How to avoid New York's anti-motorcycle checkpoints

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NYPD-road-blocks.jpgBelieve it or not, between publicly sodomizing subway passengers, beating war veterans for over seven minutes, shooting black men 50 times for no good reason and tackling bicyclists in Times Square, the NYPD actually has enough time left over to disproportionately target motorcyclists with road blocks. Don’t stroke their egos the right way? They’ll impound your motorcycle and by “impound” we mean cause thousands of dollars in damage to. Now, there’s a way to keep a heads up on those road blocks so you can avoid them. The New York Motorcycle and Scooter Task Force is publishing the locations on Twitter as they happen, just follow @NYMSTF. They need your help too, tweet them the location if you see a road block or text it to 347-410-6783.

More details on the NYMSTF website.

  • Tim

    I know that there’s a lot to do there, but why don’t you all just move out?

    “People are like manure, if you spread them out, they can do some good, but if you keep them all piled up in one place, they just stink.”- Bill Upshaw.

    I know there are meanspirited idiots everywhere, but they are not so concentrated as in the big cities.

    Keep speaking truth to power, brother.

  • Sean Smith

    Gotta love the cops…

  • AK

    What, are you New Yorkers smoking cigs and riding at the same time? Throwing butts on the ground too?

    Why the injustice and brutality?

    You all are sardines in the city…they just block up a block, and reel ya in cause your on a bike?

  • PeteP

    Yeah, no kidding.

    New York. Nice place to visit (on foot), but you have to be a FUCKING LUNATIC to ride there.

    I know. I did it for a while.

  • Patrick

    Are motorcycles not allowed there or something…??

  • Ray

    Thanks for the info. I’m joined up to send and receive the checkpoint notifications. This is why NYC needs its own motorcycle magazine/blog, and you’re it on a bunch of levels.

    Did you all hear about the commuting rider who spent YEARS in court because she rode a motorcycle in an HOV lane in Brooklyn? Federal law defines motorcycles as High Occupancy Vehicles. Nobody told that fact to the NYPD or a judge in Brooklyn. They eventually found out, but it was years and $$$.

  • El-Diablo

    HaHa, i would love a cop to try and beat my like that, i will dismantle his jaw.

    • http://www.michael-engle.com s1102879

      Let us know how that works out for ya. There are ALWAYS more cops where the first one came from and you will soon find yourself sorely out numbered. Best to speak softly and wait for your day in court.

      • El-Diablo

        Maybe u would stand for that, but im sorry, i aint going to…

        • Mike J

          Yeh, but you’re not going to “Stand for it” are you. You’re going to lie on the floor crying like a child while they beat you for 7 minutes or sodomise you with a broken broom handle. If they don’t just shoot you that is.

  • Brian Zooom

    I just say ride a trials bike and if you come across a road block…ride up and over it Christian Pfeiffer style!!!…if you do it with enough pizzazz, someone is bound to notice and film it and you could build from there guerilla style.

    Seriously though, just don’t give them any excuse IF you happen across them. Unless you are riding rogue and illegal or there is something that isn’t in order with you or your ride. I know a couple of NYC HOG members who said they know some good ACLU lawyers though in the event of needing them.

  • DoctorNine

    What Brian said. This is why a literbike isn’t what you ride in town. Get a light thumper with a big flywheel, or a small twin, and set it up to ride over curbs and up stairs. They are going to have a hard time putting their baton where they want to if they can’t get their hands on you.

  • ducati

    This sucks!!! i have been in situation where i could see a road block coming. i am 100% legal, with all my paper work in order, but i would not chance it – pull a u-turn on the highway and get on the side of the road and get out where ever you can.

    years ago i use to stop for them because i thought i am all set and i havent done anything wrong. WRONG they still fuck with you. this comes all the way from the top. NYPD is forced and told to do this by the mayors office. Face it, the mayor does not like anything on 2 wheels. he didnt like critical mass and he does not like motorcycles. it would help if more and more motorcyclist they stop had a motorcycle license, but they dont.

    the motorcycle community is so divided that we cant rally. if we could get something a 1/4 of the size of critical mass it would be a miracle.

    this is a good post wes, but if you want to do something about this, use your site to get something like critical mass going – bridge the gap and differences between the different types of road riders out there. only if the motorcyclist unite will this problem go away. atm we are too divided.

  • Emmet

    Can somebody please explain to us non-new yorkers what’s going on with NYC and motorcycles? Are they banned in certain places?

  • Nick

    Dear Commisioner,

    I’m writing in regards to an experience I had earlier today while I was riding my motorcycle from Brooklyn Heights to Central Park. I was about to teach kids how to ride bicycles for three hours as a volunteer instructor at an event put on by the Parks Department and Bike New York.

    At the 96th St. FDR exit two officers on foot motioned for me to pull over. I obliged, thinking that perhaps one of them had ridden the same motorcycle as mine as a child and wanted to check it out. Instead, I was asked for my license, proof of insurance, and registration. I immediately took all three from my wallet and showed the officers. As I was leaving, I saw the officers motion another motorcyclist to the side of the road.

    In my eleven years of riding, I hadn’t experienced anything like this. At the 1st Avenue light, I was surprised to see two more officers standing on the corner. The light turned red, and I was second in line. After the car in front of me stopped, I checked my mirrors and rode up to the officers to ask what was going on.

    The officer demanded that I get off my bike and surrender my paperwork. I informed her that I had just shown it to the officers one block away and was only interested in knowing the cause of the motorcycle crackdown. She said that it was because there was a Puerto Rican parade and a lot of motorcyclists were expected and that they often didn’t have licenses. She also said that if I was missing paperwork they could confiscate my motorcycle.

    Now, I’m clearly not Puerto Rican or part of the parade. I had all my paperwork and I don’t ride the type of motorcycle that wakes up babies or sets off car alarms. It’s a Honda C70, which is the slowest, quietest motorcycle you can imagine. It gets 100 mpg and can only go 50mph. I can kickstart it with my hand. I was wearing a motorcycle jacket with elbow and shoulder protectors, a full-face helmet and motorcycle gloves. I was not the type of rider she was looking for.

    However, she was only too eager to write me tickets, and she headed to her van to write me up for splitting lanes and for riding without proof of registration (which was in my hand as she went off, but she didn’t ask for it before heading to the van). It would have arguably been more dangerous for me to wait for the light to change in order to speak with the officers. In any case, it was hardly the type of “lane-splitting” which would spook a driver or cause an accident. It was more like riding past a parked car on a side street. She watched me do it. It couldn’t possibly have been interpreted as dangerous, and indeed, she invited me to come to court, where she vowed to help me have both tickets dismissed.

    In any case, I have two tickets now, I was late to teaching kids to ride bicycles, and I was thoroughly unhappy with how I was treated by the officers. In addition, I now have to spend a day in court.

    I understand wanting to crackdown on people riding without licenses, plates, or insurance, as it might help prevent people from riding stolen bikes. But when you stop a law-abiding motorcyclist and he winds up with two tickets, something is wrong.

    Best,
    Nick

    • ducati

      Nick, please do not be naive in thinking she will help you out in court. i have been told the same thing before. be prepared to defend yourself in court. you can get an app for your iphone (NY Traffic) to help you out. i have been given no inspection tickets when i clearly had the sticker on my fork, so i know how you feel. lane splitting is 2 points on your lic.

      in the last 4 years i have had 15 tickets – i beat all of them except 8 that are still pending (8 in one stop). as of today i have a clean lic. the more you ride the more you will learn, that you do not want to stop for cops or ask any questions while on your bike. no matter what bike your on, your the intended target; less of a target if your not on a “crotch rocket” but still a target. drive safe and always be alert for bad drivers and cops.

  • Alex B

    In twelve years of riding every day in NYC, I’ve been stopped 3 times by “targeted” checkpoints and have had no problems. The last one was a couple weeks ago during the Porto Rican day parade and the cops were quite nice, complimented me on my 120dB after market exhaust and gave me a piece of paper to show other cops should I be stopped again. I happen to have a licensed inspected motorcycle and keep hearing horror stories from friends that I’ll get in trouble anyway but I guess I’ve been lucky (or polite). Last time I got stopped for speeding, the cop gave me two equipment tickets instead of a 6 points speeding violation (I guarantee that the cars that cop was stopping were not getting that lucky).

    I get away with so much on the bike that I would not get away with in a car. I would say that when it comes to speeding, 75% of the time, the cops let me go with just a warning or a bogus no point ticket on a motorcycle, whereas I pretty much got a speeding ticket every time I got stopped in a car.

    Try to get caught at 130 mph on the highway in Jersey or NY in a car and tell me if car drivers are treated better than motorcyclists.

    What bothers me a lot more in New York and nobody seems to fight about is the road quality that is tantamount to attempted murder on motorcyclists. Between the potholes in which you could bury a body, the metal plates covering entire streets in the East village and the bumps on the BQE that get me airborne every time, I think that should be the priority.

    I got stopped 3 times in ten years for no reason but have probably had 100 times more incidents with crazy road condition for no reason. I’ll waste 5 minutes showing my license and papers any time over bending my wheels and possibly crashing any day.

  • Alex B

    Personal attacks and little substance. Who could be writing this ?

  • Alex B

    Very powerful arguments here. HFl is kind enough to allow anonymous comments, don’t force them to switch to a registration based system because you have no arguments and no substance beside personal insults.

  • the other larry

    32 years in the metro NY area. 22 years in California. 50 billion-trillion-zillion times better out here on the left coast my fellow riders. Do whatever you can to get the hell out of there.

    • Sean Smith

      I’ve never ridden in NYC, so I can’t really say how much better or worse it is in california, but the riding out here is amazing. I only had to ride in the rain 7-8 times last year, and that was literally every day it rained. In downtown LA, the cops are much to concerned with crack-heads and real crime to bother motorcyclists. Lane splitting is legal and encouraged. And I can ride twisty two-lane literally all day, easily averaging 80mph with no trouble from johnny law.

  • Kerry

    First of all they didn’t shoot a guy 50 times for no reason, if you say “I am going to get my gun” loudly in a club after you have threatened someone and then you go to your car and dig around for something you have to figure there will be consequences – one of which is getting shot by police officers who heard you threaten someone and then go to your car after saying “I am going to get my gun”.

    Second: there is always a large motorcycle crackdown the day of the PR parade. They can’t pull over people because they are PR so they just pull over all motorcycles they see. It is easy, it fills their coffers, and lets be honest if it wasn’t for the many sportbike clubs who attend the parade revving, wheeling, doing burnouts and acting like jackasses they wouldn’t feel like there is a need for it. Admittedly not all clubs act like jackasses but not acting like a jackass doesn’t draw attention.

    third: the easiest way to avoid an NYC motorcycle checkpoint is to not go into Manhattan. Yes there are checkpoints in Brooklyn, but they are not nearly as frequent, and NYC has made it clear, they don’t want motorcyclists to spend money in Manhattan, so lets oblige them. In this way I admire the French more than our own domestic motorcycle brotherhood in that there is a raise in axes that affects motorcyclists in France and you get a massive organized protest, here I doubt we can get 1/16th of the NYC riders to avoid pleasure riding in Manhattan in protest. I guess the pull of lattes is too much. I do however admire the NYMSTF for circumventing the cops undue harassment of those on two wheels.

    BTW, there is a great urban legend about a rider who chained his bike to a pole after being threatened that his bike would be confiscated because he couldn’t produce an insurance card at the stop. Given how these stops are run it doesn’t seem all that difficult to do (one could easily run while the cops are doing their best keystone kops impression running back and forth between your bike and their computer if one had sufficient stones), and if your chain is heavy enough I doubt they would bother cutting through it. supposedly said legend ends with the would be cycle hero getting a hand-full of parking tickets for his trouble, but that is better than being stacked like chord wood on the back of a flatbed (NYPD literally stacks the bikes on a flatbed, smacking into each other and it is rare a confiscated bike isn’t damaged).

  • http://nymstf.org Brad

    Hi everyone, VP of the NYMSTF in the house…

    Thanks Wes for giving our Checkpoint Alert System some visibility.

    Tim, I’m sorry you feel that folks should just move. If people start running now, they will be running forever. Think about this today, on July 4, where would you be if this country’s founding fathers decided to run instead of fight?

    Kerry, sorry, but you’re wrong, this year there are actually more checkpoints in Brooklyn than in Manhattan.

    Alex, yes the roads are horrible, even more so this year after a tough winter and repairs that make the roadway even worse. My centerstand return spring broke this week from a bad pothole, then two frost heaves this weekend broke two super heavy duty zip ties that I had used to keep the stand secured to its bump stop.

    You have to report the road defects to 311. If you sustain damage from a known road defect you can file a claim against the city to recoup the money you spend on repairs. 311 can help you with this too.

    Likewise if you are abused by law enforcement you must report that too. It is your civic responsibility. If you just bend over and take it willingly, you have nobody to blame but yourself when the abuse continues or even increases.

    I hope the NYMSTF’s Checkpoint Alerts can take some of the productiveness out of these illegal checkpoints but it will still take some involvement on the part of New York’s motorcycling community. You know that anti-terrorism campaign here, “If you see something, SAY something.”? That works fine for us too. As far as we’re concerned the cops running these motorcycle -targeted checkpoints are terrorists. If you see a motorcycle checkpoint, send us a text (347-410-MSTF) starting with the word “checkpoint” (that part is important, thanks) and describing the location. Between Twitter and our RSS feed we have hundreds of subscribers (and more continuing to sign up daily) who will get the information you provide within a few moments.

    Ride safe and happy Fourth,
    Brad
    VP, NYMSTF

  • El-Diablo

    Amerykah, What a shit hole of a place.

    • VetteWrecker

      Classy!

  • Kerry

    Brad,

    If there are More in Brooklyn I haven’t been running into them, But I seem to hit every freaking one in Manhattan. 59th street bridge is so bad I don’t take it anymore.

    • http://nymstf.org Brad

      Kerry, thanks for the comments. There have been a few checkpoints at the 59th street bridge this year but the last time I saw a detail there they were just taking radiation measurements. Yes, really.

      We recently received a complaint about a motorcycle targeted detail at Classon and Kent. I also have a report that I have yet to personally confirm, about a motorcycle targeted checkpoint that bounces back and forth between BQE Exit 4 and the area of Coney Island during the week, every week. I saw one operating several weeks ago around Metropolitan by the BQE.

      If you see something, SAY something! ;-)

  • the other larry

    Hey Sean Smith, you may find this amusing-
    http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=336557

  • http://www.mvcexchange.com Leisa Siverd

    Don’t want to change your week for MV points. Look here