Riding bike on sidewalk

March 6 2010
I was riding my bicycle outside Prospect Park, where there's one block that is always dangerously heavy with traffic, and so I went on the sidewalk, riding slowly, being completely conscious of pedestrians. A police office was standing there and signaled me to stop. She told me that because of "thefts being made on bikes" they are enforcing no riding on the sidewalk, which is quite a lame excuse because if I was a thief I could ride my bike on the road and be home free?? Anyway she took my id and although she said she was only running me in the system (guess to check I'm clean?) she came back with a summon. The most annoying part is that the police officer lied to me.She told me I could "just plead guilty and pay 20 dollars on something and be done with it", but when I went to the court clerk I was told I had to see a judge. I specifically asked three times if I could just pay a fine and and was told "yes". Other than that she was nice and courteous. Totally messed up my day though, and I now have to go to court and wait my time and theirs for something completely ridiculous.
Please!!!! go fight crime or something.

It was for riding on the sidewalk. The location has no bike lane, is a one way, and had the #14 bus occupying it at the time that I went onto the sidewalk. The sidewalk was empty, and is very wide.
The police van -with 5 cops inside of it- cut in front of me on Madison St. Window was open "stop. You rode on the sidewalk"
I stopped, then I repeated what he said.
Do you have ID?
Yes. (handed it to him)
Then I said, "I highly respect you and your job, but can I ask, have you guys ever given a ticket to a car that blocks a bike lane?"
They looked at each other and shook their heads 'no'.
One said "thats a good question." Another said, "Sorry, they told us to go after guys on bikes and (something else but since it wasnt related to me i forgot.)"
Me: Really. Really? Really guys? Is it really that much of a slow night for you?
Passenger cop: Yeah, actually it is a slow night.
Cop #4 exits the side door of the van and hands me my license back and the pink slip.
Whats this?
Its a summons for riding on the sidewalk.
There is no bike lane and there was a bus there!
You can tell that to the judge when you get there.
Great. Thanks. One more question, "will you give me another summons for going back onto the sidewalk right now?"
Nah, go ahead. We wont stop you.

Riding southbound on CPW where it turns into a one way road. Cops (4 of them and a van) were pulling everyone over. In fact, they did not see me until one the fellow cyclists getting a ticket told the cop to stop me too...thanks a lot, jerk. Apparently, I went down the wrong way on a one way. The cop, who was quite nice, told me he was made to do this bec. someone was killed by a cyclist in the area a few days earlier. I have to waste a day to visit criminal court to fight this ticket. Even if I wanted to, which I don't, I can't just pay a fine. I have to appear in court! The cop told me to plead not guilty and it would be probably thrown out. ughh!

I got pulled over on a Pedicab in Central Park after hearing about a ticket blitz with the NYPD. I have been driving a Pedicab in Central Park for 5 years and never had this happen. The officer already had the ticket written out all he had to do was add my name and a few details to the ticket. I know Police officers in NYC and Upstate NY and had a police card but he didnt care. The officer said he wont show up for court.

After a rainstorm, I rode under the FDR, trying to get to the Manhattan Bridge to go back to Brooklyn. I turned up Pike Street, hoping to both avoid the rain which had collected next to the curb in the North bound lane and to get shelter from the bridge. There wasn't anyone on the sidewalk but there was a Police car waiting to ticket cyclists, the officers saying that a couple people had been hit there and that Bloomberg had nothing better for them to do.

Cops were hiding behind a van, waiting for bikes to go though the light - we were about 7 waiting for our ticket - don't know how many more got tickets there - good day for NYPD!
I am not going to fight it because it is too much work, but I find it unfair to have been ambushed when you have so many dangerous intersections where cops just sit and don't react....
I am just researching online the legality of all this - I find it weird that they ambush bikers at such a random place...

The cop treated me like shit, barely said a word. I tried to defend myself and he didn't care. It was getting dark, I was in a shady part of town, and the bike lane was shut down due to construction, and the road was on a hill. No other options but to ride on the sidewalk!! They shut down the bike lane and only make room for one car, and the cars would never have seen me!

NOT CRITICAL MASS TICKET.

My boyfriend and I were leaving a class we teach (for free!!!) - English as a Second Language - for immigrants in the neighborhood. When we left at 10PM, it was pouring and we just wanted to get home quickly. Admittedly, we did mount our bikes on the sidewalk, but were just a few feet from the street curb which we were headed to.

Two officers stopped and gave us each a summons for criminal court.

I've read that we may be able to have this dismissed through lack of jurisdiction, but I was also wondering about signatures.

Neither of us signed (or were asked to sign) the bottom portion of the pink summons. Can we dismiss them on that also?

Any advice on what to do / say when we go to court?

Cops were fine - we were annoyed, but they were "just doing their job".

On Feb. 20 2009, a friend and I decided to take a day trip to do some riding on Long Island. After what was nearly a 21 hour day do to a scheduling problem with our train, we got off the LIRR at the Nostrand Avenue station to ride the 2 or 3 blocks to the A train on the corner of Nostrand and Fulton. Across the street from the station, we rode our bikes up onto the sidewalk to wait for the light. Just as we were about to cross the street, we heard a shout and saw two cops running over to us. They asked us to step off our bikes, and informed us that we would be getting summons' for riding on the sidewalk.
I tried explaining to him that we were just about to get on the train which was about 20 feet away across the street, and also mentioning about the incredibly long day we had, hoping he would let us off with a warning, but when he didn't, I wasn't about to argue, since we had obviously been on the sidewalk.
I can't complain about the way we were treated. Both officers were courteous and respectful, although one wasn't very professional. He kept mentioning that we would probably be able to beat the summons since he wasn't going to show up, and that he knew from experience because he received several summons' for open container violations (probably something he shouldn't advertise, being a cop and all).
Since the summons' we received told us to go to the criminal court at 346 Broadway in Manhattan, we're hoping that we can have them thrown out for lack of jurisdiction. We're due in court on May 6th, so we'll see in a few weeks if that works.