When it comes to bicyclists and city streets, we’ve always taken the common-sense view that they ought to abide by the same traffic and safety rules as everyone else. So news that the city is cracking down on a group notorious for ignoring these rules — delivery cyclists —is something we’re inclined to cheer.
With one caveat: We hope this isn’t just another scheme to gin up more revenue for an overspending city. The public plainly favors more enforcement, especially on the Upper West Side. The community board there has for years pressed the city to take action against kamikaze cyclists — only to be rebuffed by the notoriously bike-friendly Bloomberg administration.
Something’s changed. Back in April, the Transportation Department instituted new rules that include mandatory IDs, vests and signs identifying employers for delivery bikers.
Now The Post is reporting the same department has issued nearly 3,000 violations over the past four months to delivery bicyclists who ignore the new commercial-cycling rules. Half these citations have come on the Upper West Side
If fully paid, the fines will bring in nearly $300,000 for the city. And there’s the rub.
For The Post has also reported how business fines in the city are up 78 percent since Mayor Bloomberg took office. As everyone knows, these fines have become a way to squeeze money out of an already overtaxed private sector.
For now, revenue from bike fines has been pretty negligible. So we’ll give the mayor the benefit of the doubt, and assume that the new enforcement is about upholding the law — and not a sneaky way to start taxing bicyclists the same way he does bodegas.