A lot of American cities are taking a step in the right direction by designating bike lanes for cyclists to use safely, but what good are the bike lanes if non-cyclists make them impossible to use? Casey Neistat is a NYC cyclist who received a $50 ticket for riding his bike outside of the bike lane. He tried to explain to the ticketing officer that the bike lane isn’t always a safe place to ride, but was told to stay in the bike lane at all times. Neistat paid the ticket, but also made this hilarious video to prove that staying within that narrow space can be incredibly hazardous to a biker’s safety.
The short film starts off with Neistat receiving his ticket and a police officer informing him that he must always ride in the bike lane. Neistat then sets off on a journey around the city, being careful to ride in the bike lane regardless of the obstacles there. Among the bike-blocking culprits: construction barricades, delivery trucks, and even a police car. Since avoiding them would mean deviating from his police-ordered path, Casey bikes right into all of them. After paying his ticket, Neistat found out that riding outside the bike lane actually isn’t illegal when it is not safe to stay inside it…so he wants his $50 back from the great city of New York.
