Cyclist sues NYPD alleging cops wrongfully dole out red light tickets: ‘Malicious and outrageous'
This battle is shifting into high gear.
NYPD patrols are wrongfully ticketing Big Apple cyclists who run red lights, despite laws already on the books allowing them to follow pedestrian crossing signals, a new federal lawsuit claims.
Although cops have been increasingly issuing tickets to riders, it completely contradicts a local law passed by the City Council in 2019 that permits cyclists crossing intersections to 'go with the walk' signals — not traffic lights — according to the federal suit filed on May 7 by cyclist Oliver Casey Esparza.
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4 A New York City cyclist says NYPD patrols are wrongfully doling out traffic tickets – and more recently, issuing criminal summonses – to bikers running red lights.
R Umar Abbasi
'Despite this clear and unambiguous statute, the city maintains a policy and practice of detaining, ticketing, and prosecuting cyclists who lawfully ride through an intersection when the pedestrian control signal indicates white/walk,' the lawsuit reads.
Lawyers for the cyclist are demanding that the city shell out damages to the 'hundreds' who have been ticketed, detained or arrested as a result of the years-long dispute — and also educate misinformed NYPD rank and file with 'immediate' training.
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4 Cyclists must 'go with 'the walk'' pedestrian sign unless there is a bike signal or sign, according to a city infographic.
Department of Transportation
For Esparza, the final straw came when he was slapped with a ticket last October, after crossing Third Avenue and East 42nd Street in Manhattan. NYPD officer Kenney F. Vega issued him a summons for crossing the intersection during the white/walk pedestrian signal.
Vega allegedly said he was '99 percent sure' Esparza was wrong about the 2019 law and issued him a $190 ticket – which apparently cited the wrong subsection of NYC traffic code 'so it did not even apply to the alleged violation,' according to the lawsuit.
4 Delivery workers ride bicycles down Fifth Avenue in New York City during the COVID-19 lockdown in May 2020.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
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The court filing also names NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and her three predecessors, alleging the bigwigs knowingly violated New Yorkers' civil rights.
'This policy and practice is so consistent and widespread that it constitutes a custom or usage of which policymakers … must have been aware,' the suit claims, calling the ticketing 'knowing, purposeful, malicious, and outrageous.'
While Esparza's October ticket was eventually dismissed in court last month, the cyclist decided to launch the legal filing to combat the NYPD's 'ongoing policy and practice of issuing tickets and/or criminal summonses.'
The number of tickets issued to cyclists, according to the lawsuit, increased 'dramatically' in the first quarter of 2025 compared to any of the last four years.
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4 Two men on bicycles stopping at an intersection in Times Square in April 2020.
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The NYPD declined The Post's request for comment.
The filing also comes less than a month after the city's launch of a new policy to issue criminal summonses, rather than typical traffic tickets, to cyclists who run red lights or blow stop signs — triggering activists' concerns that the enforcement will target migrant delivery workers.
In 2024, 92% of criminal summonses for reckless bike operation went to New Yorkers of color, according to Transportation Alternatives.
'In a time of mass deportation, the mayor and police commissioner are working for President Trump's agenda of extralegal harassment, detention, and deportation,' TransAlt said in a statement about the new policy. 'This is an obscene escalation from the police department — and not one that's grounded in real safety, data, or best practices.'
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