No, Seriously, It's Not Safe to Ride in the Bike Lane







(Video Link)

Casey Neistat got a ticket for riding his bicycle outside of a bike lane in New York City. He argued with the police officer that sometimes he does so because there are obstructions that make it unsafe to use the designated lane. The cop didn't care, and issued him the citation anyway. To prove his point, Mr. Neistat made this video, showing how dangerous it would be to comply with the law...by crashing his bike, over and over again into road hazards. He saved the best for last. via reddit


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The video didn't prove his point to me. No reasonable person would have crashed in any of those situations and no cop would ticket you for taking a 2 second detour around an obstacle in the bike lane. If he was simply avoiding an obstacle in the bike lane he could explain that and get out of the fine but I suspect he was just riding in a regular lane.

I also don't understand how he was pulled over, just turn around and ride away.
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mikecc: "ya know, sometimes its much safer to drive my car on the median, so, I shouldn't get a ticket for that!"

Shemp: "Ride in the bike lane! Get off and walk the bike around the obstacles. What's so hard to understand about it?"

So when there's an obstacle (say, a broken down car or some construction) in front of you, and a double-yellow line on the road, will you just stay there forever?

No, you won't, and you don't even have to. Just as the rider can leave the bike lane to avoid obstacles.
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What type of lame biker allows themselves to get stopped by a cop in a car? Especially in a big city just chock full of alleys the bike can navigate but a car can't. This has staged written all over it.
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In my city the counsel just past a bylaw that requires drivers to grant a minimum of 6 feet clearance for cyclists. The development began a few years ago when the province introduced new e-bike laws which allow people to operate e-bikes without a license or registration, granted the e-bikes do not exceed 32 mph. After one year the complaints from drivers of e-bike users clogging roads became common-place and the counsel had to rethink it's bike laws. Originally they had institute a ban from riding them on the sidewalks, but because we are a Canadian city that sees a lot of cold-weather in the winter, come spring the roads and especially the bike lanes are generally riddled with pot-holes. The sheer danger presented by these pot-holes demands that cyclists and e-bikers stray from the bike-lane quite frequently, hence the need for 6 feet of clearance. I remember taking my e-bike to work one day and just about riding into a hole that was 3 feet in diameter and whose bottom was too deep to see.
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