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!

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.

Yep, there was a formal checkpoint with cones at the light. We saw it from a ways away and knew not to try blowing that particular light.

Matt

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.

So, pycholist, you pick and choose which laws are to be followed? That’s OK, if you support anarchy. And who gave you the authority to decide?

“I’m surprised that Olmstead/Vaux is such a proponent of cars”
You didn’t do so well in Reading Comprehension on the SATs, did you? I never even said a word about cars. Boy, talk about pre-judging.

All I said is that it appeared that Steve was implying ( Or, I inferred) that cyclists often break the law. Certainly they do more than motorists, who face all sorts of sanctions and punishments and fines.

Further:”both died before cars were popularized”
Olmstead and Vaux designed the Park Drives for horses and carriages. Then came horseless carriages. Would you prefer to have galloping wild animals circling the park? Have you ever cleaned horse manure off your shoes? What a way to spend an afternoon in the park

Jaime has a point above:Has there been discussion of ways to curb people from riding bikes on the sidewalks?

It would suit you better than excoriating pedestrians.

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.

Perhaps you should, if you want respect from the vast majority of citizens who do not cycle.

“I think because they saw that we were going to stop in time for the red light”
OK, you may not have “implied”, but your statement led me to ‘infer”. In this case, I believed, I inferred correctly.

“based on your own prejudices for fact.”
Of course ‘prejudices’ are not ‘facts’
However, ‘postjudices’ are, because I have empirical evidence, after the fact, that most cyclists – the vast, vast majority, in fact – do not obey the law.

Even you agree with my postjudices.

Furthermore, if most everyone in NYC break the law by jaywalking, as you claim correctly,then cyclists, since they are ultimately pedestrians, break yet another law.

Wish I could engage in this delightful Socratic dialogue all afternoon, but I must work.

Ta Ta

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.

Thanks for implying ( streetsblog would never ADMIT it) that cyclists normally run red lights.

Keep up the good work, PEP, making the Park safe for pedestrians from cyclists who are always narrowly missing us by constantly ignoring basic safety laws and common civility.

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!

We had a little chat with the guy (among other things, asking if cars were really supposed to be in the southeast corner of the park before 8 AM*), and one of the things he mentioned was that the Parks Enforcement group doesn’t stop motorists anymore. They used to at some unspecified time in the past, but their bosses decided that they didn’t want them doing that without being armed with guns. (!)

* The motorists in that part of the park got angry that we had taken over the left lane to do some passing instead of riding in the bike lane. I didn’t have a chance to explain to them that it works the other way around: that we’re allowed in the traffic lane, and contrariwise they’re _not_ allowed in the bike lane.

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.

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.

If true, then the implied logic is: “you can run red lights as long you know you aren’t supposed to?”

We’ll try this next time: “Honestly, officer, I knew I wasn’t supposed to.”