Bratton sees red on bikes

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said the city has already done plenty to accommodate its growing bicyclist population and that it would be a terrible idea to allow cyclists to run red lights and stop signs.

“The city is going to great pains to put bicycle lanes in, and to exclude the bicyclists from the traffic rules that everybody else, pedestrians and vehicles, are supposed to follow, I would not be supportive of that under any circumstances,” Bratton said.

He made the comments in response to a proposal by Councilman Antonio Reynoso to make it legal for cyclists to cruise through red lights and stop signs after slowing down and looking both ways. Reynoso brought the proposal before the City Council on Tuesday.

Families of victims who have been hit by bikes say the law will lead to a culture in which cyclists are less accountable for their actions.

“New York is a freeforall anyway, and you always have to be careful,” said Mike Wittman, whose wife, Jill Tarlov, 58, was killed by cyclist Jason Marshall, 32, in Central Park last year. “The problem is already there, and the police won’t be able to do anything. If somebody runs somebody over, I don’t know what will happen.”

Reynoso crafted his proposal after the “Idaho stop,” because that state allows riders to treat red lights like stop signs.