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Comment by tombert | Hacker News Reader

In NYC, a lot of people (especially cops) seem to be under the impression that bike lanes are just extra parking.It's pretty irritating because going around them involves getting on the street, which isn't usually an issue, but occasionally roads in NY get extremely busy, and people in here seem to lack the ability to read speed limit signs (at least in Brooklyn).

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I think thats because, for all the progress NYC has made in installing bike infrastructure, they've done basically nothing to reduce the number of cars on our streets.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/29/nyregion/nyc-congestion-p...

https://mashable.com/article/nyc-city-council-lyft-uber-cap-...

Two specific policies, but there’s also just the fact that every bike lane/pedestrian street/bus lane/low speed limit/etc. makes the city less car friendly and at some point that makes a difference.

There should be a banner for any transit discussions that state you cannot optimize environments for both individual cars and non individual car transportion.

It's strange, because NYC is simultaneously overpopulated with cars, but is also one of the only places in the US where you can reasonably live without a car (I don't have one).

It's even stranger when you realize that probably only 20% of trips in New York are conducted by car, and yet they are by far the largest physical presence everywhere you go. Actually quite obnoxious.

> probably only 20% of trips in New York are conducted by car

I’d reckon it’s less than 20%, maybe even as low as 5%. The subway alone has a daily ridership of about 2 million, plus the massive amount of people who just walk or bike to the store, work, etc. I think it seems like more people are using cars than actually are due to their visibility, like you mention—they take up more space, they’re given more space, etc. It’s insane.

In some places the towing companies are directly allowed to tag and tow illegally parked cars, and inpound them until a fine is paid. You need to be very careful about corruption (that is they don't tow legally parked cars), but towing companies could help you as they make money from illegally parked cars.

That might work on civilian cars, but I doubt that a lot of towing companies are going to risk towing a cop car, no matter how corrupt they are. I'm certainly not brave enough to tattle on them.

Yeah, if it is police only properly filed formal complaints (sometimes get one line on the form that they avoid giving you wrong means they throw it away), or getting a large group at all city hall meetings work. Even then it takes persistence.

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