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Koch Approves Bill Regulating Bicycle Messengers
New York Times, July 7, 1984
By Joyce Purnick
Bicycle messengers, who have been accused of recklessness by city lawmakers,
will be regulated for the first time under a bill signed yesterday by Mayor
Koch.
The measure was drafted after complaints to city officials that the cyclists
endangered pedestrians, drivers and themselves by ignoring traffic laws.
The new law requires commercial cyclists - those who deliver every. thing
from groceries to legal briefs - to carry identification cards and
to display their employers' names on vests, jackets or similar clothing.
It also re quires the employers to keep log books of where their cyclists
go and when.
The cyclists, who generally earn more money the faster they pedal, say that
they already meet many of those requirements and that the measure is Stringent
and too ambiguous.
The law Mayor Koch signed contains criminal penalties. But the City Council
has agreed to amend the measure before it takes effect to make the penalties
civil, thus reducing some of them.
Under the amended form of the law, cyclists without identification will face
fines up to $50. Other infractions, from violating traffic laws to failing
to keep the log book, will bring fines of up to $250.
"It's been a long, arduous process to come to grips with what we think are
major problems caused by bicycles," said June M. Eisland, a Bronx Democrat
and the City Council member who was the chief sponsor of the measure.
"There's a major problem, paiticularly in midtown Manhattan, because many
cyclists - particularly in this group-do not obey traffic laws"
She said cyclists often run red lights, fail to stop at stop signs, ride
on sidewalks and go the wrong way on one-way streets.
One of the bill's opponents James Lehman of the Cycle Service Messengers
in Manhattan said the bill did not recognize how dangerous pedestrians can
be to cyclists. "I found that pedestrians almost killed me more than I killed
them," Mr. Lehman, now a dispatcher, said in a telephone interview.
"They have a habit of sleepwalking."
When he signed the bill yesterday, Mr. Koch made clear his concern about
bicycle safety. For several days, however, it appeared that the Mayor might
not sign the legislation.
In a rare move, he unexpectedly refused to sign the bill when it first came
before him June 26. He said at the time that he had been impressed by speak-en
opposed to the measure, in particular to a provision for criminal penalties
against those who fail to wear the appropriate identification.
"Should there be criminal sanctions for failing to carry a registration number
on a jacket?" the Mayor asked last month, to the delight of cyclists who
had come to City Hall hoping to persuade Mr. Koch.
The Mayor has been fond of bicycles since he returned from China in March
1980 and ordered the creation of bicycle lanes throughout Manhattan. The
lanes were later removed after the Mayor conceded that they obstructed traffic.
Rarely has the Mayor demurred after the City Council has passed a bill, a
long process that includes close consultation with the Mayor's office. Mr.
Koch has recalled only one veto - that of a bill requiring restaurants to
carry skim milk.
The Mayor did not veto the cycling measure. He asked for a report from the
Law Department and then a compromise with the City Council was worked out.
Sponsors of the bill have agreed to amend it by changing the criminal penalties
for failing to wear the right identification to civil penalties.
Mrs. Eisland said she thought the Mayor had at first balked at the measure
because only opponents spoke at the bill-signing ceremony in June. "The testimony
was one-sided," she said.
Mr. Lehman speculated that objections to the Mayor's decision last month
from groups representing pedestrians might have swayed him to sign the bill.
The Mayor said he signed the bill because the criminal penalties, which include
a jail term of up to 15 days, were going to be removed. "Criminal penalties
went too far,' he said.
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