Tix Tips

Pay tickets promptly so you don't have to learn the hard way like Lynn Bernstein, a Park Slope resident who was locked up for 26 hours by the NYPD when two 13-year-old outstanding tickets for riding through red lights showed up on her record. The officers frisked her, cuffed her and took her to the station in the back of a police van.

The injustice of cyclists being fined the same amount as automobiles may make you cringe as you write the check, but unless you plan to fight the ticket, pay up on time-so it will not bite you in the behind later.