Hey y'all,
Of course this is one of those things where I did something stupid and got burned, but I just thought I'd give you a head's up.
I was going down County Rd in Tenafly last month and came upon a row of stopped cars, a cop was directing traffic. Since he was about to let the cars ahead of me go through, I proceeded to maintain my pace and passed them all on the left. The cop yelled at me to stop but since I was beyond him I just kept on going. He had some sort of bug up his butt and jumped in his car and chased after me. He later busted me on going through a stop sign (for which I was actually slowing down but was waved through by another motorist).
Anyway, long story short: 216$ in fines and 4 hours wasted at the Tenafly Municipal Court.
When you see a cop directing traffic, don't be a retard and obey. Especially in Tenafly.
Beware the Tenafly PD
Ow, that stings!
Since there is no law requiring bicyclists to carry ID, do you think you could have gotten away with giving him a bogus name and address?
"I thought of that but the dude was majorly pissed off and irate so I think he would have arrested me. Some other ""defendants"" last night confirmed for me that Lt Dan Siegal is a total meanie."
giving a false id is not a good idea, if they think your giving false id they will hold you for a couple three days until someone can come and verify you are you say you are.
if your not who you say you are, you are jammed big time.
dont do it
Apparently this has been done often enough that there's a long-standing warrant out on Eddy Merckx in northern NJ, or so the story goes.
Word to the wise - pick a different name.
wouldnt it really suck it you picked a name someone had already use like eddy merckx and your off to the slammwer since you just found out your the most wanted bicyclist bandito in all of the 9w rivertowns
"Tough break, Greg. I'm glad you've taken your lumps with grace.
I'm concerned about a ""smaller"" detail of your story; making traffic decisions based on a perceived ""wave"" from a motorist (The stop sign). Bad policy (I'm pointing this out not specifically to you, but to my fellow cyclists in general). Here's why.
- What you may think is a wave through might not be. The motorist might have just spilled coffee in his lap and is flailing.
- The motorist might be perfectly willing to let you through, but she's not responsible for what other cars might be doing. You may be going through based on her wave, while another car or cyclist (which you have not noticed) is coming at you. (Learned this from a motorist publication. For us, it applies 200%.)
- As cyclists we want to be safe and respected on the road. ""Don't kiss me - don't bite me."" The flip side of the motorist mentality that gives you a break wants you off the road when the motorist has ""somewhere important"" to go. It also means that that citizen-motorist supports the perpetuation of your second-class citizenship when you're on your bicycle. Don't take the bait. I don't."
this was on some small side street there was no one around and I made clear eye contact. It was definitely a wave directed to me. I am fully aware of the danger of magnanimous drivers who let cyclists and pedestrians through when there is a possibility of them getting clipped by a vehicle in the next lane. I get your point.
