CBS 2 finds that some bicyclists ride through red lights and stuff in the East Village

CBS 2 camped out in the East Village to find some outlaw bicyclists. And they did! It's Bike Bedlam! (Catchy!)

NEW YORK (CBS 2) – The NYPD is on a ticket blitz, giving cyclists more than 15,000 violations so far this year. Many pedestrians say it’s about time and fear the city’s push to get people pedaling has led to danger on the streets and sidewalks. Some have even dubbed it “bike bedlam.”

The Big Apple is racing to become the bike capital of the world and the Bloomberg administration has added more bike racks, paths and lanes.

However, as CBS 2’s Tony Aiello found out, spending a few minutes along the new bike lane on First Avenue makes clear that plenty of New Yorkers have little liking for the biking.

“It would be one thing if the bike riders obeyed the lights and things — they don’t,” Lower East Side resident Amber Rogers told Aiello.

In a recent 20 minute period at First Avenue and Sixth Street, CBS 2 counted 17 bike riders running red lights and more than two dozen riding the wrong way and against traffic.

There's video, but CBS embedded the wrong code....

Thanks to EV Grieve reader Creature for the tip.

StreetsBlog discussed some of CBS2's week-long report here.

There will be hell to pay for this

So that was a large group of (ahem) motorcycle enthusiasts hanging out on Avenue A Sunday afternoon. What do you think, some 50-60 bikes in total on either side of the street between Seventh and Sixth? Not real big on having their picture taken, huh? But one fellow was nice enough to finally say OK to this shot.