Advocacy & Safety - Crosswalk

This morning crossing street from parking lot to work buzzed by a cyclist while in crosswalk. Situation is this is a police officer controlled crosswalk before and after work. Officer is in middle of the lane and has traffic stopped for folks to cross, cars and one other cyclist stopped for pedestrians but other cyclist blew through at a decent speed. Officer called for him to stop, either didn't hear or ignored. Officer jumped in car and persued, we could hear the loud speaker, PULL OVER NOW!!!. Can't wait to speak to him tomorrow to hear outcome.

What should the outcome be? I don't think a ticket applies, does it?

What should the outcome be? I don't think a ticket applies, does it?

The guy blew by a police officer and did not stop when ordered to do so? I'm thinking he either got a good arse-chewing or a ticket.

Let us know if you ever hear for sure about the outcome.

I'm having a horrible time making sense out of your sentence structure so I'll just wait for some other replies to find out exactly what you were saying.

Ticket for failing to stop for pedestian in crosswalk, ticket for failure to stop, and if he knows bike laws he ticket for anything missing on the bike such as a reflector.

This morning crossing street from parking lot to work buzzed by a cyclist while in crosswalk. Situation is this is a police officer controlled crosswalk before and after work. Officer is in middle of the lane and has traffic stopped for folks to cross, cars and one other cyclist stopped for pedestrians but other cyclist blew through at a decent speed. Officer called for him to stop, either didn't hear or ignored. Officer jumped in car and persued, we could hear the loud speaker, PULL OVER NOW!!!. Can't wait to speak to him tomorrow to hear outcome.

What should the outcome be? I don't think a ticket applies, does it?

Bicycles have the same responsibilities as other vehicles. In NJ (and pretty-much everywhere else), vehicles must yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk. Clearly, what the cyclist did is illegal. If the cyclist failed to stop at a light or a sign or at a cop's direction, that's another violation.


If a cop had the traffic stopped I'm guessing it can count as running a red light, but I don't know.
If a cop tells you to stop, it's illegal not to stop. Cops directing traffic override any other traffic control devices.

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It's astonishing that this basic stuff isn't obvious to some cyclists posting here.

I should proof read before posting. For those I confused the road is a 2 lane road with a police officer stationed in the middle directing or stopping traffic to permit the influx of employees from the parking lot on one side of the road to the buildings on the other. There is a well marked cross walk with signs to yeild, cars are aggressively ticketed at this site for not stopping for pedestrians.

Officer had traffic stopped for folks to cross. Included in that traffic was at least one stopped cyclist. Offending rider, rode through a group of people in the crosswalk. Cyclist was moving at a decent speed at the time.

Officer called for cyclist to stop, can't say if he heard or not. Cyclist continues on his way. Officer then jumped in car and chased the cyclist down, I was able to tell because I heard him on the loudspeaker ordering cyclist to pull over.

The officers rotate this duty so it will be a few days until I hear what happened. They will let me know because I generally cycle commute and the officers know I'll be interested in the outcome.

I should proof read before posting. For those I confused the road is a 2 lane road with a police officer stationed in the middle directing or stopping traffic to permit the influx of employees from the parking lot on one side of the road to the buildings on the other. There is a well marked cross walk with signs to yield, cars are aggressively ticketed at this site for not stopping for pedestrians.

Officer had traffic stopped for folks to cross. Included in that traffic was at least one stopped cyclist. Offending rider, rode through a group of people in the crosswalk. Cyclist was moving at a decent speed at the time.

Officer called for cyclist to stop, can't say if he heard or not. Cyclist continues on his way. Officer then jumped in car and chased the cyclist down, I was able to tell because I heard him on the loudspeaker ordering cyclist to pull over.

The officers rotate this duty so it will be a few days until I hear what happened. They will let me know because I generally cycle commute and the officers know I'll be interested in the outcome.

The cyclist has the same duties as a driver of a car. The cyclist broke two laws: failure to stop and failure to yield to pedestrians.

I know nothing about Garden State laws but would like to see the errant cyclist sentenced to some serious hours of community service on the of a push broom creating pristine bike lanes.

What should the outcome be? I don't think a ticket applies, does it?

Why ever not?

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some way to impound the bike for a day or two.

Cops DO NOT like it when you don't stop when ordered too.

Disobeying a Police officer is a ticketable offense.

If a cop tells you to stop, it's illegal not to stop. Cops directing traffic override any other traffic control devices.

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It's astonishing that this basic stuff isn't obvious to some cyclists posting here.

+1 to both.

If, for whatever reason, a cop is directing traffic, they're in charge of the situation, not you. They're there to make sure nobody gets hit or goes where it could be unsafe. If you're approaching a cop doing such a thing, realize that he's already there and knows more about what's going on at that spot than you do. You don't know whether he's simply enabling safer pedestrian passage, or directing traffic away from a house fire down the block, or keeping people out of range of a lunatic armed with grenades and an AK-47.

Just yesterday I was tooling around campus and came upon a (smallish) road with a large crowd crossing. Maybe getting out of a conference or something. A police officer was standing in the road; I'm not sure if he was directing traffic or just happened to be there, but he was casually observing the pedestrians and the stopped lane of traffic.

Myself and two other cyclists stopped at the crosswalk. Several pedestrians paused to make a gap for us to pass through, but myself and one of the other cyclists stayed put (I'm glad I did, as I didn't see the cop until the crowd had thinned).

The last cyclist, however, stood on the pedals and slowly wormed his way through the crowd. The officer saw the guy - he was right in front of him - but didn't say anything. I guess the speed was low enough that there was no real real danger to the pedestrians.

Still, I would have been annoyed if I was one of the pedestrians. When I'm in a cross-walk (especially in a crowd in a cross-walk) I want the full rights that a cross-walk entails. Pedestrian right-of-way trumps bikes as well as cars!

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What should the outcome be? I don't think a ticket applies, does it?


Ummm, Yeah.
1. failing to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk
2. ignoring the instructions of a law enforcement officer
3. reckless driving (he's operating a vehicle, after all, if he's riding in the road).

(Maybe others)

These offenses have different names in different jurisdictions, but you get the point.

If a cop tells you to stop, it's illegal not to stop. Cops directing traffic override any other traffic control devices.

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It's astonishing that this basic stuff isn't obvious to some cyclists posting here.

Side story: During one commute to work using the parallel access road to the limited access freeway the access road was barricaded off and there was a police officer directing all traffic onto the on ramp for the limited access freeway. I hesitated as I approached and the officer made a very clear indication directed at me to go that way. So I complied and rode right past the 'No Bicycles, etc.' sign. I stayed on the shoulder and exited 1mi later. No big deal. Although it may have been a big deal (or rather possible annoyance) if I had been pulled over by a different officer who could have been on that freeway at the time.

Anyway to the bold comment - I didn't see any 'cyclist posting' that that was aimed at. All posts agreed the cyclist should have stopped.