I just thought I would give a little heads up to those interested... I have witnessed more than one and heard of a few other cyclists getting pulled over (and getting a $200 ticket) for running red lights, especially in the morningside heights area on riverside drive in manhattan.

I am as guilty as all when it comes to this, but $200 flushed down the tube would certainly ruin my day...

Happy riding...

yikes! that's where i ride to get to work.. thx for the heads up.

don't run red lights. durrrrrrrr

cue the 70 year olds who will argue, from their rocking-chair-bikes, that "sonny, bikers should not only follow the law, but calmly sit behind diesel trucks until some friendly driver lets them pass. oh, and fu55 you critical mass people, advocating "rights" for bicyclists"...

3...2...

I hope that's not true. I run every light from the gw to 120th twice a day. Yesterday in the 140's I ran a light with a cop sitting in the left lane going the other way. I thought that might have been the end of my luck, but nothing.

Don't get caught. Unless a cop is on a bike or a scooter, how on earth do you get caught? Just run. There is NO WAY a cop in a car or on foot can catch you (way too much traffic). Hell, I ran from cops on scooters while I was on foot (yeah, highschool days were fun). After a few blocks they just give up.

It's almost impossible for a cop on a scooter to catch you. If you ride on the sidewalks and go down the wrong way on one way streets or ride the wrong way in 2 way traffic, I doubt the cop on the scooter will continue the chase....to dangerous.

Not for nothing, but cops have much much much more to worry about in the City than giving cyclists tickets. Some of them even look the other way when you're smoking pot on the street.

This is from craigslist the other day... I saw a female cop yesterday at the same place ticketing a group of three cyclists... I presume it was the same cop...

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hi, sorry this isnt an ad for a bike but i'd have better luck posting here than in the general forum. i was riding my bike southbound on riverside drive last night (my birthday!) when an ugly ugly little thing of a policewoman, a ms. hartigan, did a u-turn and pulled me over (on a bike) for riding through the 112th st (eastbound) light. this is an intersection with no cross traffic and which all the pedestrian signals were displaying the walking guy. so i can ride my bike onto the sidewalk and off on the other side or get off my bike and walk it through and both are perfectly legal but riding it costs $200. i'm a grad student with no other means of transportation and she gave me a $200 ticket on my birthday! the mind reels. anyway, i was just writing to see if anyone had experience fighting these tickets in court. i'm definitely going to court, just to get my $200 worth if the city is going to stand firm on this. i've seen more cars run red lights than i've seen bicyclists stop.. this is just so surreal. anyway, its not the end of the world but god damn it bugs the **** out of me. thanks for any advice/tips.


john



this is in or around columbia

no -- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests


96181851
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The cycle cops in the Square Mile (City of London) have started offering couriers the chance to attend a short cycle proficiency course, in lieu of paying a £30 fine for jumping lights etc. Needless to say, the course is pretty popular.

dear john,

I went to court. For a different bike infraction. It's not going to work. You're screwed. Sorry. You'll have to sit there for like 2 hours with a room full of pissed off people waiting your turn anyway. Don't go. Join bikeforums instead.

ugh. ugh. ugh. I hope this isn't really happening. I run about 60 red lights a day. If I were to wait for each one my 28 min commute would be about 55 minutes.

If they start doing this they really need to start ticketing speeders. It is just crazy what motorists do here right in front of cops with no penalty.

Not to mention that a lot of motorists run the reds on Riverside Dr. as well. Whenever I ride there I usually see at least one car run a red (and sometimes it's not even the it-was-yellow-but-now-red thing but full on red).

i just want common sense, that's all. i hate sharing the earth with all these people who live and die by what other people are doing. really, so freaking what if a bike rider goes through a red light when there is no oncoming traffic? what does it matter? i should just move to italy, where red lights are more of a guide than a hard and fast rule. and it works fine over there.

The cops were staking out a 4 way stop on my route today...it is a well known "rolling stop" intersection, and I usually blast thru when the coast is clear. I spotted them parked across the intersection way before I got there...so I pulled a sweet one handed trackstand and picked my nose with the other. As I zipped by the cruiser I heard an audible under the breath "Ass".

did you pick your nose with your middle finger? that should be the new universal sign.

That's awesome man. Even the cop's gotta love that

I'm cocky but not that dumb...the police around here have a chip on their shoulder and would happily pummel a hipster doofus.

Make sure you don't get more than one. $200 is for the first red light, I think the 2nd(within a year or so) is $300, and everyone after that is $500. This was a couple years back, but I doubt the laws have changed that much, just depends upon whether or not they want to enforce them.

Oh, and don't even bother wasting your time fighting it. If it's a "sting" then those cops are just sitting there giving people the same tickets all day with the same court date, meaning they will show up. And it's your word against a cop's.

Wow, that's rough. I saw cops at 4 lights in a row last night, all red. I stopped at each one and we just looked at each other. The last one I just dismounted, walked through the crosswalk and hopped on again. I might be paranoid but 4 in a row was weird.

i live on 113th/riverside and the nypd patrol cars like to hang out in the shadow of the ukranian memorial just outside my building, it's a good spot to catch motorists who're speeding northbound on riverside...

heads up.

hmm, the cyclists must be an easier catch. are these moving violations? how serious is the violation, i mean, the amount of the fine is ridiculous...

I just moved to bkln from philly and got my first ticket. I went up a corner wheelchair ramp and down another going about 7 feet on the sidewalk. I cruiser stopped me and gave me a "warning" ticket just to serve as an inconvenience to me. I went to court yesterday and the judge yelled at me that this was his courtroom and there are no warnings!! He also said that the cop lied to me. I had to pay the reduced fine of $50.

The cop also said that unless he knows I am a local hustler, he will not stop me for going the wrong way on a one-way street or going through a red.

he said "local hustler?" i love that.

Let me ask the question again....why are people stopping? I mean, he's in a damn car. Just ride away. He's not going to chase you.

How fast can you go? I hear radio waves are pretty zippy.

Trust me, you can get far. Have you ever been to Manhattan before? You just get lost in a crowd.

Manhattan? Hmm.. Is that a place?

Give it a shot. Let me know how that works out for ya.