A car parked in a bike lane in downtown Syracuse. Credit: Patrick McCarthy | Central Current

Syracuse drivers who park their vehicles in bike lanes may soon be on the hook for a $60 fine, thanks to a new traffic violation under consideration by the Common Council.

Councilor Corey Williams, who represents the council’s third district, on Wednesday explained to his colleagues that he drafted the legislation after recently receiving a request from residents to act on bike lane blockages. Enforcement would fall on the Syracuse Police Department, Williams said.

Williams said that the residents sent him a picture showing a shuttle bus parked in a bike lane. Councilors, including Chol Majok, praised the legislation, saying it aligned with the City’s “Vision Zero” plan to eliminate all transit-related deaths in the city. 

The fee featured as a key recommendation in two of City Auditor Alex Marion’s reports on the state of the city’s bike infrastructure. The reports, titled “Park at Your Own Risk” and “Incomplete Streets,” advised the administration on how it could improve its streets and sidewalks to make them more accessible to bikers and pedestrians.

In the latter report, the city auditor found the city was behind on its stated infrastructure goals included in the Syracuse Comprehensive Plan 2040. That report found that the city had only completed 11% of the projects included in the Syracuse Bike Plan (established in 2012), and would need to speed up its implementation to get the city back on track to hit its goals by 2040.

Marion on Wednesday lauded the legislation to create the new fee in a press release.

“We need modern rules and infrastructure to safely share our roads and public spaces for all walkers and riders,” Marion wrote.

Marion explained in the press release that the city currently lacks an appropriate violation with which to ticket illegally parked vehicles. Right now, the city has to issue a ticket for a separate violation, if applicable, such as parking in a no standing zone. 

Williams sponsored the item to add a “Prohibition of Vehicles Blocking Bike Lanes” to the City of Syracuse’s Traffic Code. When submitting the item to City Clerk Patricia McBride, Williams described how bike lane blockages threaten the safety of all travelers. Williams hopes the new fee will deter drivers from obstructing paths for cyclists.

“It has been brought to my attention that in certain areas of the city, bike lanes are blocked too often,” Williams said. “This creates a safety hazard both for bike riders and vehicles if riders are forced to detour suddenly.”

More Syracuse residents than ever are turning to alternate forms of travel, especially bicycles and e-bikes, such as those provided by micromobility vendor VeoRide, Inc.

The decision comes as the city prepares to implement three other traffic violation programs, which will rely on surveillance systems provided by manufacturer Jenoptik. Those programs will rely on stationary automated speed and red-light enforcement cameras, as well as cameras mounted on school bus arms, to automatically capture vehicles that violate traffic rules and send fines to those offenders through the mail.

The city projects those three systems could generate around $4.6 million in revenue in the first year of their implementation and expects that revenue could diminish in successive years as some drivers alter their behavior to prevent incurring another fine.

As Syracuse shores up its school zone violations, Williams and Marion hope the new bike lane fee will encourage more Syracuse residents to take to the streets on their bicycles or rented e-bikes.

“This legislation is a common sense measure that will make it easier and safer to get around our city without needing to rely on a car,” Williams wrote.

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Patrick McCarthy is a staff reporter at Central Current covering government and politics. A graduate of Syracuse University’s Maxwell and Newhouse Schools, McCarthy was born and raised in Syracuse and...