u/FatXThor34

If you live in NYC, support this demand.

We Demand the Following

1. Mandatory Towing for the First Confirmed Violation
Any vehicle confirmed to be operating with an illegal exhaust modification, straight pipe, bypass device, or other unlawful noise-amplifying exhaust system must be stopped and towed immediately.

There must be no warning or grace period, even for a first violation. Once the violation is confirmed, the vehicle must be removed from the street.

2. Paying the Fine Must Not Allow the Owner to Drive Away
A vehicle towed for an illegal exhaust violation must not be released for the owner to drive away while it remains illegally modified.

Paying the fine, towing charges, or storage charges alone must not authorize the vehicle to return to public streets.

3. Mandatory Transport to a Repair Shop
The vehicle may be released from the city tow lot only onto a licensed tow truck and transported directly to a licensed repair shop.

The owner may not drive the vehicle away from the tow lot.

4. Mandatory Repair and Inspection Before Returning to the Street
The illegal exhaust must be removed or corrected before the vehicle may be operated again on a public street.

After the repair, the vehicle must pass a city-approved inspection confirming that its exhaust system complies with the law.

Until the vehicle passes that inspection, it may be moved only by a licensed tow truck.

5. Meaningful Penalties That Deter
Illegal exhaust violations must carry penalties large enough that offenders cannot treat them as a minor cost of doing business.

We propose:

A minimum fine of $1,000 for the first confirmed violation
A minimum fine of $2,500 for the second confirmed violation
A minimum fine of $5,000 for each additional violation
These fines must be separate from towing, storage, repair, and inspection costs.

6. Clear and Objective Enforcement Standards
The City must establish clear and consistent standards for confirming illegal exhaust violations.

Evidence may include physical inspection of the exhaust system, visible illegal modifications, calibrated sound measurements, video or audio recordings, and other reliable evidence. New York City already uses roadside sound meters and cameras to document excessively loud vehicles, demonstrating that objective enforcement technology is available.

The same standards must be used across all five boroughs so enforcement is consistent, fair, and effective.

7. Prompt Review of Disputed Violations
An owner who disputes the violation must have access to a prompt inspection and review process.

If the City determines that the vehicle does not have an illegal exhaust, it must be released without unnecessary delay. The related fine, towing charge, and storage charge must be canceled.

8. Immediate Towing and Higher Fines for Repeat Offenders
There must be no warning or grace period after the first confirmed violation.

If the same vehicle is later found operating with another illegal exhaust system, it must be stopped and towed immediately.

The higher repeat-offender fine must apply, and the vehicle must again remain off public streets until it has been repaired and passed inspection.

9. Obtain Any Necessary State Authorization
If New York City does not currently have sufficient legal authority to impose mandatory towing, release restrictions, or the proposed penalties, the Mayor and City Council must formally seek the necessary authorization from the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

A lack of current authority must not be used as an excuse for inaction.

Our Request

We demand that New York City adopt and enforce a real zero-tolerance policy:

Identify vehicles with illegal exhausts, stop them, tow them, require repair, inspect them, and keep them off public streets until they are legal.

Am I going nuts? What gives? I take both of these bike lanes almost daily for a commute from 59 to 96. I consistently see very different behaviors and I'm wondering of this is just which hours I'm going uptown vs downtown direction or if there's other factors at play (or I'm imagining things).

On 1st Ave, everyone is pretty well behaved. Including cars. There's very few ebike citi bikes causing chaos. Delivery drivers generally ride respectfully of other cyclists and pedestrians.

2nd Ave might as well be a war zone. The two areas of construction make things a little tricky but it's only like 2 blocks (in the the 70s and 60s I think). There's always cars behaving badly, especially left turns (probably since you can go to FDR from here, it explains the bad car behavior, but not everything else). There's dudes yelling at each other. Delivery guys yelling at each other. Cars flipping off cyclists. Cyclists flipping off cars. Ebikes passing you at 30mph. Guys on those unicycle things zooming around. People on citi bikes going the wrong way and getting mad at a line of bikes for not moving fir them. Those big Amazon contraptions. Pure chaos.

Why is it like this? It can't just be because cars want to turn left onto FDR. And presumably all these citi bikes going downtown have to go back uptown at some point.

PLEASE STOP ALREADY it has been everyday for 2 weeks. tuesday at 2:30 pm. last night at 4 am. you owe me and my dog a sincere apology bc she has had a panic attack daily w this

People are absolutely losing their shit upon realizing that Steinway is extra congested due to Morocco playing in the world cup quarter final this afternoon. Much higher incidence of illegal u-turns, blocking the box, and flooring it through yellow lights this afternoon, keep your head on a swivel folks, especially between 30th Ave and the Grand Central

a shit show is a better fitting title tbh

i scored tix in the "lottery" that seems like everyone won or they decided to head down without a ticket to test their luck. ZERO organization whatsoever with the lines or "security." 2+ hours waiting either only 2 event staff seen the whole time, 6 cops total who just sat on the sides while the crowd had resorted to governing itself. we were shoulder to shoulder, the crowd literally walking like penguins with each step. i watched three people elbowing others to get through, had to yell my damn self because people were pushing and almost started a stampede.

a ticketed event and no one scanning tickets so the entire NYC got to bumrush the entrance and get in.

im a native NYer and only did this cause it was ticketed & naively thought i got lucky. had i known this shit was gonna be like trying to watch the ball drop on NYE i woulda stayed home!

all that frustration just to see 1/3 of the show on the brooklyn bridge. my family all watched it on TV and told me it was spectacular and were expecting me to agree but i just ranted about the absolutely shit show that was

Be careful if you want to enjoy the park. There are groups of teens recklessly riding motorcycles and mopeds on shore blvd. Was out for a run when one of them almost clipped me going 60.

It’s bad enough I have to deal with minorities and their fireworks!