Statement from Transportation Alternatives After Adams Administration Puts New Yorkers at Risk of Arrest, Jail, and Deportation for Riding a Bike

The NYPD will now issue criminal summonses as opposed to traffic tickets to cyclists. Drivers will still receive traffic tickets. 

Crashes involving people on bikes and pedestrians have killed 11 New Yorkers since 2014. Drivers in New York have killed 1,359 pedestrians since 2014.  

Protected bike lanes have been shown to dramatically reduce drivers speeding, all crashes, pedestrian injuries, and cyclist violations. There is little evidence that increasing severity of punishment increases compliance. 

NEW YORK — Today, Transportation Alternatives released the following statement after breaking news that the NYPD is now giving out criminal summonses to people on bikes instead of typical traffic tickets. Drivers will continue to receive traffic tickets for their offenses. Unlike traffic tickets, which involve a fine that can be paid online or by mail, criminal summonses require taking time off work or finding childcare to attend court and entering a legal system where there is risk of arrest, time in jail awaiting trial, and/or even deportation.

Historically, the NYPD has given substantially more criminal summonses for bike operation to New Yorkers of color. In 2024, 92% of criminal summonses for reckless bike operation went to New Yorkers of color, and 56% to Black New Yorkers specifically, and 95% of criminal court summonses issued to cyclists for riding bicycles on the sidewalk were issued to New Yorkers of color, including 64% to Black New Yorkers and 33% to Hispanic New Yorkers. 

Statement from Ben Furnas, Executive Director at Transportation Alternatives: 

“A little over a year ago, a cyclist was doored and killed while biking along Broadway in Brooklyn. Broadway’s a dangerous street – a Vision Zero Priority Corridor – but instead of making the street safe with a bike lane, Mayor Adams and NYPD Commissioner Tisch are planning to send people on bikes to Riker’s for traffic violations.

“For decades, people on bikes in New York City have received a traffic ticket when stopped by a police officer — just like car drivers. Under new guidance from the Adams Administration and Police Commissioner Tisch, a person on a bike who treats a stop sign as a yield sign can receive a criminal summons — a dangerous escalation that can quickly lead to a prison sentence or even deportation. 

“Though, as a sheer function of physics, people on bikes cause dramatically less destruction and risk than drivers, Mayor Adams and Commissioner Tisch have created a special class of the law for people on bikes, where the punishment in no way equals the crime. Everyone on the streets should follow the rules of the road, but these rules should be safe and easy to follow, with consequences proportionate to the potential risk and harm.

“In a city where the majority of residents are people of color and a third were born outside the country, in a time of mass deportation, the mayor and police commissioner are working for President Trump’s agenda of extralegal harassment, detention, and deportation. 

“This is an obscene escalation from the police department — and not one that’s grounded in real safety, data, or best practices. We know what works — building the bike lanes and street improvement projects that corridors like Broadway need — not suddenly locking up people on bikes. It’s past time for Mayor Adams to meet the legal requirements of the Streets Plan, for the City Council to do the hard work of regulating the same-day delivery apps that treat workers and pedestrians as collateral damage in their endless pursuit of profit, and for Albany to pass Stop-as-Yield legislation so policy recommended as best practice by national traffic safety organizations (AASHTO) catches up with practice.

“We are pushing for true public safety — safety to walk to school, to ride your bike, to live in New York City, and true public safety does not mean harassing, locking up, and deporting New Yorkers. We are imagining a city where anyone who wants to can pick up a bike and ride without fear. We are fighting for a future where everyone gets home safely.” 

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