Clinton Hill/ Fort Greene

Braking news: Fort Greene police plan crackdown on cyclists

Keep that head on a swivel (or just brake at red lights). via Flickr user Juan José Richards Echeverría
Keep that head on a swivel (or just brake at red lights). via Flickr user Juan José Richards Echeverría

Getting a ticket for running a red light on your bike isn’t fun for anyone. You think it’s too expensive and hate having to pay it, people not on bikes hate you and wish you physical harm, the immortal dance continues unabated. If you’d like to avoid getting roped into said dance, we have some advice for you: stay the hell out of Fort Greene for the foreseeable future, because DNA Info reports police there are promoting a dubious crackdown on cyclists. Just in time for Bike Month!

Summons for scofflaw cyclists shot up in Fort Greene, from 2 last year to 14 this year in the last 28 days, and based on what Captain Benjamin Lee told DNA Info, things aren’t cooling down anytime soon. Lee complained that he saw cyclists breaking traffic rules on his commute to work, especially the dreaded running of the red light. Although the quote he gave for it was a little off:

“They [bicyclists] look and see that it’s good and then they just ride,” he said. “A lot of accidents that we see have a lot to do with the cyclists running red lights.”

That doesn’t exactly sound like the out of control, spandex-clad Lance Armstrong types or skinny jeans-wearing fixie riders people usually complain about when they talk about cyclists ruling these streets. It sounds more like people doing what’s commonly known as the Idaho stop, where red lights are treated like stop signs. Which, we’d point out still involves stopping. So maybe jut avoid going through Fort Greene for a little while.

5 Comments

  1. Scooby Doosh

    love it. when they’re done there, they can go to Wburg and Pslope and write more tickets. you wouldn’t believe how many people ride on the sidewalk as well in both hoods. and the attitude of the bikers? priceless. write ’em up boys!

Leave a Reply