Ticketing bicyclists more seriously than cars makes no sense. An ebike or powered kick scooter will never ever be able to do the kind of damage to someone else in an accident like a SUV is capable of.
I rode a bicycle for transportation for about a decade in my youth, and I have been warning about the marginalization of bicyclists since the 1990s. Bicyclists are literally pushed to the margins of the streets, often without bike lanes, even while (rightfully) being expected to obey the same traffic laws as motorists. (Something that a lot of motorists still seem unaware of.) Worse, when bicyclists are injured by collisions with cars, there seems to me to be a tendency to blame the bicyclist for their own accidents even when obviously caused by motorists. Frankly this tendency extends to pedestrians as well and reflects the general culture of car superiority.
Now the NYPD in NYC has taken it upon themselves to criminalize traffic infractions of specifically bicyclists by escalating what would’ve been a traffic citation, and making it into a criminal summons that some warn will “flood” the courts in New York City. This is making traffic infractions by bicyclists an order of magnitude more serious and cumbersome than traffic tickets for motorists in trucks and cars.
Policy Change: NYPD Will Write Criminal Summonses, Not Traffic Tickets, for Cyclists Quietly, the NYPD has changed its policy and will now make criminal cases against cyclists who go through red lights, a change that will have predictable and unpredictable ramifications. By Kevin Duggan 12:05 AM EDT on May 2, 2025 The NYPD has changed its enforcement policy towards bicyclists, slapping them with criminal summonses instead of regular traffic tickets for low-level offenses such as passing through red lights or not stopping at a stop sign — a policy the Finest quietly launched this week under the guise of responding to “quality of life” complaints. NYPD previously would hand out so-called B summonses, a traffic ticket that allowed people to pay a $190 fine or contest the ticket at a virtual Department of Motor Vehicles hearing. But under the new regime, the criminal summonses will require suspects to show up in person in criminal court — potentially flooding the courthouse with thousands of new cases, each potentially requiring the arresting officer to show up. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said new citywide strategy is meant to target “out of control” e-bikes and mopeds only, but it’s already ensnaring legal riders who aren’t even on electric mobility.
I don’t know what it’s like in New York City, but I can’t help but notice that the vast majority of people using ebikes, mopeds, and electric kick scooters in Scranton, are youths, and minorities. I don’t know what the demographics of these vehicles are in actuality, but I do know Scranton, and my neighborhood in particular, skews older. And far from all being bleeding heart liberals or lefty treehuggers, I suspect this is often an economic choice for a lot of people. In Scranton, it probably also reflects the public transit shortcomings of our region.
I see people riding bicycles in my neighborhood seemingly equally for recreation and also for what appears to be transportation. I can usually guess when it’s for transportation, possibly because of my own past experience riding a bike to work and shopping, etc. People using bicycles for transportation are typically dressed in regular street clothes with backpacks and sometimes with things strapped on a bike carrier rack on the back, or in a wire carrier bike basket. People riding for recreation on the streets of town are more likely to be wearing bicycle pants or other types of exercise attire, and usually only have a fanny pack and a drink bottle clipped to the crossbar, and maybe have at most a handlebar wallet or a wicker basket.
I have seen bicyclists and kick scooter riders blow off stop signs of course, and that’s not good. Especially if on a powered vehicle of any type, I think they should be ticketed like any other motorist, it’s only fair. But ticketing them more so makes no sense. An ebike or powered kick scooter will never ever be able to do the kind of damage to someone else in an accident like a SUV is capable of perpetrating on others when reckless. And I far more often see cars not stop, or do a “California roll through” at stop signs in my neighborhood. Some drivers regularly roll through a stop sign at a blind turn! Some do this knowingly because they beep their horn as they turn the corner, as if an elderly pedestrian could ever possibly be expected to react in time to dive into a hedge as their car careens around the corner.
Public safety is important and nobody should get away with recklessness and or causing a nuisance or endangering others. But cars are far more dangerous than even the powered versions of bicycles and kick scooters. And we should want more people using more economical and environmentally friendly options. Singling out such modes of transportation for criminalization and steeper penalties compared to motor vehicles seems like it actually benefits nobody except maybe the fossil fuel industry.
