You've been warned: The NYPD is on a ticket blitz, looking for anyone parked or driving in a bus lane.
"To issue summonses to those vehicles and to tow them," said NYPD Deputy Chief Michael Pilecki of the traffic enforcement district. He oversees more than 3,000 city traffic enforcement agents.
It's called the "clear bus lane initiative" and will continue through Sunday. It's part of a push by the Mayor Bill de Blasio administration to write more tickets for bus lane violations than ever before.
"We are not about raising money for the city or targeting people parked in bus lanes for revenue," Pilecki said. "It is to gain compliance so those buses can move freely throughout the city as a great alternative to people driving their private vehicles."
In the busiest parts of the city, bus speeds have been falling, even with the addition of bus lanes. The MTA says it wants to get those buses moving and increase ridership, and it has asked the NYPD to help.
"Move traffic, move traffic, move traffic — that's what we are about, and that's what we are focused on."
Since January, police and traffic agents have written 8,500 tickets for parking in bus lanes, a 25 percent increase from the same period last year. In addition, 104,000 tickets were issued for parking at bus stops, a 16 percent increase.
Transit advocates say NYPD vehicles parked in bus lanes need to be towed as well.
Early this year, the advocacy group Transit Center posted a video showing NYPD vehicles parked in the bus lane on Utica Ave. in Brooklyn.
The group said it's a common problem, and that the crackdown must include government and police employees who break the bus lane law, too, for it to be truly effective.
Pilecki said the city already is aggressively going after private vehicles that abuse parking privileges that come with police and government windshield permits.
"So far this year, they have issued 20,000 summonses to placard vehicles versus 11,000 for the same period last year," the deputy chief said.
Those are tickets issued no matter where those vehicles are parked.