Criminal Court Judge John Walsh dismissed most of the roughly three-dozen summonses he heard on Monday, either due to insufficient details or errors in the NYPD-issued tickets or simply as a warning, also known as an "adjournment in contemplation of dismissal." Only a few cyclists were actually forced to pay a fine, albeit for pleading down their original criminal summonses to disorderly conduct, a violation.
The 16-day mayor, who previously had criticized his predecessor's policy, has declined repeatedly to give a straight answer about the policy - which Streetsblog has confirmed is ongoing despite Mamdani's promise to lead a bike-friendly administration. Reporters have unsuccessfully asked Mamdani several times in the past two weeks to clarify his police department's policy. When pressed for a least the fourth time on Friday, Mamdani again declined to answer "yes" or "no," instead promising to "follow up" on the matter.
Summonses for running red lights and other offenses remain above even the initial surge in ticket-writing that came with the April 28 announcement of the criminal crackdown. As a result, thousands of cyclists and e-bike riders, including many immigrant delivery workers, have become ensnared in the criminal court system. Workers' boosters called on Mamdani to issue a moratorium on the criminalization of cycling.
The Post took to the streets with a speed gun and found lots of e-bike users going way over 15 mph. Part of the problem, in the tabloid's eyes, is that the e-bike riders don't have license plates. The bigger issue is that there's just so many of them. In the paper's words, "it is unclear how violators will be clocked."
At its worst - like in last week's horrific fatal crash on Flushing Avenue - pedestrians and cyclists are injured or killed. Setting aside that car drivers cause virtually all the injuries and deaths on our streets, every time there is rare crash involving an illegal e-bike, naysayers capitalize by conflating them with safe, legal e-bikes to further an anti-bike agenda. And Mayor Adams has added to the confusion, launching a criminal crackdown on legal e-bikes that has ensnared all kinds of cyclists,
"I just think it's bullshit what they're doing," one attendee, Erin Poland, told Streetsblog about the NYPD push, which, she said, is "not actually protecting cyclists [but] putting them in more danger and in more harm."
