New Yorkers' opinions of bikes tend to be extreme — praised by some as a god-sent alternative to cars, and despised by others for their unruliness on the road.
Either way, you'll have a strong position about a city council resolution, proposed by council member Antonio Reynoso, that would call for state legislation giving cyclists the right to roll through red lights and stop signs after slowing down at intersections and looking both ways.
Current regulations require that cyclists follow the same traffic rules as drivers of motor vehicles, which include stopping at red lights and stop signs.
Many bicyclists routinely ignore those laws — including Reynoso himself. (The councilman, who represents Williamsburg, rides through stop signs and red lights “when appropriate,” he told the New York Post.) But the NYPD has increasingly been cracking down on violations since 2012, DMV data shows: the number of tickets issued to bicyclists doubled from 11,978 tickets in 2012 to 21,302 in 2014.
In defense of his proposal, Reynoso said that stopping is difficult for cyclists traveling at full speed.
“Riding a bike is not like driving a vehicle. A bike’s motor is the human body, and there is the issue of losing momentum,” he told the Post. “It is not sensible to have to stop and go at every stop sign.”
And says the resolution, "Individuals who ride bicycles do not pose the same safety hazards to pedestrians because bicycles generally travel at a slower speed and bicyclists have the ability to more quickly see and respond to surrounding traffic."
In an interview with DNAinfo earlier this year, bike advocate and lawyer Steve Vaccaro said the police department disproportionately tickets cyclists going through red lights and should instead focus on curbing dangerous behavior such as riding on the sidewalks or against traffic.
But pedestrian advocates say that legitimizing illegal behavior would be a "huge mistake," in the words of NYC Transit Riders Council chairman Albert Andrew.
According to data from the NYC Department of Transportation, 4,463 cyclists were injured in crashes last year, most of them involving motor vehicles. In crashes involving cyclists and pedestrians, 305 pedestrians suffered injuries.
Reynoso's proposed rule would take to an extreme the 1982 Idaho law that lets cyclists treat stop signs as yield signs and red lights as stop signs.
And it would take its cue from Parisian bike law that last summer legalized turning right and going straight at T-junctions while traffic lights remain red.
"Cities across the country and the world already know that bikes and cars aren't the same thing and adjust their laws accordingly," bicycling advocate Doug Gordon said in an email to DNAinfo. "As New Yorkers continue to look beyond private automobiles for their transportation needs, it makes sense to rethink a system that was designed before this seismic shift began."
Gordon applauds Reynoso, he said, for "beginning a mature conversation about the law."
If the City Council were to pass Reynoso's resolution, the issue would go to the state legislature and Governor Andrew Cuomo for review, because city bike rules conform to state traffic laws.
"The state is likely not to address this," said Lacey Tauber, Reynoso's legislative director.
"It's more of a conversation starter than anything, just about the fact that what we need are laws for cyclists ... acknowledging that cyclists are not cars, and they get tickets as though they were cars, even though the level of harm they inflict on the streets is minimal compared to what cars have the potential to do," Tauber said.
If the legislation is heard before the City Council's transportation committee, Reynoso would likely change its language to call for state law to allow city cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs and stop lights as stop signs.
