A video from early Saturday morning in Central Park shows a cyclist handcuffed surrounded by several NYPD officers, one telling the man, “We speak English in America.” 

While it’s not known exactly what happened before the video, the person who took it — also a cyclist who wants only to be identified by his initials “CP” — believes it couldn’t have been that bad.

“It seemed a little excessive for the environment at the time. Early morning, literal race happening at the time,” he said.

What You Need To Know

  • The NYPD, responding to community complaints about reckless e-bikes, says it is cracking down and issuing criminal summonses that have more teeth to hold riders who aren’t required to have licenses accountable

  • While the police department says the focus is on e-bikes, statistics show 74% of summonses written this year have gone to traditional cyclists, and many say it’s been for riding when the light is green for pedestrians a few seconds before traffic, or what is called leading pedestrian intervals, which is legal when no separate cycling signals are present

  • A class action suit has been filed in federal court to stop the NYPD from issuing tickets to cyclists riding with the pedestrian signal and compensate them for the trouble of fighting it in court

He says it shows what cyclists are going through as part of the NYPD’s new quality of life division.

“Some of it is reasonable, going through lights in front of a police officer,” Jon Orcutt, director of advocacy at Bike New York, said. “Some of it is happening where cyclists are proceeding with a walk signal, which has been legal in the city since 2019."

Otherwise known as LPI, or Leading Pedestrian Intervals, bikes can go during that lead time given to pedestrians, before cars can proceed. A class action lawsuit has been filed to stop the enforcement.

“Individual people can challenge this, and many have gotten their tickets dismissed because it’s completely unlawful to be ticketed for doing something that is expressly legal,” Daniel Mullkoff of Wang Hecker LLP, who is representing the plaintiff in the case, said. “But that doesn’t stop the policy from continuing.”

And the type of tickets written has changed. 

“The same cops are issuing now criminal summonses for conduct that is lawful,” said Christoper Greene, an attorney at Vaccaro Law, which specializes in cases involving pedestrians and cyclists.

Even though the NYPD says that 90% of the enforcement is focused on e-bikes, lawyers who handle cases for cyclists say they don’t think that’s the truth.

NYPD statistics show that summonses written for e-bikes increased at a higher rate year-to-date than traditional bikes, but traditional bicycles account for about 74% of all summonses written.

In a statement, the NYPD reinforced the focus on e-bikes, saying criminal summonses are meant to be a deterrent for e-bike riders who are not required to have a license and therefore it can’t be suspended. Instead, the rider must appear in court or face a bench warrant. Greene says there is no reason to apply this to cyclists.

“Cyclists who get tickets pay their tickets and don’t like to have to get them again. It’s $190 ticket. It’s not cheap,” Greene said. “So if they have data suggesting that there are recidivist cyclists injuring people in this city who required a criminal summons, I’d love to see it."

Greene says even drivers don’t get criminal summonses for running red lights, which can have life or death consequences 

“They’ve claimed this is also about traffic safety, and yet unaddressed are the motorists who kill the 120 people per year in New York City,” he said.

When the mayor and police commissioner announced the quality of life division, they said it would be data driven, but NY1 has requested statistics on injuries and fatalities caused specifically by traditional cyclists in multiple requests and has yet to receive a response.