Car-bashing beep has 41 vehicle tix
He’s fuel of it. Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, an anti-car extremist peddling a bike-lane plan for the West Side Highway, has racked up 41 vehicular violations in less than a decade, including speeding, blowing red lights — and blocking a bike lane, a Post analysis has found.
And now his newly assigned city driver is apparently following in his lead-foot steps.
The progressive Democrat has shelled out $1,895, including $110 in late fees, since August 2016 to pay off 18 parking tickets and four citations issued to his privately owned 2012 Honda CRV after cameras caught the car running red lights and speeding through school safety zones, city records show.
Among them is a $115 ticket issued in March 2019 for parking along a bicycle lane near Fort Washington Avenue in Washington Heights.
Hows My Driving NY, a website that tracks motor-vehicle data dating further back than accessible city records reviewed by The Post, shows Levine was hit with another 19 parking tickets since August 2013, including violations for blocking a bus stop, misusing a governmentissued parking placard and blowing off meters.
Since taking office in January, Levine has enjoyed access to a cityissued Toyota Highlander with a chauffeur. Since Feb. 16, that SUV has been ticketed eight times for a total of $790 in fines, including three times for being caught on camera speeding in school zones and another for driving through a red light, according to records. The SUV was also cited three times for “bus lane violations” and once for parking in front of a fire hydrant.
As a councilman on the Upper West Side from 2014 through 2021, Levine catered to longtime political supporters, including powerful street-safety and other special-interest groups like Streets PAC and the New York League of Conservation Voters that are lobbying for the city to significantly reduce the numbers of cars on its streets.
As borough president, he has put the pedal to the metal even harder on the following anti-car causes:
■ Hefty congestion-pricing tolls to enter parts of Manhattan.
■ A revised application process to help ensure most appointments he makes as borough president to community boards aren’t car owners.
■ A new plan to convert a southbound section of the routinely gridlocked West Side Highway into a 4-mile bike lane, even though there’s already a bike lane that runs adjacent to it at Hudson River Park.
A Levine spokesman told The Post that the borough president “believes traffic and parking enforcement is essential, fair and part of living in a city, and like any other responsible New Yorker, the tickets on his family vehicle were immediately paid.”
Asked about the tickets amassed by the driver of Levine’s city vehicle, the spokesman said his office’s “human-resources team was made aware of these infractions and has since worked to ensure that future infractions are minimized and safety on the road is prioritized.”