The Coalition Against Rogue Riding (C.A.R.R.) demands strict enforcement of traffic regulations for all street vehicles, including bicycles, and supports measures that will enable these regulations to be enforced reliably and efficiently.
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Sarah Pitts Sr. Prosecutor in the Brooklyn DA office fatally struck cycling after midnight. Account gives no details about her fatality or other bike incidents.
The irresponsible bike culture that has plagued the public for 20 years or more fits right into this pattern. In fact the NYPD has been undermined by the directives coming from former candidate for the Democratic nomination for President current Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Mayor and current candidate multi billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg. The directives being to suppress enforcement of the bike laws against rogue cyclists. A responsible bike culture should have been fundamental to any development of cycling infrastructure in NYC. This was avoided-as obeying the law in New York was seen as inhibiting the number of cyclists. The theory being the more cyclists the safer the streets. WRONG. The number of cyclist deaths is increasing. The streets and SIDEWALKS are fraught with jeopardy. Emergency vehicles are squeezed. Congestion is world class. Am I wrong or was this theory based on a "study" of some obscure frontier town north of Crocodile Dundee? NYC has far different logistic than the European cities from where the build out has been poached by the "visionaries". There is no safety-for anyone-without a responsible bike culture. The theory of build it and they will come-and be responsible is fools gold. Without a responsible bike culture its just enabling and doubling down on the arrogance and sense of entitlement that the "visionaries" motto- Disruption not construction-have fomented.
The city’s largest police union declared a “public safety emergency” Tuesday morning in the face of spiraling crime figures.
“It is now clear that there we have a public safety emergency in New
York City,” Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch said
in a statement.
“New Yorkers need to reject Mayor [Bill] de Blasio’s easy excuses,”
he continued. “Bail reform is not the only problem here. The
double-digit increases in shootings, robberies, burglary and thefts
aren’t the product of any single law or policy. They are the result of
failed leadership and a political culture that denigrates and devalues
the work police officers do.”
Since Jan. 1, the city has experienced a nearly 30 percent spike in
shootings compared to the same period last year — as well as a rise in
most major crimes, statistics show. Among the seven so-called major
crimes, only murder and rape are down.
The city recorded 70 shootings in which at least one person was
injured so far this year. That’s up 27.3 percent from the same period
last year, when there were 55 counted during the same period. The
number of victims increased by 50.7 percent from 59 last year to 83 so
far this year.
The largest spike was in auto thefts, which shot up 70 percent to 617
vehicles stolen, or about 20 a day. Robberies were also on the rise by
35 percent or 1,355 people victimized.
“This is what happens when our city leaders sit silent or issue weak,
belated statements when the mob in the street chants for ‘dead cops,’”
Lynch said. “For the past six years, Mayor de Blasio and many other
elected officials have sent a single, clear message about their lack of
support for law enforcement. And these terrible statistics show that the
criminals of New York have heard that message, loud and clear.”
Mayor de Blasio fired back at Lynch at an afternoon press conference on crime statistics in Harlem.
“If the head of a police union or anyone else says New York City is
going in the wrong direction they are rooting against New York City,” de
Blasio said. “This is the great irony: Do you have faith in the NYPD or
not? I do. Maybe Mr. Lynch doesn’t.”
Well this seems to be the naked ugliness manifest. Certainly Transportation Alternative's scheme
of suppressing enforcement against bike riders is one clear aspect of this advocacy of disorder.
Just as the streets and sidewalks have become landmines that the "visionairies" own and the
cycling deaths have mounted-28- in 2019 now these "fooligans" think they can run amuck
in a lawless land without law enforcement. How dim. How un-visionary.
Cop-hating radicals wreaked havoc on New York City’s subways on
Friday — vandalizing turnstiles, station walls and buses to protest a
police crackdown on turnstile jumping.
The agitators — who want police completely out of the subways and
transit to be free — secured emergency gates open with bike locks,
zip-ties and violin strings, rendered turnstiles useless with glue and
spray paint and littered buses, stations and trains with ““F–k cops, f–k
MTA,” “Free transit ” and other anti-cop, anti-MTA messages.
“We encourage you to link up with your friends, your family and think
of the ways you can move in affinity to f–k s–t up on J-31 all day
long,” a masked man said in a video posted to the Twitter page of “Decolonize This Place,” the group organizing the demonstrations, ahead of the day of protests.
The goals of the group include “no cops in the MTA, free transit [and] no harassment,” according to the video.
Protests began early Friday morning. Walls and display screens at the
Upper West Side’s 72nd Street B and C train station were marred with
graffiti Friday around 7 a.m., cops said.
Just before 8 a.m., protesters strung a large black banner with the
words, “F–k your $2.75. Fare strike today,” from the Oculus at the World
Trade Center station, according to a video posted by the group. People could be heard clapping and cheering as the banner was unfurled.
Photos obtained by The Post also show anti-cop graffiti at the 155th
Street C station. Police received reports of graffiti — as well as glue
lining the MetroCard strips — at the 115th Street A/C station, the 145th
Street A/C station, the 155th Street C train station, the 96th Street B/C station and Borough Hall station in Brooklyn, authorities said.
Meanwhile, Metro-North officials warned of dangerous rush-hour crowds
at Grand Central Terminal as cop-hating radicals wreaked havoc on New
York City’s subways ahead of a 5 p.m. “citywide convergence” at the
transit hub.
“Customers in the vicinity of Grand Central Terminal may experience
increased crowding and street closures due to potential demonstrations,”
the commuter railroad said in a statement posted to Twitter.
“Please plan extra travel time or consider taking one of our Friday early getaway trains.”
The protests are a “true endgame of the anti-police movement, an end
of all policing & destruction of public order,” the Police
Benevolent Association said.
“Our members have spent their careers — and in some cases given their
lives — to bring public safety back to NYC,” the union tweeted. “We
can’t go backwards.”
The NYPD “is aware of the demonstration and will have an adequate police presence in place,” a department spokeswoman said.
The protests come as MTA and NYPD increase the presence of cops on
subways and buses to combat fare evasion, sex crimes and attacks on
transit workers.
MTA spokesman Tim Minton said it will be a costly clean-up.
“Some of the tactics that have been discussed threatened to put both
riders and employees at risk for their safety,” Minton told The Post.
Police had no immediate word Friday afternoon on protest-related arrests. Additional reporting by Tina Moore
No one intendes to discriminate against immigrants. The USA is a nation of same. We simply wants them to ride responsibly. Not to increase the level of jeopardy on the streets and sidewalks.One would believe that City officials should aspire to protect the rights of citizen/pedestrians-cyclists-motorists. Where is the responsible bike culture? Why has the NYPD not been allowed to create sustained effective enforcement? Would not licensing all motorized 2 wheelers make sense? Easier for NYPD to enforce the law. Collect fees to contribute to the upkeep of the streets. All the rights-with impunity-and none of the responsibility do not law abiding citizens make.
Wheel see: The path to a safe introduction of e-bikes and scooters on New York streets is clear
Make way. (Getty Images)
A
second attempt to legalize zippy e-bikes and e-scooters on the state’s
streets is here, the result of negotiations between Gov. Cuomo and the
Legislature, and it fixes some but not all of the mistakes made in the
first go-round.
Wisely,
the new framework would require stand-up, motorized scooters —
including those that might be part of any scooter-sharing network,
except in Manhattan where that’s barred — to top out at 15 mph, while
limiting their use to 16-year-olds and up and requiring minors wear
helmets. We want helmets for all but can live with this compromise if
speeds are properly capped.
It
would prohibit e-scooters and e-bikes on sidewalks (yes, kiddos can
still ride there) and break e-bikes into three categories based on
whether they’re throttle-powered or pedal-assist, and their speed, with
the fastest allowed to go up to 25 mph and requiring helmets.
And,
as before, local governments can have tighter restrictions, though we
think outright bans are silly in an age when bicycles have made a big
comeback.
Still,
we don’t get how cops can consistently enforce laws based on fine
distinctions about whether a given e-bike or scooter is going 15 or 16
mph, or 20 or 21 mph. And how does one at a glance tell apart three
classes of e-bikes, none of which needs a license to ride, and three classes of mopeds, all of which require licenses and registration?
Let no one be under the illusion that enforcement, if there is any, will be anything but arbitrary.
This makes for some uneasy riders. Moped-rental service Revel
has only accelerated chaos on the streets of Brooklyn and Queens,
endangering riders and other travelers alike through shoddy training and
faulty parts, a series of lawsuits claim.
With just $5, a valid driver’s license and Revel’s smartphone app,
users can ride off on one of the 1,000 electric-powered scooters the
company has rolled out in the boroughs since May 2019 — no training required.
That level of ease has turned outer-borough traffic into a
high-stakes road test, according to lawyer Daniel Flanzig, who
represents two people bringing personal-injury suits against Revel in
Brooklyn Supreme Court.
“New York City is not the proper place to be learning for the first
time how to ride a scooter,” said Flanzig. “It’s not all that far off
from a motorcycle.”
Among Flanzig’s clients is Paul Dicesare, a bicyclist who claims he
suffered a broken ankle in a June collision with a Revel rider near York
and Gold streets in Downtown Brooklyn, filings show.
Revel “was vicariously liable for the reckless, careless and
negligent acts of its driver,” argues the suit, which seeks unspecified
damages.
But the rides — which can hit a top speed of 30 miles per hour — aren’t just alleged to be dangerous to other travelers.
In a suit filed through another attorney, Revel rider Afadikwei Reyes
claims that a moped locked up on him mid-ride, causing a crash that
left him with two fractures in his leg.
As Reyes was riding along Bergen Street near Buffalo Avenue in Crown
Heights early one August morning, “the vehicle began malfunctioning,
with the steering mechanism locking and the breaking [sic] system
failing to slow the moped,” according to that suit. Enlarge ImageRichard Harbus
Dicesare and Reyes are among seven people who have filed personal-injury suits against the company — a rate of nearly one per month since the service expanded to 1,000 two-wheelers in May 2019.
Under state law, a motorcycle license is not required for mopeds that top out at 30 mph — a low barrier to entry that regular motorcycle riders say is a recipe for disaster.
“They’re making it exponentially more dangerous,” said Nick Trocano, manager of the Union Garage motorcycle shop in Brooklyn.
Trocano said that he’s regularly spotted Revel riders flouting laws
by cutting against traffic through bike lanes, riding without helmets —
which are required by law — and zipping along areas that are supposed
to be off-limits to the scooters, including the Brooklyn-Queens
Expressway and the bridges over the East River.
“In this densely-populated area, if you crash one of their scooters,
you are not just hurting you and your passenger,” said Trocano. “The mom
and the little girl in the crosswalk [are] hit by a sliding scooter.” Enlarge ImageMichael FlahertyRICHARD HARBUS
The NYPD said that it does not track the number of motor-vehicle accidents specifically involving Revel mopeds.
In a statement, Revel said that the company does not comment on
pending lawsuits, but insisted that novice users can learn to their
hearts’ content before hitting the mean streets of the city.
“Revel offers free, in-person lessons seven days a week so new riders
who want to learn more about our vehicles and practice driving them in a
comfortable, supervised setting have that opportunity,” said a
spokesman for the Brooklyn-based start-up.
But even some of its own customers said that they take their lives into their own hands by mounting up.
“Someone is going to die and then they are going to have to figure it
all out,” said Michael Flaherty, as he parked his Revel scooter in
front of a Williamsburg deli. “It’ll be a slow process. But this is the
future of transportation in New York City, ride-sharing.
“Just try to find parking and you’ll see why.” Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy
OOF: Electric scooter injuries have nearly tripled over four years as they've grown in popularity, per new research reported by the Associated Press.
Researchers
at the University of California, San Francisco, studied government data
on nonfatal injuries treated in emergency rooms. "Nearly 40,000 broken
bones, head injuries, cuts and bruises resulting from scooter accidents
were treated in U.S. emergency rooms from 2014 through 2018," the AP
writes. "The scooter injury rate among the general U.S. population
climbed from 6 per 100,000 to 19 per 100,000. Most occurred in riders
aged 18 to 34, and most injured riders weren't hospitalized."
Cammerman’s death and safe riding. (Obtained by New York Daily News)
Bike lanes are a superficial fix
Long
Island City: I am an avid cyclist who rides all over the city from Red
Hook to the George Washington Bridge. I was deeply saddened to read of
the tragic death of Dr. Daniel Cammerman (“Doctor on bike fatally struck
by bus in Central Park,” Dec. 18). My condolences and prayers to his
family and colleagues.
I
am also deeply troubled by the statement from Transportation
Alternatives that “New York City has still failed to build a protected
and connected bike network that could have prevented this tragedy.”
Transportation Alternatives does not help the situation with their
typical knee-jerk reaction to another tragic cycling death in the city.
The bike lane system is deeply flawed and Transportation Alternatives
has not helped in solving the problem.
I
would like to hear them say that no one should be cycling on the park
transverses. They should not be cycling in bad weather. They should ride
the inner roadway and get crosstown on the car-free crosstown inner
roadway whether it is the lower loop, 72nd St. or 103rd St. And please
do not tell me that I am criticizing the victim. We do not have
intelligent and real leadership in this city on the cycling dilemma.
Cyclists have to take some responsibility. Paul Camilleri
Manhattan:
Transportation Alternatives operates on the premise that the more
cyclists, the safer the streets. They also disparage mandatory use of
helmets because it would depress ridership. They also ran from joining a
task force that would have addressed the irresponsible bike culture
creating a public safety menace in 2010. If a responsible bike culture
had been implemented with consistent effective enforcement, many of the
deaths might have been avoided. Sidewalks and streets would be far safer
than they are. The NYPD has been undermined. Emergency vehicles have
been compromised. More riders means more deaths. Without a responsible
bike culture, there is no safety. Jack Brown
