Green means go, red means go ... directly to criminal court.
The NYPD has changed its enforcement policy towards bicyclists, slapping them with criminal summonses instead of regular traffic tickets for low-level offenses such as passing through red lights or not stopping at a stop sign — a policy the Finest quietly launched this week under the guise of responding to "quality of life" complaints.
NYPD previously would hand out so-called B summonses, a traffic ticket that allowed people to pay a $190 fine or contest the ticket at a virtual Department of Motor Vehicles hearing. But under the new regime, the criminal summonses will require suspects to show up in person in criminal court — potentially flooding the courthouse with thousands of new cases, each potentially requiring the arresting officer to show up.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said new citywide strategy is meant to target "out of control" e-bikes and mopeds only, but it's already ensnaring legal riders who aren't even on electric mobility.
Cyclists have increasingly reported cases on Reddit forums of cops stopping them and other riders this week. And one woman told Streetsblog she got a red light ticket even though she legally went through the red light ... and she was on a regular bicycle, not an electrified one.
'Out of control'
Police brass had subtly pitched the new policy as part of the Department's new Quality of Life Division last month, claiming it will make the streets safer and would deploy officers in zones with the most complaints from 311 and 911 calls (remember that detail; it will become important later). Tisch said the division would target "out-of-control e-bikes and scooters."
"It's actually one of the largest pieces of feedback that I get from New Yorkers about e-bikes and scooters, either out of control or up on the sidewalk," said Tisch at an April 10 press conference with Mayor Adams.
However, the plan to change the ticketing policy towards criminalization wasn't clear until a Council Public Safety Committee hearing on Monday — the same day the policy rolled out.
NYPD Traffic Division Commanding Officer Inspector Brian O'Sullivan said the cops would target six violations, including reckless driving, operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs, driving the wrong way, disobeying a red light, and failure to stop at a stop sign.
"With these six violations we've identified, we're gonna utilize the criminal court summons instead of the B summons," said O'Sullivan.
Cops said they will deploy officers to 14 corridors:
- Manhattan: Second Avenue, Sixth Avenue, Delancey Street and 125th Street
- Brooklyn: Broadway, Flatbush Avenue, Fulton Street and Grand Street
- Bronx: Fordham Road, 149th Street and Tremont Avenue
- Queens: Roosevelt Avenue, Steinway Street and Northern Boulevard
An NYPD spokesperson, who did not provide a name, said those corridors were chosen because that's where cops have received the most complaints regarding reckless operation of e-bikes.
It's unclear where the complaints are coming from; the 311 and 911 systems are not equipped to take reports about reckless cyclists. A Streetsblog reporter who called 311 to complain about chronic speeding in his neighborhood was transferred to 911, where Operator 2524 replied, "We don’t take reports over the phone." She claimed that the reporter's complaint of speeding drivers was logged, but declined to provide a case number.
Visitors to the 311 website can report "traffic conditions," but only in five categories: "chronic speeding," "chronic stoplight violation," "congestion/gridlock," "drag racing" and "truck route violation." There is no category for reckless driving by e-bike or moped riders, so, again, it is unclear how the NYPD is determining where "out of control" cyclists are proliferating.
So far this year, only 284 complaints citywide of "Bike/Roller/Skate Chronic" on "Street/Sidewalk" have been logged in the 311 system.
The details of the policy first emerged at a community council meeting of the 114th Precinct in Astoria, which has gone from being an obscure monthly town hall attended by anti-bike homeowners to a major attraction for safe streets advocates who are active Micromobility subreddit and have begun regularly attending and reporting on the meetings.
At the April 22 meeting, Sgt. Sansai Hongthong announced that cops were going to criminalize "reckless" cyclists (not e-bike riders, but "cyclists"). One advocate who was at that meeting said it reflected a wider trend among cops bowing to the loudest complainers in the room.
"That really does seem to be the guiding philosophy behind this particular escalation," said Alex Duncan, who uses the moniker Miser online. "It’s such an escalation and I feel like people that don’t ride bikes don’t realize how much of an escalation it is.
"We get these very harmful policies just because people are like, well we have to do something."
One woman caught in the net
The policy only began on Monday and, as is often the case with new policies, police on the streets have been improperly implementing it. One woman told Streetsblog she was swept up in a sting, even though she was riding a regular bike and hadn't broken the law.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous due to her pending court case, got one of the new criminal court summonses for running a red light on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, even though she entered the intersection on the pedestrian signal, which has been legal since 2019.
"I know for a fact I definitely went through that walk signal," the cyclist said.
She was riding uptown when cops drove up in their squad car and dangerously swung in front of her and into the bike lane. The officers gave her a ticket with a court appearance for failing to obey a red light.
She said she even showed the officers the city's own website that specifically says riders can legally "go with the walk."
"He kind of just shrugged," she told Streetsblog. "[I] realized I’m pretty much a guinea pig in this new pilot program."
Unleash havoc
Advocates and lawyers for victims of traffic violence slammed the NYPD's harsher approach for criminalizing people who cause negligible, if any, harm — especially compared to the daily havoc wreaked by motorists.
The policy is particularly troubling for the city's tens of thousands of delivery workers, who are largely immigrants and could end up in the dragnet of federal immigration enforcement officials, noted one attorney who has fought several wrongful red light tickets.
"[It’s] criminalization of what is at worst negligent conduct," said Chris Greene, an attorney with Vaccaro Law. "We have to be mindful of the fact that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is of the view that they can scoop people up outside of courthouses."
Back to the future
It's not the first time that the NYPD has criminalized traffic summonses against cyclists. But that policy was changed in 2015, reportedly because it was resulting in racially biased summonses (much like jaywalking tickets).
A police source told Streetsblog that criminal summonses are necessary now because many e-bike riders who receive traffic violations do not pay them or show up to traffic court, where judges do not have the power to issue bench warrants.
Because electric bike riders are not required to have driver's licenses, there is no license to suspend for non-payment of tickets, as there is in the case of drivers, the source said.
It's also unclear why the NYPD would prioritize e-bike riders when they account for such a tiny a fraction of the city's traffic violence, as Streetsblog has long documented, but they and non-electric cyclists bear a disproportionate share of police enforcement.
In 2024, 37 pedestrians were injured in the entire year in 179 reported e-bike collisions, the NYPD said. In that year, 9,610 pedestrians were injured overall, so e-bike riders caused just 0.4 percent of pedestrian injuries.
That pattern has continued in the first three months of this year, with one pedestrian injured by an e-bike rider, according to the NYPD. Over the same period, 2,271 were injured overall, so e-bike riders caused less than 0.04 percent of the reported pedestrian injuries.
Nonetheless, the new policy is in effect. Three days later, the Department of Transportation, which is a Vision Zero partner with the NYPD, hyped that May is Bike Month.
