By NICHOLE M. CHRISTIAN
New York Times, April 7, 1998
Lily Marrero, a 28-year-old computer programmer from Jackson Heightswho occasionally rides her bike to work over the Queensboro Bridge, saysthe city should make the streets safer for bicyclists by adding bike lanesand widening existing ones.
"Handing out tickets is only a temporary solution," said Ms.Marrero, who was fined $40 for wearing headphones while bicycling.
"The only way the city can stop people from being so careless isby creating an environment that makes it easy to get around on a bike."
The Giuliani administration, however, has a different idea about reducingcarelessness -- stricter enforcement of traffic laws.
In the first three months of this year, city police officers have issued2,315 tickets with fines ranging from $40 to $125 to bicyclists for infractionsthat include running a red light, riding on the sidewalk and failing towear reflective clothing. By contrast, the city issued 1,861 tickets forsuch violations during the first three months of 1997, the Police Departmentsaid. For all of 1997, bicyclists were issued 11,197 tickets.
The crackdown has raised an outcry among bicyclists, from pedaling commuterswho say Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani favors motorists to delivery workerswho say Mr. Giuliani is threatening their livelihoods. Discussing the crackdownyesterday,
Mr. Giuliani was largely unsympathetic to those arguments.
He said the city's goal is to put the brakes on bicyclists who roarthrough the streets and on the sidewalks, seemingly without regard forpedestrians.
Asked if he thought the crackdown has created a financial hardship forpeople who ride bicycles for a living, Mr. Giuliani laughed and said, "Tellit to a judge."
The police stepped up enforcement against reckless riders in November,after a bicycle deliveryman illegally riding on the sidewalk on the UpperWest Side struck a businessman, who later died.
But now, riders who use their bicycles to commute or exercise are beingtargeted. "We have everyone on patrol in a heightened consciousnessabout bicycle offenses," said Wilbur L. Chapman, the Police Department'sChief of Patrol.
He said officers are paying special attention to midtown and the EastSide.
Officials at Transportation Alternatives, a biking advocacy group, criticizedthe expansion of the crackdown.
"It's a misguided crackdown," said Elizabeth Ernish, acoordinator for the group. She said police lie in wait for scofflaws inCentral Park and along the Brooklyn Bridge, areas regularly frequentedby recreational riders. "The police should be mobilizing on city sidewalksto stop food delivery people from plowing into crowds, not wasting timesetting up stings for the people who generally follow the law."
Mr. Giuliani responded: "If you don't violate the law, you won'tget a ticket. If you do, pay the ticket instead of joining an advocacygroup."
Tyrone Hurt, a bike messenger cruising through Central Park yesterdayon an aging 10-speed, said the crackdown has cut into his earnings. Inthe past three months, he has gotten three tickets, two for running a redlight and one for traveling the wrong way down a one-way street. With ajob that brings him barely $150 a week, Mr. Hurt said he did not know ifhe could ever pay the nearly $300 in tickets.
"I would love to slow down a little, but who is going to pay meto do that?" said Mr. Hurt, 35, of Manhattan, who would not identifyhis employer. "If I ain't fast I lose my job."
But Gus Vizcaino, the manager of Supersonic Messengers, a midtown company,said safety is good business.
"There are probably more important things the Mayor could focuson, but this is good for my business," he said.
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