Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer and members of Transportation Alternatives at Rally this Morning (Photo: Jimmy Van Bramer)
May 9, 2019 By Christian Murray
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer joined forces with members of Transportation Alternatives in Long Island City this morning to condemn motorists who block sidewalks, bike lanes and crosswalks—and to call on the NYPD to ticket these drivers.
Van Bramer also announced his support for a pilot program that would bring 20 cameras to the streets of New York tasked with catching drivers who block bicycle lanes and pedestrian pathways. The program, which is likely to be introduced as a bill before the council, is part of Transportation Alternatives’ new #TechforSafety campaign.
“When cars turn our sidewalks into parking lots and block our bike lanes and crosswalks, they put pedestrians and cyclists in danger,” Van Bramer said. “The NYPD must step up its enforcement against illegal parking and ticket and tow cars that are blatantly breaking the law. We need a comprehensive, zero-tolerance policy and legislation to increase penalties.”
Juan Restrepo, Queens Organizer at Transportation Alternatives, urged the council to support #techforsafety, which he said would save lives.
Photo: Courtesy of Jimmy Van Bramer
Featured Events
31 Comments
Park as if for three seconds? Really, chill out.
He should have the courage to do something about the cops from the 1-0-8 who park illegally around the Vernon Mall and make that intersection a hazardous mess for everyone.
all the firemen on 47th ave park on the sidewalk with impunity! c’mon guys!
Cars regularly drive the wrong way down the street on Thomson Ave to get to the municipal lot. Take away their licenses.
Fire Photo Op Jimmy – JVB must go!
Softball issue like illegal parking is right up this useless politicians alley. What is his plan to replace the 25K Amazon jobs!
Most of the cars that park on sidewalks in the 108th are in the industrial area where parking is limited and pedestrian traffic is low. Of greater concern is cars blocking fire hydrants and residential driveways.
If you’re parking meter is expired for 2 minutes, there are 6 meter enforcement agents in Sunnyside ready to pounce but otherwise the police presence is very low.
You don’t know Hunters Point. The street with the largest number of cars on the sidewalk is 50th Avenue near Vernon, which happens to be a busy mostly residential and commercial street with loads of pedestrians. It’s where the 108th precinct is located.
Yes!! This!! It turns the sidewalk into a single-lane pedestrian walkway which is quite frustrating during rush hour – its almost like the cops would prefer us to walk in the middle of the street
Interesting that now this is a priority for Van Bramer. I emailed his office two years ago about this and about how even the NYPD doesn’t respect this and parks their vehicles on the sidewalk. Shameful.
They really should have had another sign: “No More Thumb Tacks In Bike Lanes”.
“No more bicyclists thinking they own the world.”
Or, “No more cars blasting thru stop signs and nearly hitting pedestrians”?
Look up “Andy Griffith citizen’s arrest”. This episode had a significant impact on young JVB.
Anyone under 70 won’t get this reference though
Mr. Van Bramer doesn’t really care about the people of his community rather likes to get the free publicity. Old lady gets killed its oh sorry, disabled people can’t be picked up by accessible taxi or paratransit because of the bureaucracy in the area, more small businesses and factories have closed, more long time residents are being priced and forced out of there homes. We truly need someone to run against this punk for boro prez.
You are right in everything you said. I see the developers hit you with all the dislikes as they sponsor this site. They do the same to me MRLIC. The TRUTH keeps buyers and tourists away.
You really expect us to believe you don’t like real estate developers? You voted for one for president!
This is my favorite photo-op pic. What a joke. Spend millions on more cameras. What a waste.
Nice crowd as well.
HAAA
What about all the cop cars from Precinct 108 who do precisely this? Is JVB good for anything other than photo-ops and driving out jobs? Love what they’ve done with Anabale Basin now. I see a lot of progress.
When the biggest offenders of the law are those charged with enforcing it, you know there’s a snowball’s chance in hell JVB’s effort will do anything.
I scrolled down to make the same comment… 108th precinct cars block the sidewalk on 50th Ave all day, every day. Sometimes both sides. It’s right next to the 7 train stop and people often end up walking down the middle of the street. Coincidentally right next to where JVB likes to hang out for photo opps. Maybe he should actually like, do something about it instead of smiling for pictures.
“The NYPD must step up its enforcement against illegal parking”
I give you a thumbs-up for the first sentence of your comment and a thumbs-down for the next two.
The NYPD should also be enforcing bicyclists riding down one way streets the wrong way, almost running down pedestrians with their bicycles, disregarding red lights and stop signs and thinking they own our roads
That’s a great point, Van Bramer is right, cars are very often illegally parked; also other people did things other times.
18 out of 30,000 injury causing accidents last year involved bicycles. Bicycles don’t hurt anybody, it’s cars who act like they own the roads, are entitled to 100% of public space, and kill people while they’re doing it.
does that have anything to do with cars double parked in bike lanes?
comments on this should be good
How bout 18 wheelers that block bus stops; double park and off load in crosswalks. Remember we talked about this 3 years ago JVB?
On Court Square West at 10:30 pm at night one truck backs up to the other back and off loads cargo to the other, Quite Often. Street looks like a war zone. Not paved in 17 years at least. Heavy Trucks making it worse. Cameras not the answer, enforcement is. Motorized Delivery Bikes I see when walking or riding my bike go through Red lights as if they are not there. I see regular bikes also but the Delivery guys think they own the streets and sometime the sidewalk when they go on the block they deliver on. Cameras won’t always do the ob Real enforcement will, Cameras will make less enforcement by Police and Traffic agents.
The NYS Police park on the crosswalk on 21st St next to their building every single day. Cars park on corners around here too. Don’t get me started on the USPS trucks. They literally do not give AF where they park. Oof.
Park as if for three seconds? Really, chill out.