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Video: Protesting Bike Lane Tickets with Jackass-Style Civil Disobedience

This guy gets a ticket for not riding in a NYC bike lane. Then, to protest, he crashes his bike full on into anything and everything in a bike lane.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzE-IMaegzQ

I'm not sure if I'm flattered or unsettled that someone who crashes into things for fun decided to include me (or my voice anyway) in his protest video. But I have to admit I laughed out loud.


Here's an outlandish protest video from Casey Neistat, professional viral video maker (of the Neistat Brothers show on HBO). In it, he films himself getting a ticket for not riding in the bike lane in New York City—an NYPD practice I brought to light on Transportation Nation, and GOOD a few months back.

To demonstrate why a cyclist in NYC might need to ride outside the bike lane, Neistat proceeds to crash into anything and everything that blocks a bike lane from construction barricades to trucks to... Well, just watch till the end. Johnny Knoxville would be proud.

In the middle of the cringe-inducing bedlam, the video cuts to a radio segment from WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show in which I was the guest discussing Transportation Nation's bike ticketing reporting. Our goal was by no means to endorse breaking the law on a bike (or crashing on a bike), in fact much of that segment was me reminding cyclists of all the laws they have to obey. But Neistat's bizarrely harnessed anger is justified. It is not a violation to ride outside a bike lane in New York City. That misconception comes from a section of state traffic code that does not apply in New York City.

Anyway the video's nuts. Procrastination protest film at its finest. Enjoy!

A version of this article appears on Transportation Nation, a public radio reporting project for which I also work, on Twitter at @transportnation.

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