The New Haven Independent published a feature last week in which a reporter shadowed a bicycle-mounted parking enforcement officer making his rounds:
Seeing a white Highlander SUV blocking an Orange Street bike lane, Stephen Saladino hit the brakes. He dismounted his city-issued Fuji and whipped out his Zebra-brand ticketing device, which caught the attention of a man on the sidewalk.
“I own the store here!” the man announced. “My customers can’t park here?”
Not in the bike lane, they can’t.
Saladino, a city parking enforcement officer, rode on Orange Street Thursday to deliver that message. Gently. He did the same on Dixwell Avenue, on Water Street. In fact, he was more interested in delivering that message than in putting tickets on windshields.
Saladino was on an experimental mission. In honor of Bike Month, the city’s transit department sent Saladino to bicycle traffic skills school, then assigned him to spend a day or two each week checking roads with a preponderance of cyclists to clear the bike lanes and sharrows of illegally parked cars.
In a bike-friendly community like New Haven, it shouldn’t be newsworthy when the people who enforce traffic and parking laws do their jobs. In other places, however, it might come as more of a surprise to see municipal attention paid to keeping bike lanes clear. Take New York, for example, where the authorities have an altogether different approach to bike lane enforcement:
dear nypd, you're blocking my bike lane pic.twitter.com/efACpnNeK9
— Casey Neistat (@Casey) March 15, 2013
4 lanes for cars, but the #NYPD chose to park their cruisers in the one and only #bikenyc lane. @CopsinBikeLanes pic.twitter.com/Yl0dZz7qLo
— Tri-State Transportation Campaign (@Tri_State) February 26, 2015
NYPD standing/parking in #bikenyc lane for sting?Chrystie-Rivington @BrooklynSpoke @RKWinvisibleman @StreetsblogNYC pic.twitter.com/gAqGm1P9Gl
— Hilda (she/her) (@HildaBikes) March 11, 2015
When NYPD blocks a protected bike lane that shit is BLOCKED. pic.twitter.com/VPqNiia5wu
— Bike Snob NYC (@bikesnobnyc) May 1, 2015
How many #NYPD cruisers does it take to block the 8th Ave #bikenyc lane? @StreetsblogNYC @Tri_State @BicycleLobby pic.twitter.com/BulJMbfM3x
— Joe Cutrufo (@JoeCutrufo) October 23, 2013
https://twitter.com/mieletpiment/status/598192013939482624
#NYPD #bikeNYC Bike lane. 6th Ave at Herald Square. Couldn't pull over to the curb? pic.twitter.com/Bv9n0jwwAX
— MHeido 🏳️🌈 (@mheido03) May 4, 2015
Cyclists Demand A Safer Jay Street, NYPD Doesn't Want To Hear It http://t.co/LvRmLfm2Fw pic.twitter.com/qaj0eBEOlh
— Gothamist (@Gothamist) May 7, 2015
NYPD Cracked Down on Cyclists, Will Cops In the Bike Lane Be Next? http://t.co/QlztythiiK pic.twitter.com/YnOIBUK6mP
— The Village Voice (@villagevoice) August 30, 2014
