First things first - this sucks. Whether or not the delivery guy was right or wrong, being on a bicycle and nearly getting killed by an SUV is horrible. Note that there is no mention of how fast the driver was going, whether they were speeding, were they on the phone, texting, etc. Were there witnesses?

With that - I'm in agreement here. The NYPD talks about how they "crack down" on bicyclists running red lights, but let's be honest about who they're writing tickets to - people riding in the park (witness the Central Park ticket blitz), and families that inch their bikes through empty red-light intersections, equivalent to a pedestrian jaywalking. They do not go after the biggest offenders, which tend to be the delivery guys.

Aside from the reckless riding, everyone is required by law to ride with head/tail lights, something I believe in strongly as a cyclist (it's not so you can see, it's so others can see you). If the NYPD was actually serious about their crackdown, they'd crack down on *this*. ESPECIALLY at night. Put a cop at 7th and Union at 8pm, you'd make your quota for the month in hours.

Just a follow-up, as I realized post-submit I wasn't being clear on something.

I have no problem with the NYPD enforcing bike laws. What I do have a problem with is the NYPD enforcing bike laws in such a way as to piss off the bike community and generally alienate people. Enforce the laws in a sane and effective way. Writing red-light tickets in the park solves *nothing*. Writing lack-of-lights, wrong-way, and sidewalk-riding tickets in the neighborhood might accomplish something.

Nobody has said that the NYPD ought not enforce the laws. (In fact the opposite was said.) Just that they could do it in a way that had a much bigger/better impact on public safety.

Commercial bicyclists (e.g. delivery guys) are required by law to wear helmets.

All bicyclists are required to have lights and a bell on their bicycles.

Riding on the sidewalk is illegal if you're over the age of 12.

NYPD doesn't enforce any of that.

In NYC the job is required to provide helmet, lights, bell, rack and brakes. (Ironically, they don't have to provide a bike...)

Amen.

Credit to Patch, they at least covered the story of the drunk cop who totaled his car and a police cruiser in a late-night crash while speeding down 5th avenue. Noone else did.

Guess they couldn't figure out a way to tie a bike into the story.

Kevin, why do you think each of these posts ties back to the same discussion you had at some point in the past?

Nobody on here has suggested the guy on the bike was not at fault and nobody has said that cyclists of any type obey every traffic rule. That would be absurd. Nobody observes every rule.

You seem to be looking for a fight here rather than a discussion.

Note that most news headlines (this publication included) usually have a built-in pro-car, anti-bike slant. Streetsblog makes no bones about its' perspective. News orgs generally present themselves as "unbiased" (well, save the NYPost, which has a serious axe to grind with bicyclists and pedestrian plazas for some reason). So what's the problem?

If you read the Streetsblog article you cite it says that nobody had spoken to the guy on the bike. And we know from above there were no witnesses.

So if anyone at that point was saying that the accident was because the guy went through a red light it was only the driver of the SUV. With that in mind, "SUV Driver Sends Brooklyn Delivery Cyclist to the ER" doesn't seem so out of line. "SUV Windshield Sends Brooklyn Delivery Cyclist to the ER" might have been more accurate but...

I think your characterization of the guy who was hit as a "Pro bike zealot" seems a little over the top. In my experience bicycle delivery guys are a lottery ticket away from being moped delivery guys.

I was poking fun at where you said, "Pro bike zealots are never in the wrong."

Peter said,
"First things first - this sucks. Whether or not the delivery guy was right or wrong, being on a bicycle and nearly getting killed by an SUV is horrible."

Who could argue with that? I've never been hit by an SUV, hell, the only moving thing I was ever hit by while I was on a bike was a deer (long mountain biking at dusk story) but you have to imagine getting hit by an SUV does suck.

And why is it not ok to wonder if the driver was speeding or on the phone or anything else?

This would not change the fact that a cyclist going through a red light has himself to blame, but when we drive, we also have a duty to exercise caution.

Finally, according to the other article, nobody spoke with the cyclist and there were no eyewitnesses. So how do we really know what happened?

Nobody is arguing that it is horrible being hit by an SUV (why does the make of the car matter. why not just say a car?....it's a rhetorical question by the way) but in this instance, according to the police, the cyclist is at fault. Of course any intelligent person agrees cars ( and not just SUV's) and other vehicles have a duty to follow the rules of the road. I'm taking the word of the police for now since that is all that we have. We will just have to wait till the cyclist speaks.

When I used to group ride a lot we had a saying, "Bikes are the cars on the pathway." It meant treat pedestrians as you would like the car drivers to treat you. So even if they are walking/jogging in the bike only section, or walking three abreast blocking the whole path, be nice.

Unless you have a child under 12 on your bike no adult should be on a bike on the sidewalk.

I find the bigger issue with delivery guys is the disregard for one way streets.

My friend and I have encountered an Asian delivery guy twice at night speeding on the sidewalk and not slowing down. One around 8th and 8th and the other Garfield and 8th.
Not riding in the street and stopping at the house. Riding all the way down the sidewalk. No bell or warning. If we hadn't seen him who knows what would have happened.

I think that is more about who posts and how people's words are interpreted then how the group feels.

I agree. Too bad all bikers aren't like you Hambone. Wait till the weather warms up and head into the park in the evening as my friend and I do and try to cross the road when, as someone hear called them, the spandex ballet rides through. No way are they going to stop or slow down to let people cross. And while it's true pedestrians do walk in the bike lane bikes also come into the pedestrian lane.

It's like they always say, "Guns don't kill people, bullets do."

Kevin, I'm just making a point about journalism and how things are written, nothing more. I'm not looking to paint an entire class of people with a broad brush, I'm just asking for consistency in reporting.

Peter, how about, "Driver Blows Stop Sign, Windshield Injures Cyclist" OR "Driver Blows Stop Sign, Front Bumper and Pavement Injure Cyclist"?

I was actually hoping for:

"Cyclist blows stop sign, Hit by driver unable to avoid him. Cyclist discovers laws of physics not in his favor."