Is this true even if the other lane is used by pedestrians?

While they are at it, I hope these "councilors" are reminding joggers not to use the bike lane. Every morning I have to weave in and out of joggers in the bike lane, many who are often running against traffic!

I didn't see any of these officers this morning though.

Those guys aren't rent-a-cops.

I'm not one of those people who thinks that every bike rider should obey every rule of the road the way cars generally should. I've lived here my whole life and have always owned a bike and I'm the first person to blow through a red light when it's safe to do so on a bike.

But the fact is that some bicyclists are indeed dangers to others, even on the park roads. I used to spend a lot of time in Prospect Park and there were often groups of spandex boys racing their ten-speeds around the park road in pods of 10-20 people. The big problem is that you can't hear them coming. You can be strolling down the road and all of a sudden be swarmed by bikes you had no idea were right around the bend. As long as the Parks enforcement people are only stopping dangerous riders then I say good for them.

I'm more in favor of rider education than gratuitously arbitrary rule-enforcing.

How about Parks Enforcement teaching obviously new riders to be safe and predictable instead of being the asses-on-wheels that I see all the time in parks and on city streets? Smarts and skills will save your life more than stripes, cones and stupidity.

Oh, that's right -- the last time you saw Parks Enforcement on a bike is . . . never. Much better to wave some sign at the bottom of a hill and force every unfortunate schmoe to come screeching to a halt.

Don't let the vainly starched white shirt in the pic above fool you -- most of these "peace officers" are more like Missy Foo on the right of the pic, bending back the chicken wire with her fat ass. All they have are radios, and all those radios can call is Parks dispatch.

No one in that pic is going to chase you down. Just don't be so dumb as to loop back around -- kick a cone into the grass and leave the park.

I think the cyclist in the picture was being stopped for having allegedly blown through a red light at a previous intersection up the hill. I didn't hear anyone getting warned for anything other than red lights, but I was only there for about 10 minutes. I'm pretty sure they are not stopping people for lights, which aren't required from dawn 'til dusk in any event--we had none, and we were not stopped. Also, one of our bikes was missing its horn, they didn't stop us for that either. Plus, they waved us through the red light mid-way up the hill when they saw that we were going to brake for it, saving us some of our momentum. The conclusion I draw is that they were only concerned with bicyclists who did not appear to be stopping for red lights.

Steve,

I think we have gone over this before, but it would be great to see the parks folks use similar vigor to educate motorists about the dangers of travelling at high speeds in the park. As an example, as I ran on the Bridle Path this morning, I noted that the average vehicle careened rather precariously through the rest of the CP loop - this became especially clear when a motorist or two actually followed the posted speed limit and were aggresively honked at and passed by the typical-speeding vehicle.
Equity in enforcement seems reasonable and is definitely not the case at present.

Dave, there was an arbitrary feel to the operation of these checkpoints, but at the same time, the more traditional method--handing out summonses--would have seemed even more arbitrary. As a commuter, I don't experience these checkpoints as particularly instrusive, it's no different than any other red light I might stop for.

For fitness/speed training cyclists, being forced to come to a full stop is clearly a bigger issue. In one case the cyclist being detained was incensed that he was being physically delayed in proceeding with his lap for a harangue on the importance of stopping on red. Forcing these cyclists to stop at red lights in the park will be akin to Guiliani's effort back int he 1990s to generally enforce the jaywalking laws.

Alex, I agree motorists speeding on the loop are a serious problem. Transportation Alternatives have documented that speeding is the norm rather than the expcetion. Enforcement is limited to non-existent. If these checkpoints are part of the "Look" awareness campaign, that speeding should also be addressed. At a minimum, they could install for a few weeks one of those automated radar readers that shows in large, highly visible numbers exactly how fast each car is going as compared to the 25 MPH limit. Position it randomly in a new location on the Loop each weekday morning. I think it would slow many, perhaps most motorists down. I would be nice, as a cyclist, to be able to point to something objective to make motorists slow down.

Matt,

Was the stop you had this morning at a "formal" checkpoint with cones and mutliple officers, or was it a more casual situation with a single officer?

And good for you for taking the traffic lanes prior to 8 am!

#17, Brad Aaron did not write that statement, I did. You cannot imply from the statement that cyclists normally fail to stop for red lights. I said nothing about what the other cyclists were doing, or what the other cyclists (or we) normally do. Your unwarranted inference and generalizations about what bicyclists are "always" and "constantly" doing suggest a willingness to substitute "implications" based on your own prejudices for fact.

I think everyone on this site (including those who run it) knows and acknowledges that a substantial portion of NYC bicyclists proceed through red lights. This issue and other bicyclist transgressions are often and robustly debated here. The fact that pedestrians routinely proceed through red lights and travel in the roadway outside of the crosswalk is debated far less. The reason is that most people on/running this site are not focused on enforcing the letter of the law as much as trying to develop a more fundamental understanding of traffic dynamics among motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians that focuses on environmental and transportation policy, safety and civility, rather than allocations of rights and obligations in the abstract. You allude in a conclusory way to safety and civility, but without explaining what you are actually referring to, so you are not really helping to catalyze the open dialogue that you seem to be criticizing the site for squelching.

#19, I would agree that the vast majority of us commit violations of the law every day as we move about the city, whether by car, bicycle, foot or even mass transit. I don't agree that the "vast majority" of bicyclists violate the law in a manner that distinguishes them from pedestrians or motorists in terms of either the frequency of the violations, or the degree of danger caused or incivility demonstrated. If you have empirical evidence for that proposition, I'd like to see it.

Your assertion that the "vast majority of citizens who do not cycle" will not respect me or others unless we "focus[] on enforcing the letter of the law" is wrong. As everyday conduct demonstrates, there are more important things than enforcing the letter of the traffic laws (putting aside the fact that you would need more law enforcement officers per citizen than the Shah maintained in pre-revolutionary Iran in order to do so).

That said, I have spoken out many times on this site against bicyclists riding on the sidewalk or counter-flow to traffic, or passing through red lights in a manner that jeopardizes or threatens pedestrians. These things are dangerous and rude, and hurt the cause of bicyclists. In my experience only a minority of bicyclists do these things.

Has there been discussion of ways to curb people from riding bikes on the sidewalks? I'm not talking about toddlers on tricycles. I'm talking about folks who zoom past me en route to a park. Not cool. Not safe.

Jaime, you should just speak up and explain to the sidewalk bicyclists why they are unsafe and inappropriate. Same as if you saw someone failing to clean up their dog's poop, or if someone was jabbing you repeatedly while they turn page of the paper on the subway, or if a driver trying to beat you into a crosswalk. I know you say they are "zooming" past, but I bet you will be able to get a few words in if you try, and you will probably end up engaging and influencing some of them.

Also, you can also carry around some of the flyers found here (http://www.transalt.org/campaigns/bike/giveget_flyer2005.pdf) (you will be most interested in the second page of the pdf) and give them out. I give them out to bicyclists and motorists alike.

#23, in asserting that bicyclists violate the law more often than motorists, you seem to be ignoring that motorists in NYC exceed the 30 MPH limit and stand their cars in traffic lanes, bus stops, bike lanes and no standing zones, at the same or greater frequency that bicyclists pass through red lights. And motorists "block the box" (or the crosswalk), fail to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk, and "slip" through a signal just before or after the light has turned red at the same or greater frequency as bicyclists fail to yield to pedestrians, ride counterflow, or ride on the sidewalk. Just watch a moderately busy intersection for 10 minutes.

BTW, with your comparison of bicyclist vs. motorist lawlessness, are you implicitly conceding that pedestrians are the most lawless of all? They are, you know. But I'm OK with that, except for the truly egregious violations where the pedestrian enters the roadway without the right of way and avoids eye contact or any other measures to avoid a collision.

"Not cool. Not safe"

Jamie, I agree. I'm not sure what could be done though other than stepped up police enforcement (is this really worth it, though? maybe...) or just plain yelling at them.

Olmstead Vaux -

Although it is true in theory that motorists "face all sorts of sanctions and punishments and fines" for breaking the law, that theory applies equally well to cyclists, and indeed to all citizens regardless of their transportation choices. But the reality in New York City is that nobody -- not cars, not cyclists, and certainly not pedestrians -- faces any real enforcement of traffic laws.

As a motorist, you must perform some truly outrageous violation or string of violations to receive any attention at all from law enforcement -- speeding, dangerous lane changing, and intimidation of road users of all modes is the accepted norm. Cyclists and pedestrians are guilty of the same degree of recklessness and for the most part receive the same (lack of) treatment from the authorities.

All that said, however, there is an important distinction to be drawn between motorists, cyclists and pedestrians: The weightier and faster the vehicle, the more dangerous recklessness becomes. As a pedestrian, you would really have to work at it to injure, let alone kill, anyone but yourself. As a cyclist, you might be able to intentionally injure an inattentive pedestrian at some risk to your own life. But as a motorist, you could quickly and easily kill tens of pedestrians with no real personal risk whatsoever -- not even risk of prosecution!