NYC Needs to Stop Treating Cyclists as a Special Class for Safety’s Sake

A cyclist’s lawsuit against the NYPD over unwarranted tickets exposes the City Council’s “go with the walk” law for the terrible policy it is.

Oliver Casey Esparza’s federal lawsuit argues that the NYPD is incorrectly issuing tickets to cyclists for running red lights, despite a 2019 law permitting bicycles to move when pedestrian signals allow, which occurs before the vehicle traffic light turns green.

In addition to seeking compensation, the suit requests that the NYPD educate officers on the correct regulations; Esparza alleges that an officer assured him he was “99% sure” Esparza was mistaken about the law when he issued him a ticket.

No wonder: The law defies common sense.

The law permits bicycles to proceed when the pedestrian “walk” signal is active, unless there is a specific bike-lane sign or light that remains red; furthermore, it requires cyclists to yield to pedestrians, many of whom may not be aware that bicycles can cross before vehicles.

How is that safer than bikes simply not running red lights?

Even with true bicycles, pretending that cyclists are quasi-pedestrians is dangerous — but with an estimated 65,000 e-bikes on New York City streets, it’s downright insane.

From 2020 to 2023, e-bike crashes killed 22 people and injured 2,172.

Too many cyclists treat traffic laws like suggestions, riding on sidewalks, driving the wrong way down streets and barreling through crosswalks without stopping.

And progressive leaders enable them: Rules like “go with the walk” hand cyclists special privileges.

Notably, Esparza’s lawsuit complains that tickets against cyclists increased “dramatically” in this year’s first quarter.

Right — because the city ramped up road enforcement in response to 2024’s highest-in-a-decade traffic deaths, 127 in the first six months of last year alone, 61 of them pedestrians.

Since then, traffic deaths have plummeted to their lowest since 2018.

Better enforcement keeps drivers, cyclists and pedestrians safer — laws that say cyclists only have to follow some rules for vehicles do not.

Esparza is technically right to cry foul; cyclists shouldn’t get a ticket when they’re not breaking the law.

But the law itself should go — along with the city’s insistence on treating cyclists as a special class.