I've never cycled in NYC and I am not familiar with the area where Mr Baldwin was stopped. But I guess I just assumed that he was trying to avoid the dangers of opening car doors. Because when you ride the wrong direction [or wrong side of the road] you can see in the cars windshield.

I wondered.... if Alec Baldwin has bicycled in the city for maybe decades and was never stopped before... and felt "picked on" by the police. Or... is bicycling something new and maybe a little scary for him. So I did a little search and found a few different images of him cycling. Apparently he is both a cyclist and a bit of an ass.