So yesterday was "day 1 of stopping at red lights for me," he said via email. So while waiting for the lights to change, he sat and counted the number of bikers running reds and how many pedestrians weren't obeying any directional signals whatsoever.
Totals yesterday afternoon after a ride from the Lower East Side to Chelsea:
Bikers Running Red: 7 out of 10
Pedestrians: Innumerable ("I lost count.")
Oh, and here's the back of his ticket...
Samo, I'm with you--that $270 ticket is bullshit. But you can't compare a bike running a red light to a jaywalking pedestrian--pedestrians never "win" collisions. Nor should a bike be compared to a car (I assume you counted zero cars running lights). A bike should be classified somewhere between. If bikers stay off the sidewalks, ride in the direction of traffic, and obey red lights on non-deserted streets, they should be left alone. Traffic laws should be enforced for bikers but infractions should cost significantly less than auto tickets.
ReplyDeleteInteresting what you can observe when you just stop and sit still for a moment. Glad to hear SAMO is stopping at red lights now.
ReplyDeletenew york is designed as a pedestrian city, despite current inane (j s-k)efforts to change the rules... a bicycle is a motor vehicle, you're the motor. motor vehicles have traffic signals dictating their progress. a red light or a stop sign means the vehicle needs to come to a complete stop. pedestrians however can assess the traffic and cross at the crosswalk without regard for the traffic signals. that's the way it's always been. only one vehicle can legally proceed through red lights - not police, fire or ambulance, but postal delivery trucks.
ReplyDeletesamo
ReplyDeletesorry the ticket was so expensive
but
if that's what it takes to get bikers to stop at the red, then so be it.
and hopefully you don't ride on sidewalks.
adam, you said it all.
"The object of the game is to stay alive. PERIOD. Pedestrians need to be more mindful around bike lanes."
ReplyDeleteriding a bike at normal speeds and coming to a complete stop on a red light and then sitting there waiting ... waiting to proceed when there is no traffic or pedestrians is just stupid. Stupid! You all know it, I know it, and pretending otherwise is equally unrealistic. If I can hit and kill you while accelerating from a stop, or slow roll, you were old and decrepit and about to die anyway. One less "neighbor" complaining about bar noise.
ReplyDeleteYou anti bikers are like tea-baggers. You are total, fucking hypocrites, with no sense of just plain logic.
ReplyDeletePerfect.
All those pedestrians wiped out by cars reported on the news, just last night (and those were just the ones reported); but the problem is always the cyclists. Again, just like tea-baggers, you have no idea what the meaning of "scapegoating" is.
@Tom - I really hope that when you're "old and decrepit and about to die" you're hit and killed by a biker with the same shitass attitude you have, you miserable, narcissistic, psychopath scumbag.
ReplyDeletePosts about bikes generate almost as much heat as posts about the Hot Chick's Room sign.
ReplyDelete@Ken
ReplyDeleteWait to Bloomy unveils the 'Hot Chicks Room' Bike Lanes.
@ EV Grieve
ReplyDeleteHa ha! 'Hot Chicks Bike Lanes' aren't offensive. They're just annoying/sorority-ish and make no sense!
Lisa, why wait till Tom's old, decrepit and about to die?
ReplyDelete@Ken
ReplyDeleteNo, the "Hot Checks Room Bike Lanes" are offensive. They remind me of bikes lanes that you would have seen in 1970s Times Square or featured in "Great Bordellos of the World: An Illustrated History."
@Tom: You're just bitter because MySpace is history.
ReplyDeleteOh great. The Hot Chicks Bike Lane has only been around for 5 minutes and already there's a protest!
ReplyDelete@Pam - Damn, girl, you are so right!
ReplyDelete@Marty - Ha!
@Ken
ReplyDeleteCity Room is reporting that, given the mounting criticism, Bloomberg has donated the "Hot Chicks Room" Bike Lane to a nonprofit in Greenland.
gahhhhhh - i wrote a long reply to this and my browser crashed. gah...
ReplyDeleteanyhow - this happened to me years ago. 5am, i slowed and saw no cars coming and ran the red. 3 delivery guys and i biked nearly 6 blocks before we realized the cops were pulling us over (after they got on the loudspeaker). i was informed that this ticket would affect my motor vehicle driving license and that i could get a DUI while biking that would take away my license. fun stuff. i contested the ticket and went to court a year and a half after the incident (court was postponed three times!?). the cop never showed so i waited with the judge and the clerk for almost two hours before court officially ended when they dismissed my ticket.
go to court; it'll probably be dismissed.
antibikers are ridiculous. there are asshole bikers, asshole drivers and asshole pedestrians. i see no reason that a bike should have to stop and wait at a red light 100% of the time - just as i see no reason a pedestrian should have to wait at a crosswalk 100% of the time. there are times to wait (busy intersections etc) but if a street is empty - a simple slow down and look then cross should be acceptable. i want to give dumb pedestrians tickets - people that jaywalk at the worst times or stand in the street while waiting to cross the street - have you ever tried to drive (or bike) around that shit? dangerous stuff.
So he's bitter because he got caught? I jaywalk all the time, and I 100% accept that I could get fined for it. I have NO illusions that what I'm doing is right or somehow justified. It's just convenient. If you go against the signals, suck it up and accept that you might get a fine. That's the risk you take. Counting other people who aren't getting caught just makes him look petty.
ReplyDeletei guess most people suffer from the "when i'm driving the pedestrians are assholes, and when i'm walking the drivers are" syndrome. substitute bikers, motorized scooters, whatever "vehicle" you want, etc. for any of the above.
ReplyDeletethe reason we have traffic laws is for safety, and sometimes one size does fit all. a person in a car, on a bike on foot, or whatever, should know that traffic laws are obeyed and that they can, with some thought, cross on the green at a corner.
jaywalkers do get tickets. why shouldn't bikers?
the road is not only for the convenience of you hostile, selfish folks on bicycles.
i am not against bikers, only some the ones that are assholes. tom for example.
There is no equivalence between bikers and pedestrians. A bike is a conveyance which greatly increases the speed of the rider, thereby making the rider more dangerous to all he or she encounters. That's the same reason motor vehicles are regulated. Pedestrians, on the other hand, are using their natural mode of travel without any augmentation.
ReplyDeleteIf two bumbling pedestrians don't look where they're going, cross against a light etc and run into each other, neither will be seriously injured. Under the same circumstances where one party is riding a bike, there is a strong likelihood of injury regardless of whether it's the pedestrian's fault for walking into the middle of the street or the bike rider's for salmoning at top speed. But no one forced the latter to ride a bike - it is the use of a conveyance (bike) which creates the risk of injury, therefore there is no equivalence between the parties.
Acting like a child who did not get what he wanted, Mayor Mike had the bike lanes installed simply to narrow street width and make driving in the city more frustrating. This, after being denied his wish for congestion pricing and east river tolls.
ReplyDeleteThe bike lanes permeating the city are mostly just temporary until the next or subsequent administrations have them removed after realizing the costs of construction and maintenance far outweigh any tangible benefit to the city.
It's equally as ridiculous for cars to have to stop at a red light and wait for it to turn green if there is no one else around, but it's still the law. You know it and you know the consequences for violating it...you all seem like you can do the cost benefit analysis and determine for yourselves whether it is worth it to you to blow a red light or not.
ReplyDeleteCops ticket bicyclists and yet never EVER seem to ticket motorists for blocking the bike lane. What's up with that?
ReplyDeleteIf I get off my bike and walk my bike across the street then do I count as a pedestrian?
ReplyDelete