ever said anything here about that or anything for that matter. I’m not saying every one needs to go to bike school like drivers ed but maybe its time to find a way to educate bikers. a friend of mine just said the same thing the other day. I don’t know how, but maybe someone has a good idea.

and get drivers to put on their damn turn signals so i know they want to turn so they don’t run me over in the bike lane.

but i def. agree with some kind of sticker/eventual removal of abandoned bikes, but not random clipping.

20: Lee, exactly. If the NYPD were responsible, this wouldn’t have happened. They would have tagged real abandoned bikes, and not have stolen non-abandoned bikes.

21: See my answer to 19.

Some of the worst offenders are the guys who sell bikes on the weekends who end up taking up MOST of the spaces on the parking meters, light poles, and bike racks, making it impossible for bike commuters to get a space.

When they first started selling bikes on the street they would load them up on a truck at the end of the day. No more. they just LEAVE them parked on the street all week. So 2-3 guys benefit by not having to cart their wares around, meanwhile bike commuters are left looking for spaces.

After six months of looking at a pile of rusted bikes every day, they’re FINALLY GONE. If people were responsible, this wouldn’t happen.

You are wasting your time trying to teach civility to these bike advocates.

They feel they can park anywhere they want because they are saving the universe from itself, and they are so self-righteous as to be above reproach.

Last night, I got into an argument with a guy who padlocked his bike to my building’s fence for the umpteenth time. The fence of the home I own! Cyclists have no respect for private property except their own.

Every piece of private property in NYC needs a license to be on the public property. No exceptions. Including bikes. You think these people feel they are like everyone else and must obey the law and get a permit or license? Of course not. They own a bicycle and are superior to motorists and pedestrians alike.

And, #9, Bikes should be licensed, so that when a pedestrian gets hit by a bike (as I and countless others have been), then we know where to find the perpetrator to pay for the hospital bills. And if you’re licensed and over 14, you should have insurance in order to pay for any potential medical bills, just like motorcycles and Scooters are required to do.

But, Christian, I forgot. These people are above the law and better than everyone else.

Christian, you’ve got it exactly backwards.

Experience in other cities indicates that cyclists will increasingly adhere to the rules of the road only as New York City does a better job of creating infrastructure and rules that specifically accomodate cyclists.

For a long time, NYC cyclists have been an invisible mode of transport, just sort of thrown out there to make their way through traffic on streets designed and regulated for motor vehicles (and sometimes on sidewalks, too).

If you want cyclists to stay within the lines then create lines for them to stay within. And if you want to encourage a less rambunctious, male, bike messenger-ish population to try riding bikes in NYC, create physically separated bike infrastucture like what you see in Copenhagen, Berlin, Bogota and other bike-friendly cities.

Until then, expect cyclists to make their own rules. Expect them to be as aggressive as they need to be to survive in traffic and get where they need to go on time and in one piece. Expect them to lock their bikes to whatever they can as long as the entire street is given over to car parking. And until you do these things to encourage more regular people to ride bikes as transport, expect your city and your planet to be a traffic cesspool.

Pirates of the High Streets.

Personally I’ve never been hampered by the bikes locked around here (many of which are takeout delivery bikes) and I’m quite willing to step around the few times it is a problem.

Complaints about this issue are similar to those about strollers in PS. It’s an issue only if you want to make one of it. That’s what I meant by tolerance—do unto others etc.

The fact is, bikes chained to lamposts, fences, etc can be, at best, a nuisence and make some narrow sidewalks narrower. This should be seen as a call for more safe OFF sidewalk bike parking (like in Brooklyn when they reclaimed a parking spot or two).

Bikers will never gain respect from the majority of the public unless they follow the rules. Unfortunete but true.

Locking your bike to lampposts, meters and other street furniture should bother nobody, except in the rare cases of cyclists who don’t give a damn. Happens all over Park Slope, where I live. Hopefully the overzealous cops don’t make it over here.

What really fries my egg about this whole thing, is that this morning I walked along North 7th Street, approaching Bedford Avenue, and spotted a scooter illegally parked on the sidewalk. Not only had the NYPD NOT removed it, they did the owner the simple courtesy of sticking a bright orange notice on it and writing a similar warning on the seat, that if it was not removed soon it would be removed by the city. Bike owners deserve the same consideration and treatment.

“Illegally parked bikes?” What next? Illegally standing pedestrians to be shot on sight? If the bikes don’t get in the way, how does it matter what they’re locked to? Last I looked a parking meter is an ideal spot for locking a bike.

The level of animosity towards cyclists is astounding.

Seems I can park anywhere now.