There are 10,000 stories in the Big Apple. This one is about motorcycles.
What does one do on a beautiful day in November? This day seemed like a nice one for a trip into the city. My son and I did just that. Not surprisingly, there were bikes of all shapes and sizes parked along the city streets and motoring around through an undulating sea of yellow taxis.
If I lived in a city that size with such limited parking, I think a scooter or a bike would certainly be the ticket. Parking was so much easier for the thin vehicles. Many of the bikes sported covers as they nestled in their tiny parking spaces. Even in the city, taking care of your motorcycle is important.
Just like you see in the movies, some of the more impatient bikers were seen weaving their ways through the traffic, switching lanes and driving between lanes. This method was certainly dangerous driving but faster than we were moving in our yellow taxi cab. Even the police officers could be seen mounted on various bikes.
Not to forget the scooters, there were quite a number of them in all sizes and shapes. Although we had limited exploration time and only saw a small portion of the Big Apple, it seemed that the Vespa was the most popular brand on the road. One such scooter wove around our taxi several times trying to get ahead of the congestion.
Poking around the Internet while waiting for a reply from the public information officer at the New York Police Department, I found an interesting site detailing the history of its Motorcycle Division. From the site www.policemotorunits.com/id38.html, written by Detective Mark D. Warren, I found out that this division of the NYPD has a long and colorful history. “The motorcycle squad was founded by Police Commissioner Waldo Rhinelander on June 9, 1911, only 17 days after he took office. First ‘attached’ to the Traffic Squad, the formation of the Motorcycle Squad was the result of the increasing difficulty members of the ‘old’ Bicycle or ‘Searcher Squad’ had been founded in 1895 by then Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, to catch horse-drawn carriages.”
It seems that speeding on New York City streets has been a problem for police officers ever since the invention of the motorcar. Statistics of the time show that even back then using motorcycles had significant benefits for police use. In that year, according to the Web site, “Motorcycle cops wrote 3,710 summonses for a total of $17,816 in fines from June 9, to December 31, 1911; this at a time when a top-paid police officer made only $1,400 in a year.”
This success was so well-received that in 1912 “The NYPD spent $1,000 on red Indian motorcycles.” The history continues with “By 1916, the NYPD had 260 motorcycles, 971 bicycles and 343 horses in service, as compared with a total of only 66 touring cars, motor patrol wagons and trucks.”
Other interesting facts about the early days of the NYPD Motorcycle Division include:
In 1917 there were 276 motorcycles, and the division was split into three squads.
In 1923 it had the first wireless-equipped motorcycle.
In 1929 it purchased 21 armored motorcycle and sidecars equipped with bulletproof windshields that were used by the anti-gangster “Gunman’s Squad.”
In 1953 it had the first certified speedometer testing machines and adopted a chemical testing of intoxicated drivers with a device called the “Drunkometer.”
In 1953 it switched from Indian motorcycles to Harley-Davidsons.
In 1957 and 1958 it switched from red to silver for the motorcycles.
In 1972 the Motorcycle Division merged with the Accident Investigation Squad and became Highway Patrol.
In 1977 it again switched colors, this time to blue and white.
And although motorcycle and bicycle patrols are gaining a new popularity, you can see that, at least in the NYPD, they have a long and illustrious history. Next time you venture into the city, take a look around on the ground and see how many motorcycle police are there to protect and serve.
The streets are more crowded and the speed limit has gone up from 8 mph in 1911, but the problems these officers face are still the same: speeding, drinking and driving and traffic control. They are still riding Harleys and still doing their jobs.
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