Police training?

Interesting op-ed in the NYT today that cites the NYPD as the biggest problem.

WHAT’S keeping more cyclists in New York from doing so? “The indifference of the New York City Police Department is the biggest obstacle,” said Charles Komanoff, a mathematical economist and past president of Transportation Alternatives. He and other cycling advocates said that police officers too seldom ticket drivers who ignore cyclists’ rights, particularly by treating biking lanes as temporary parking spots and thus forcing bike riders to swerve into and out of traffic. As prevalent as such lane-obstruction is, I’ve noticed more news reports on cyclists blowing through red lights, and I’ve found myself envying, of all places, the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. Its mayor recently deployed a tank to crush a Mercedes-Benz illegally parked in a bike lane.

I’ve been stopped by a DC cop while crossing the street in a crosswalk on foot, no bike involved, because I was “supposed to yield to the cars”. Needless to say I gave him a quick lesson in traffic laws. A lot of the problem is that DC does not have a dedicated traffic unit. Their officers are assigned to traffic duty now and again but it seems (to me anyway) like there’s not a lot of people in MPD that really know what the law is. There are exceptions, the 1st district bike patrols out of the E St SE substation are great. I’ve met a couple of them and they really know their stuff.