A New York cyclist has filed a lawsuit against the city’s police department and has accused the force of getting the law wrong when issuing fines to cyclists who ride through red lights.

Last week we reported that New York’s cycling community had hit back at plans to issue criminal court summons, rather than regular traffic tickets, for cyclists who ride through red lights — however, in a further development to the city’s traffic light story, a cyclist has sued the New York Police Department (NYPD) over the tickets it has been giving out to riders.

The situation has been highlighted by StreetsblogNYC, cyclist Oliver Casey Esparza filing the action with Mariann Wang of the firm Wang Hecker LLP, with the aim of “ensuring the NYPD finally follows the law as it has been written for years, and stops unlawfully detaining and prosecuting cyclists when they’ve done nothing wrong”.

> “They’re so bad”: Donald Trump promises to scrap “dangerous” New York bike lanes and “kill” congestion charge

The case filed with New York’s Southern District also hopes to force senior NYPD officials to issue clearer guidance to officers and make the city compensate riders who have received fines or court summons.

Mr Esparza was ticketed while commuting to work in October, at the intersection at Third Avenue and E. 42nd Street in Midtown. The cyclist rode through the junction with an advance walk light before being pulled over by an officer who told him he had illegally ridden through a red light.

Mr Esparza explained, as StreetsblogNYC has also pointed out, that in 2019 a law was passed in the city enabling cyclists to “go with the walk”, as seen in the Department for Transportation graphic below.

NYC cycling laws
NYC cycling laws (Image Credit: Department for Transportation)

When Mr Esparza was stopped and explained this 2019 law, the police officer allegedly told him they were “99 per cent sure” he was incorrect and issued a $190 ticket. Mr Esparza took the case to court and it was chucked out by a judge, leading to this lawsuit now hoping to stop NYPD fining cyclists over such incidents for good.

The class action lawsuit also hopes to see the city pay damages to any cyclists previously fined over similar riding.

“It’s even more of a reason why people should join this class action lawsuit,” Esparza said of the context that cyclists may soon be given court summons for riding through red lights, not just an on-the-spot fine. “They’re enforcing laws without really knowing what the law is.”

> Criminal court summons for cyclists who run red lights “excessive, unfair and offensive”, say New York’s cycling community

The lawsuit names Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and three predecessors, arguing the “policy and practice is so consistent and widespread that it constitutes a custom or usage of which policymakers, including the individual Commissioner Defendants, must have been aware”.

It also suggests there are likely “hundreds or thousands more such incidents” and claims NYPD’s “deliberate indifference” has been “malicious and outrageous”. The lawsuit asks the federal court to issue an injunction against the police force to require it to issue clear communication and training to officers to stop giving out these tickets.

The NYPD has not commented and anyone wishing to join the class action lawsuit has been invited to contact the law firm Wang Hecker.