NYPD begins massive crackdown on unlawful e-bike riders
The NYPD has begun a massive crackdown on e-bike riders caught speeding and violating traffic laws, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Friday.
Since the operation began on April 28, cops have handed out 916 criminal court summonses against wayward e-bikers — nearly double the amount that was given out all last year, the NYPD said.
'We are cracking down on e-bikes largely because we have gotten so many community complaints,' Tisch said during an appearance on Fox 5's 'Good Day NY' Friday. 'Every New York has had the experience of jumping out of the way or getting their kids out of the way of these e-bike riders.'
The enforcement was first reported on StreetsBlog NYC. Biking advocates say that the draconian crackdown was done without any public notice and that pedal bike riders are being swept up in this unprecedented dragnet.
Cops began by focusing on heavily traveled bike routes like Second Ave. in Manhattan and Flatbush Ave. in downtown Brooklyn, Tisch said in an op-ed released Thursday.
'We are cracking down and doing enforcement on the basic rules of the road — going too fast, running lights, going the wrong way,' Tisch explained. 'Bikes are an important transportation method, but it doesn't work without meaningful enforcement so they follow the basic safety rules.'
Instead of the traditional traffic ticket, the e-bike riders caught violating vehicle traffic laws are being given a criminal court summons.
Bicycling advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, which has said the NYPD is unfairly targeting cyclists 'where the punishment in no way equals the crime,' slammed the move on Friday.
'It's alarming that a policy change that was snuck in without public notice has already escalated to become a massive crackdown,' said Ben Furnas, the group's executive director.' Giving criminal summonses to hundreds of cyclists every week does nothing to make our streets safer. Drivers are still getting tickets for the same offenses, despite putting pedestrians at much more risk than cyclists ever could. This policy is an egregious overreach, and we call on elected officials to demand the NYPD reverse it immediately.'
Tisch said the NYPD switched to criminal court summonses because the traffic tickets — which can lead to one losing their driver's license if they're ignored — just weren't effective on e-bike riders.
'They were nonsense and meaningless to e-bike riders, so we are now giving them criminal summonses for the reckless driving of e-bikes,' she said.
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