Congratulations to one Queens police precinct, which successfully handed out more violations to cyclists than motorists during a set of sting operations conducted last week.
Streetsblog reports that police in the 115th Precinct—which covers Jackson Heights, North Corona and East Elmhurst— issued 62 moving violations during two "initiatives" undertaken by police last week, with 32 of those tickets issued to law-breaking cyclists and zero of those tickets issued to to speeding drivers. Alright Vision Zero!
An initial operation, held at 73rd Street and 37th Avenue, resulted in "23 summonses for horn honking, 22 double parking violations, 2 handicap parking violations and 1 unlicensed operator violation." A second initiative yielded "32 bicycle moving violations, 19 double parking violations, 17 unlicensed operator violations, 9 fail to yield to pedestrians violations, 6 bus stop parking violations, 3 failure to wear seat belts violations [and] 1 driving while using a cell phone violation." For the record, speeding remains the number one cause of fatal crashes in New York City, while "horn honking" has killed virtually nobody. Related: Elmhurst is the site of a fatal crash that occurred in November when a driver lost control of his Camaro and ran over two pedestrians.
Then again, the NYPD already did their due diligence by stopping all the speeding drivers back in October, so perhaps that's it for a while.
