Tuesday, January 18, 2011

A post about bicycles and sidewalks

On Sunday afternoon, a reader sent along the following photos from near Clinton and Stanton...




"Cops riding on to sidewalk for a rogue bicyclist smack down. Really."

And the police issued the cyclist a ticket for riding on the sidewalk.

Meanwhile, I'm reminded of this photo from East 12th Street on Dave Winer's Flickr account after the blizzard of 12-26/27, 2010... The headline is "Bike-rider tailgates pedestrians, on sidewalk"


He writes, in part:

When I see a situation like this, I wish I had a can of bright orange spray paint to mark this guy's bike. Nothing that would hurt him physically. But this is crazy. Old frail people use the sidewalk. They can't compete with young people on bikes, and they should be able to use the city too.

To the people's credit in front of him, they didn't make way for him, despite his pleading, and he had to pedal at a walker's pace to the corner.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe the cops were chasing the bike rider pictured up top because he hit someone or robbed someone or stole the bike. The picture taker doesn't know. Also, good for the cops if they did pull in front of him to stop him and ticket him for riding on the sidewalk. If you've ever been hit by a bike riding on the sidewalk (and I have), you appreciate seeing the cops getting more aggressive about this. People have actually been killed after being struck down by bikes.

Anonymous said...

What.the.fuck. This whole situation is out of hand. Cops allegedly giving citations for walking bikes on sidewalks, more brazen scofflaws like the one riding on the snow pictured above go unpunished. Commenters like anon@9:00 making wild claims about cyclists committing manslaughter with their bikes. I just don't know what to think anymore. When it comes to cyclists, there is just this hysteria and nobody can talk about it rationally. It really creeps me out. I mean, I am a cyclist and I do my best to obey laws and be considerate, but now I'm freaked out that I'm going to be cited for walking my bike down the sidewalk as I look for a place to park it. Not only that, I now see that there are people who see me on my bike and automatically think I am selfish, inhumane cruel and possibly homicidal. Well fuck that.

Anonymous said...

we get pissed when cops ignore and we get pissed when they don't...

OWR said...

Next big outrage that's here already./ Just wehn you thoght things couldn't get worse with the bicyclists. Chinese deliver people riding MOTORIZED bicycles on the sidewalks. All over Stuy Town and these streets of LES. I almost got wacked into one on 11th and 1st the other day when (stupid me) I wasnt rotating my head 360- degrees to catch Some Dum Fuk as he road 25-30 miles/hr on the sidewalk towards the pedestrian cutaway on 1st. If I had been hit, Some Dum Fuk would've had his bike smashed with his head in it.
If any other delivery guys are reading this (sure....) be forewarned.

chris flash said...

Once, when one of those food delivery assholes got too close to me on the sidewalk, I just rammed him as hard as I could and knocked him down. He got the message, but I'm sure he went right back on the sidewalk after that....

OWR said...

I'm not interested in fighting with these fuckers as much as wondering where the police are on this. MOTORIZED Fucken bikes now, can you fucken believe it?...What's next Tanke to deliver food on the sidewalks or APC's?