About cycling safely in NYC
I want to talk about cycling in NYC traffic. I’ve been doing this since the early 80s. You hear a lot about how bikes are dangerous for pedestrians and not respectful of cars. These problems exist, but let’s be clear — some cyclists are rude and dangerous, but by and large, most of them are not. A lot of casual bikers also exhibit a reaction to bad behavior on the part of pedestrians and drivers, a vicious cycle if you will. Cyclists are in an extremely vulnerable position, and their strategies for safety aren’t the same as for other modes of transportation.
I’ve been thinking about writing this piece for a while, but it came to a head recently — A few weeks ago I got a ticket for running a red light on my bike. I am pleading not guilty for a variety of reasons, but it got me thinking more about the rules we have an how they are enforced. On that particular stretch of road, cyclists routinely ignore traffic lights, because they make no sense. Frequently, there are no people and no other bikes anywhere near the intersection, and often there aren’t even any cars. It is even more absurd that it is legal for me to get off my bike and walk through the intersection, but if I had rolled through it at the same speed, that’s a $190 ticket. That is 100% punitive, and it does nothing else. Generally speaking, we should be very careful about criminalizing or penalizing behavior that is “dangerous” in the absence of any actual danger. It’s a whole other ball of wax that this is a monumental waste of police resources that could be doing useful things, but even worse — I’m arguing that cyclists having to follow the traffic laws as they are now actually makes the entire system less safe.
Bicycles are in a weird position in the traffic world — sometimes it makes sense to treat them as pedestrians and sometimes it makes sense to treat them as vehicles, but I think our current set of laws gets that wrong in some ways in both directions.
A note: non-pedal control e-bikes are not bikes for the purposes of this piece.
Ideals
We can all get along! Yes, there are for sure some bad actors and people don’t always act in a way that’s safe and courteous. I would strongly prefer to deter the actual dangerous actions and remove restrictions where there is no actual danger.
Laws have several components — deterrence, punitive, and establishment of responsibility.
With the relaxation of jaywalking rules, pedestrians now have leeway to make decisions for their safety without criminalization of that in and of itself. None of that changes responsibility or liability in the case of incidents, and cyclists should be able to do that as well.
Laws make sense as guides to enforce beneficial interactions between people. When they are enforced as slavish dedication to signals, they erode trust in the system.
In short: it should be legal for cyclists to do most things that do not cause any harm. Going through red lights, making right turns on red, navigating through groups of pedestrians at a reasonable speed. This says nothing about who is at fault or absolve responsibility if there’s a bad outcome.
Why should bikes be able to go through red lights when cars are required to stop? Simply — bikes are not cars, and the laws should not apply in the same way. Stopping and starting has a much higher relative cost for bikes. This isn’t about uncompromising adherence to the rules, it’s about rational safety. (We also make allowances for cars to do things like turn right on red where it’s safe to do so in most other places in the country, and that does not give them the right to ignore other people in the intersection when doing so.) Critically— when cycling, it’s far more important to pay attention to the flow of cars and people than it is to keep track of the lights. As a cyclist, if I’m worried about making it through the light before it turns red to strictly comply with the law, that’s actually going to make me probably speed up and maybe make an even more dangerous situation. It’s better for cyclists to react and respond to the actual flow of traffic than to have their behavior guided by arbitrary signals, especially given their slower speeds, lower acceleration levels, and much less isolation from their surroundings.
There is an argument that we need more infrastructure to solve these safety problems. Dedicated isolated bike lanes certainly help tremendously. I’m less convinced of the utility of separate bike lights, as they still are just on timers and require stopping even if the surroundings don’t warrant it.
There is some subtlety here, but not as much as the laws codify. For example, I’m generally not in favor of cyclists being allowed to ride against the flow of traffic, but I also think when done at a reasonable speed in certain circumstances it can be ok. Against the flow of cars is generally not great, but it depends on how much room there is and how fast. Against the flow of other cyclists is usually ok if there’s enough room to do it safely. But also — the cyclist doing this is primarily putting themselves at risk. An excpetion to this is making a left turn across oncoming traffic — it can often be substantially safer to cut across the oncoming lane while the cars are stopped at the intersection and then ride for a bit on the left against traffic (which is still stopped at the light) before making the turn, rather than stop at the intersection and turn with the cars.
It’s really possible to ride safely and be respectful of those around you. It does not help that the laws mostly treat cyclists as cars.
Again, some cyclists are bad actors and will do things that cause harm. Policing this with discretion is always a sticky question — inevitably minorities and delivery people will bear the brunt of it. I don’t have a great answer to that, but it seems like less enforcement of annoyances is a better approach to more regulations that don’t actually fix anything.
Some Specifics on Safety
For Cyclists
Be consistent and predictable. Share the lane or take the lane. Signal with your arms before you turn. Be respectful of people. When around pedestrians, coast at a reasonable speed. Slow down when going through intersections.
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The priorities of a cyclist are maintaining momentum and control, and not hitting anything or being hit by anything. Dangerous situations are involved with speeding up and slowing down, turning, and passing between and around other vehicles and people.
Red lights when cycling: it should be legal for cyclists to ignore red lights when it is safe to do so. Making bikes stop at red lights is bad policy. Dangerous situations are created with speed differentials. If I’m stopped at a light with a car, and we both pull out of the intersection at the same time, the car will accelerate much faster than I can. This is especially dangerous if either of us is turning.
If I can ignore the red light and roll through it, I’m focused on being as safe as possible. I don’t want to hit pedestrians. I don’t want cars to hit me. If I have to stop at the light, that creates a *more* distracting situation for everyone — I’m focused on stopping (and can be hit from behind by a car while I’m decelerating). I’m focused on the light instead of whatever might be in the intersection (people, cars, strollers, other bikes). If the light is about to change, I’m focused on *speeding up so I don’t have to stop* (and increase the chance that I’ll hit someone crossing early, it happens). All of these are more dangerous than just letting me roll at a safe speed through the intersection. It’s legal for me to get off my bike and walk through the intersection, at a much slower and less consistent speed than riding, with a lot less control. This is a *more* dangerous situation.
For Pedestrians
Be consistent and predictable. Do not walk in the bike lane. If you cross the bike lane, look for oncoming traffic. Do not just step out. Especially if you’re pregnant or pushing a stroller ahead of you. Do not stand in the bike lane while waiting to cross the street. If you are walking on a shared path, don’t block the whole lane so there’s no way to pass you. If a cyclist rings their bell at you, that usually doesn’t mean “get out of the way!” unless you are blocking the whole lane and there’s no way to pass you, in which case it means “pick a side!”. It definitely doesn’t mean “gahhh! Panic!”. It usually means “I’m going to pass you. Don’t swerve into my path at the last moment”. Especially do not let your dog on a leash do that.
It can be scary to have a cyclist whizz by you at what seems like an unreasonable speed, but also be aware that most cyclists have far more control at higher speeds than it seems like they do and what looks like a near miss from your perspective is probably a careful threading through obstacles for them. Certainly that’s not always the case, but the vast majority of the time they probably don’t want to hit you any more than you want to be hit.
For Drivers
Be consistent and predictable. When turning across a bike lane, check for bikes. If there are any there, let them go before you turn. When opening your door when parked, check for bikes. If there is no explicit bike lane, leave room between you and the row of parked cars or the sidewalk, for bikers to share the lane. In bumper to bumper traffic, leave room for bikes to get between you and the car ahead of you.
Again, it is very dangerous to be a cyclist at a full stop at a light and starting to pull through the intersection with the cars when the light turns green. This is because of the acceleration differential — cars come up to speed much faster, and it takes bikes a little while to get full momentum. Bikes are also in danger when slowing down at an intersection. Differentials are where accidents happen. Bikes are least maneuverable at low speeds. Stopping has a high cost for cyclists, in both energy and safety. This is why cyclists will often skate through a red light if the intersection is clear, or pull out ahead of the cars if they’re forced to stop at the light. Let them go first.
Cars | Bicycles | Pedestrians
Most of our traffic rules are organized around the principle that vehicles are dangerous and so should have rules. Of course that’s obviously true of cars. It’s also a commonly held belief that bicycles are dangerous to pedestrians and should be regulated in the same way that cars are. But is that true? Let’s look at the data from 2025:
There’s a lot of interesting data here, but the salient points are that the number of pedestrian deaths from bicycles was zero and bicycles were responsible for less than 3% of the total pedestrian injuries, while crashes involving cars hurt both bicyclists and pedestrians at much much higher rates. We should stop treating bicycles like cars.
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If you enjoyed reading this, feel free to come yell at me about it on threads, bluesky, or mastodon. I ride bikes a lot in the city, and I use CitiBike so much I wrote an app called QuickieBike for the iPhone and Apple Watch to show you information about your nearest station. I don’t use AI for writing my articles. If you’d like to get infrequent updates of everything I’m working on, subscribe to my mailing list at af.buzz.
