Non-Tech Related Video of the Day

This video makes up for that stupid ass water drops robot thing the other day!
 
Maniacal laugh.... Check!

Thanks for the video. Being from NY, and visiting the city quite often, I know what this guy is talking about. It's quite comical. My only hope was if the cop could only have been IN his car when Casey had his last crash into it.
 
Notice, that at no time did he claim that he wasn't in the bike path because it was unsafe where he was but simply that sometimes it's not the safest place to be.

That would be like being ticketed for blowing threw a stop light and claiming "Well sometimes stopping isn't safe because you can get rear ended."

Actually now that I think of it this is worse, since in all the cases shown the hazards were clearly visable and easily avoidable, not so with someone else hitting you from behind.
 
Space_Ranger said:
Maniacal laugh.... Check!

Thanks for the video. Being from NY, and visiting the city quite often, I know what this guy is talking about. It's quite comical. My only hope was if the cop could only have been IN his car when Casey had his last crash into it.
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Nah. Then they would give him a ticket for inattentive biking.:eek:
 
The video wag good....PRICELESS once he wrecked into the cop cars parked in the bike lane. :D
 
Well, I drive in the "car" lane and that does not mean that I never had to stop for safety reasons. Why should the bike lane be any different.
 
I got a question. What happens when you don't pay a bike ticket? Do they put a boot on your bike? Take away the bike? Suspend your bike license, if there was such a thing?

Point is, don't pay the ticket. What's the worst that could happen? You're going to be put in jail for unpaid bicycle tickets?

The guys video makes a good point. You want them to use the bike lane, then fix the bike lanes. You don't see people leaving shit in the middle of the road, so why should they do the same with the bike lane?

BTW, I hate people who ride bikes on the road. I'm either afraid they're bicycle handle is going to scratch my car, or I'm going to accidentally run them over.
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
Notice, that at no time did he claim that he wasn't in the bike path because it was unsafe where he was but simply that sometimes it's not the safest place to be.

That would be like being ticketed for blowing threw a stop light and claiming "Well sometimes stopping isn't safe because you can get rear ended."

Actually now that I think of it this is worse, since in all the cases shown the hazards were clearly visable and easily avoidable, not so with someone else hitting you from behind.
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Swoosh! Low flying hand barely misses scalp.
 
funny,lol, but really, all of the dangers of the bike lane he has been fearing about would have been solved if he knew how to use the "break" thingamajig :D
 
Steve said:
The video wag good....PRICELESS once he wrecked into the cop cars parked in the bike lane. :D
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Definitely the best closing statement there.

DarkStar_WNY said:
Notice, that at no time did he claim that he wasn't in the bike path because it was unsafe where he was but simply that sometimes it's not the safest place to be.

That would be like being ticketed for blowing threw a stop light and claiming "Well sometimes stopping isn't safe because you can get rear ended."

Actually now that I think of it this is worse, since in all the cases shown the hazards were clearly visable and easily avoidable, not so with someone else hitting you from behind.
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I am sorry, are you really trying to compare not riding into the bike lane to running a red light? That is ridiculous. Plus he was obviously just trying to make a point how ludicrous that ticketing is and pointing out some reasons why it is ridiculous. And if you live or visit NYC or any big city for that matter it is very readily apparent why that is ridiculous. It doesn't really matter if he was not riding in the bike lane because of an obstruction, or because he just didn't feel like it, the law is ludicrous and he should only be ticketed for it in conjunction with some other nefarious activity, not on its own. Plus he even mentioned the guy doubled parked right infront of the officer, that the officer was not ticketing... Pathetic.
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
Notice, that at no time did he claim that he wasn't in the bike path because it was unsafe where he was but simply that sometimes it's not the safest place to be.

That would be like being ticketed for blowing threw a stop light and claiming "Well sometimes stopping isn't safe because you can get rear ended."

Actually now that I think of it this is worse, since in all the cases shown the hazards were clearly visable and easily avoidable, not so with someone else hitting you from behind.
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You don't live in NYC or Chicago, do you?
 
You can't always ride in the bike lane, especially in a big city. Even so, the cop didn't do anything "wrong", as the bicyclist could have appealed the ticket.
 
I live in an area where there's no such thing as a bike lane. We ride our bikes wherever we please. And if anyone looks at us wrong for it, we flip them the bird; cop or not. It's called freedom. It still exists in the rest of the country where people haven't totally lost their minds. (ie NYC, Chitown, the entirety of California, etc)
 
TheCapulet said:
I live in an area where there's no such thing as a bike lane. We ride our bikes wherever we please. And if anyone looks at us wrong for it, we flip them the bird; cop or not. It's called freedom. It still exists in the rest of the country where people haven't totally lost their minds. (ie NYC, Chitown, the entirety of California, etc)
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Be prepared to get shoved off your bike if your flying down the sidewalk.

I have seen people do it a number of times to bikers and skateboarders in Baltimore.
 
Dunno, I think this guy is totally missing the point. He should "try" and stay in the bike lane for his own protection. Not just his, but others as well. Cars just do not see people on bikes or motorcycles. Any 2 wheeled rider will tell you this. That's why the paths are there. The bike path, just as city streets are going to have obstacles on them from time to time that you will need to navigate around. That's just how it is. Clearly, this guy is a little salty from a cop just trying to do his job.
 
What many of you are missing is that the law does NOT require a cyclist in New York City to ride in a bicycle lane. It only states they must do so when there is a safe usable lane.

"34 RCNY § 4-12(p) Bicycles.
(1) Bicycle riders to use bicycle lanes. Whenever a usable path or lane for bicycles has been provided, bicycle riders shall use such path or lane only except under any of the following situations:

(i) When preparing for a turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.
(ii) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, motor vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, pushcarts, animals, surface hazards) that make it unsafe to continue within such bicycle path or lane."


So (A) The guy should never have paid the ticket but should have challenged it based on the actual law; and (B) The cop should never have issued the ticket because the law explicitly states that you are not required to ride in a bicycle lane if it is unsafe to do so.

It is NOT illegal to ride outside of bike path in NYC.

http://www.bicycledefensefund.org/bikelaw.html

The closest approximation for a car would not be the ludicrous "running a red light" scenario posted above, but something more like swerving into another lane to avoid a car that slammed on it's brakes in front of you without signalling or swerving onto the meridian in a divided road to avoid an accident..
 
A-HAHAHAHA!

Oh, man. I'm a bike commuter in Portland (one of the top bike-commuting cities,) and run into this kind of crap often. (The "it's unsafe to ride in the bike lane sometimes.") Thankfully, the Portland Police understand, and I've *NEVER* seen anyone get a ticket for "not riding in the bike lane" specifically. Riding on the sidewalk in downtown Portland, yes. But not specifically for not using the bike lane.

When this first started, I thought it was just a guy being a douche for getting a ticket on his bike. Then it got great. I have to assume the guy is a stuntman by training or something.
 
necrosis said:
Be prepared to get shoved off your bike if your flying down the sidewalk.

I have seen people do it a number of times to bikers and skateboarders in Baltimore.
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I'm not picking on you, but I have Quoted you just as an example.

I put more miles on my bicycle than I do on my car. Living close to the grocery store and most other places I need to go allows me to do this. And its great saving money on the gas when it is $4 a gallon.

If I'm riding my bike on the sidewalk and there is someone in front of me or passing the other direction, I do for others as I expect done for me, I slow the fuck down, give an audible signal, and pass courteously.

I ride all over the place, bike lanes, sidewalks, in the middle of the "car" lane when making a turn, and I never have a problem. I like to think it has something to do with not being an idiot, being aware of my surroundings, and respecting others on the road, be they cars, other bikes, or pedestrians.

I think it would be great if people in this country stopped being so egotistical and narcissistic, and simply learned to SHARE! Part of the privilege of having rights is the responsibility to let others exercise theirs as well.
 
@ekierce: Actually, you seem to be missing the fact that at no point in the video does he suggest that he was avoiding a particular hazard when the cop gave him the original ticket. You're assuming he was just because that's the argument he chose to focus on in defending why he felt the ticket was bogus. If it really was unsafe at the time then, as you suggested, he should have been able to just contest the ticket and get his money back. Without having shown us the blocked bike path on the day he got the ticket I have no reason to think this isn't all just a BS ploy for sympathy (no different from many people that earn tickets while driving and then try to rationalize why they shouldn't have gotten them).

Personally, I'm not one of those people that thinks bikes shouldn't be allowed to use the road. However, I completely agree with the NYC law you posted that says that, as long it isn't blocked/unsafe bikes must use the lane provided for them. Across this country, we've set up accident liability to, basically, hold the car driver responsible in any car on bike accident regardless of how stupidly the bike rider was acting. If there's a usable bike lane there then forcing the bikes to use it helps to level the playing field by lowering the chances of the cars and bikes interacting. It's similar to how bikes don't belong on sidewalks. Bikes on sidewalks are almost as much of a danger to pedestrians as cars on the road are to bikes.

Honestly, I'm kind of glad to see some evidence of police actually ticketing bike riders. Contrary to the guy's whining, car drivers get ticketed all the time by cops. One of the reasons that, particular, cop didn't ticket the improperly parked cars he pointed out is probably that most large cities, like NYC, have dedicated police units that do nothing but give out tickets for non-moving violations like illegal parking. On the other hand, I see bikes blow through red lights all the time here in Chicago as if the rules of the road don't apply to them. Again, they're free to risk their life if they want to but they have no business risking me being financially liable for their stupidity.
 
Apparently you people who are bashing the vid did not actually pay attention to or even watch the video.

The "police officer" told him he should ALWAYS ride in the bike lane. This is NOT the law and is just ludicrous.

Hence, the video he made of himself ALWAYS riding in the bike lane.
 
cyclone3d said:
Apparently you people who are bashing the vid did not actually pay attention to or even watch the video.

The "police officer" told him he should ALWAYS ride in the bike lane. This is NOT the law and is just ludicrous.

Hence, the video he made of himself ALWAYS riding in the bike lane.
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BINGO!

People would rather ignore that in an effort to attack him because he didn't say he was avoiding an obstacle this particular time (though he specifically told the officer that it wasn't always safe to stay in the bike lane thus make a very strong insinuation that he was riding in a safe manner).

Regardless, the officer was WRONG in his interpretation of the law. The biker was RIGHT in his ridiculing of the ludicrous interpretation by the officer.
 
Chicago bicyclists are complete d-bags, so I went into this video pretty prejudiced. This man's dedication to masochism made up for all of that!

...and if the bicycle protest thing doesn't work out, he's got a bright future as a stunt man!
 
ekierce said:
BINGO!

People would rather ignore that in an effort to attack him because he didn't say he was avoiding an obstacle this particular time (though he specifically told the officer that it wasn't always safe to stay in the bike lane thus make a very strong insinuation that he was riding in a safe manner).

Regardless, the officer was WRONG in his interpretation of the law. The biker was RIGHT in his ridiculing of the ludicrous interpretation by the officer.
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Haha, I agree he was making fun of what the cop told him, not the fact that he got the ticket.

Personally I think he could have challenged the ticket better though. Someone else posted the exception to the law is: "(ii) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, motor vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, pushcarts, animals, surface hazards) that make it unsafe to continue within such bicycle path or lane."

It's pretty easy to make the argument that he felt it was unsafe to continue in the bike lane, regardless of whether or not he had proof of an object blocking the bike path at the moment the police officer ticketed him. Really only a rider can judge what he/she felt was safe/unsafe at any given time.
 
If you watched the video, then you know that the officer told him (incorrectly) that the conditions don't matter and that he must ALWAYS be in the bike lane. He took the officers word at face value and did not find out until after he'd paid the ticket that he'd been lied to.

The officer lied to him, and told him that the law required him to always be in the bicycle lane whether it was safe to do so or not.

I've lived in cities for many, many years from California to NY to Mass. All of the places I've lived had bike lanes. Only in NY did they spend more time ticketing cyclists than the people who double park in the bicycle lane and prevent the cyclists from using the lane.



Colecoman1982 said:
@ekierce: Actually, you seem to be missing the fact that at no point in the video does he suggest that he was avoiding a particular hazard when the cop gave him the original ticket. You're assuming he was just because that's the argument he chose to focus on in defending why he felt the ticket was bogus. If it really was unsafe at the time then, as you suggested, he should have been able to just contest the ticket and get his money back. Without having shown us the blocked bike path on the day he got the ticket I have no reason to think this isn't all just a BS ploy for sympathy (no different from many people that earn tickets while driving and then try to rationalize why they shouldn't have gotten them).

Personally, I'm not one of those people that thinks bikes shouldn't be allowed to use the road. However, I completely agree with the NYC law you posted that says that, as long it isn't blocked/unsafe bikes must use the lane provided for them. Across this country, we've set up accident liability to, basically, hold the car driver responsible in any car on bike accident regardless of how stupidly the bike rider was acting. If there's a usable bike lane there then forcing the bikes to use it helps to level the playing field by lowering the chances of the cars and bikes interacting. It's similar to how bikes don't belong on sidewalks. Bikes on sidewalks are almost as much of a danger to pedestrians as cars on the road are to bikes.

Honestly, I'm kind of glad to see some evidence of police actually ticketing bike riders. Contrary to the guy's whining, car drivers get ticketed all the time by cops. One of the reasons that, particular, cop didn't ticket the improperly parked cars he pointed out is probably that most large cities, like NYC, have dedicated police units that do nothing but give out tickets for non-moving violations like illegal parking. On the other hand, I see bikes blow through red lights all the time here in Chicago as if the rules of the road don't apply to them. Again, they're free to risk their life if they want to but they have no business risking me being financially liable for their stupidity.
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CoSWill said:
Notice how fast people were coming to his aid? lol...NOT!!
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Based on a 2-day trip to NYC several years ago, that doesn't shock me at all. I know I am going to catch holy hell for this, but the stereotype of a typical NYC'er being an a-hole seems pretty well founded LOL. *ducks for cover*

Around here, there are very very few bike-dedicated lanes on the sides of the major roads here. Where there are dedicated bike lanes, it's about suicidal to ride in them -- people around here drive like total crap and it's not uncommon to see people veering into other lanes, including the bike lane. Where there are no dedicated bike lanes, people either use the sidewalk or if no sidewalk, the right lane of the road. Again, suicidal to be in that right lane. Sidewalk seems to be safest place if there is one. Also here it's against the law to ride your bike across an intersection or roadway, you are supposed to get off and hand walk you/bike across. Too many don't do that and honestly nobody seems to care.
 
ir0nw0lf said:
Based on a 2-day trip to NYC several years ago, that doesn't shock me at all. I know I am going to catch holy hell for this, but the stereotype of a typical NYC'er being an a-hole seems pretty well founded LOL. *ducks for cover*
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Weird, I had the opposite experience with my time in NYC. I currently live outside Boston and the people in Boston are WAY ruder than the people in NYC (for the most part, not universally). With a few exceptions (most of the cab drivers I've encountered and the bus drivers who are even worse), New Yorkers were always friendly and helpful to me.
 
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