By Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — Spandex-wearing speedsters are not the only ones getting snagged in the NYPD's crackdown on bicycle riders — private school deans are too.
The dean of students at the elite all-girls Upper East Side Nightingale-Bamford School was pulled over while cycling on Columbus Avenue at West 100th Street at 3 p.m. Monday.
She was given a ticket because she was riding with a tote bag strapped to her handlebars, according to the New York Post.
Claire Lecomte du Nouy, 38, who works at the East 92nd Street institution and has been biking for five years, was reportedly on her way to pick up her 4-year-old daughter from nursery school when the cop stopped her.
"He said, 'Could you get off your bike please?'" she told the paper.
"I said, 'Why?' He said, 'You're not allowed to carry a purse on your handlebars.' I thought he was joking."
The officer apparently told her she could go to court to fight it and that the judge typically threw these tickets out.
But just like an incident in March, where police issued apologies for ticketing 10 cyclists in Central Park for going above 15 mph (the park's speed limit is 25 mph), this tote bag ticket may have been issued erroneously.
"A summons may be issued...if a cyclist is transporting a bundle or package in such a way that it prevents him/her from keeping at least one hand on the handlebar," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told the Post.
Lecomte du Nouy claimed to have had both hands on her handlebar.
