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Comment by RonaldoPaul | Hacker News Reader

It's not just noise. It is far too common to hear (and then see) a huge group of motorcycles and quads, just revving up down avenues in NYC, running through red lights, zipping between cars and most frighteningly going over sidewalks. They will run over someone sooner rather than later, if they haven't already. I don't know why NYPD is not doing anything about this.

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It's gotten marginally better whenever the NYPD set up traffic stops and impounded all of their ATVs and other street illegal vehicles. But it requires a lot of manual intervention and it doesn't seem to get the attention it deserves. I look forward to this sound meter being implemented everywhere. Noise pollution has seriously affected the quality of my life in this city.

How is living in NYC? From someone who only knows NY from TV. Is it like its portrayed?

But without the Ghostbusters.

Dealbreaker.

Dirty, crowded, expensive, smelly, crime-ridden and generally a terrible place to live. The museums, restaurants, clubs and plays that used to offset the city's many downsides have all declined substantially in quality and quantity since the pandemic.

That is sad to hear, not at all like on TV.

It is sad and not what you see on TV. Crime isn't as bad as it was in the 70s - early 90s (yet), but in many ways the city is worse. As dangerous as the city was back then, at least it had character. The city got massively safer and "cleaned up" during the Giuliani era, but it also started a process of gentrification and corporatization. This only accelerated during Bloomberg's reign. Many independent businesses closed and were replaced by Starbucks, Trader Joe's and Bed Bath and Beyond. Many iconic bars, taverns and concert halls closed and were replaced by TGI Friday's. Back then, the crime was sort of rolled into the character of the seedy underbelly of the city that gave it a certain charm. Now the underbelly has been mostly stamped out but the crime is returning. Too many years of mismanagement and corruption have taken their toll.

>I don't know why NYPD is not doing anything about this.

I don't know why you're saying this while commenting on an article about NYPD doing something about this.

I don't know why you're sassing when it's long overdue.

About motorcycles on sidewalks? Did we read the same article?

It's enforced by DEP. NYPD has no involvement.

They haven't and they aren't.

There is a lot of "work-to-rule" in the NYPD; when they resent the mayor or the people of the city, even things like murder clearance rates plummet, much less crimes like these.

I’m a bit shocked by the huge volume of “racing through heavy traffic and red lights” videos that I see coming out of the US right now. It seems to be a major new YouTube genre. I haven’t seen it once for any other country

As someone who watches such videos, they come from all over the world. The US just has a huge population and the videos you see are in English. Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey, Spain, Russia also have lots. They've also been around for a long time

Check out "Ghost Rider" from Sweden, probably the most notorious illegal stunt rider on the planet.

rip ghost rider

Oh, yeah. Sweden's pretty nutty. I'd love to someday visit the Stockholm Open

It's pretty shocking for us, too.

The NYPD is fine approaching a single person in a car and telling them they are too loud. It's safe and it's easy money. They don't want to approach 50 guys in motorbikes to fine them.

A parade of these motorcyclists stopped traffic to a halt (running reds, going backwards on the street, going between cars so they couldn't move) in Times Square last week. I was in a rush trying to get an important appointment and was furious just standing there, waiting for them to finish their joyride while tourists clapped and took pictures. There were at least 4 NYPD officers within eyesight, but what could they do, shoot someone?

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