Brooklyn Cyclists Ticket Cops Parked in Bike Lane

Photos courtesy of Benjamin Shepard

Activists from the Public Space Party, a nonprofit that calls for ”full participation in a vibrant public commons,” biked around Downtown Brooklyn all Monday morning, handing out homemade parking tickets to cars — particularly cop cars — parked in bike lanes.

By noon, according to lead activist Benjamin Shepard, the group had ticketed 25 cars, including six police cars.

Shepard described officers’ reactions in an email sent to Patch.

“Some police responded positively. Most ignored the tickets or crumpled them up. We asked one if he knew he was in a bike lane and he said, ’Yes.’ And walked off with his car still in the bike lane.

Others, such as the officer here at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn intersection in Boerum Hill, acknowledged they could do more. Few seemed to have much to say about vision zero their role in enforcing it.”

Another participant surveyed the size of the problem in a video posted to the Twitter account @critmasspanic. “We’ve assessed the situation and there are a lot of cars in the bike lane here on Schermerhorn,” he said, adding: “We’re trying to eliminate all the cars in the bike lane. No dice. This is overwhelming.”

According to NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) traffic rules, bicycle lanes are considered “general no stopping zones,” and ”driving on or across bicycle lanes [is] prohibited.”

Asked why police vehicles were parked in bike lanes on Monday, Detective Brian Sessa in the NYPD’s press office said: “I don’t know anything about it. I wouldn’t be able to respond to that because I wouldn’t know anything about it.”