SAN FRANCISCO (BCN, KRON) — Members of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition gathered at the San Francisco Police Department’s Park Station monthly community meeting Tuesday evening to protest the station’s recent crackdown on cyclists.

About 100 or so people gathered at the community meeting to get to the bottom of the uptick in tickets written along the popular bicycle corridor called the “wiggle.” The increased enforcement started at the beginning of summer and caught a lot of riders off-guard because they have been rolling through stop signs for as long as anyone can remember.

The coalition maintains that police need to focus on the five main traffic behaviors that lead to serious injury and death and have discouraged the Police Department from increased enforcement on cyclists.

Park Station Capt. John Sanford spoke about the crackdown and his decision to focus attention and enforcement on cyclists at the 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday at Park Station at 1899 Waller St. He said his in box was filling up with complaints about reckless bicycle riders and he had to do something.

“When we get complaints…as we did…many complaints about cyclists ignoring red lights…ignoring stop signs…running into people in the roadway…hurting and injuring people…these are complaints that come from the community,” Sanford said.

In an earlier statement about the crackdown, the Park Station said, “The purpose of this operation is to educate all cyclists as to the inherent dangers of rolling through red lights and stop signs without stopping, as well as yielding the right of way to pedestrians at crosswalks, both of which are mandatory under the California Vehicle Code.”

The crackdown is expected to continue through Oct. 2, according to the bicycle coalition.

But most of those cyclists in attendance said a few reckless riders do not represent the majority of riders and said the police are going too far with enforcement. Many of the riders in attendance said the time has come to change the law and allow them to roll through stop signs as long as they are careful about it.

A petition to stop the diversion of resources was started by Liz Rahner on the website Care2 and has nearly 19,000 signatures.

Rahner’s petition says, “Criminalizing bicyclists discourages the activity, even though it is a net positive in terms of decreasing city congestion, helping the environment, and improving personal health.”

She said, “It simply doesn’t make sense to apply laws written for cars to bicyclists, as bicycles can easily yield the right-of-way without coming to a complete stop.”

“I just think it’s unnecessary for them to target people who aren’t stopping completely when no one’s life is in danger…and, as a cyclist, my life is in much more danger than the motorists who are behind the wheel,” Rahner told KRON 4.

On Monday, Supervisor Scott Wiener published a blog post highly critical of Park Station’s crackdown on people biking.

“In my view, traffic enforcement should focus on dangerous traffic behaviors — which are largely by motorists — that lead to deaths and serious injuries on our roads,” Wiener said.

The coalition argues that the crackdown is a significant departure from the Police Department’s Vision Zero commitment. Vision Zero was adopted in San Francisco last year and aims to eliminate all traffic-related fatalities in the city by 2024.

Last month, a mass of bicyclists blocked traffic during the first-ever “wiggle stop-in” on the popular bike route in the city’s Lower Haight and Duboce Triangle neighborhoods during the evening commute to protest the stepped-up enforcement.

The stop-in led to significant traffic delays in the area as cyclists waited their turns at all stop signs on the route.

Chris Cassidy, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s communications director, said he has heard there will likely be another “wiggle stop-in” this evening as cyclists make their way to the community meeting.

San Francisco police Chief Greg Suhr and Mayor Ed Lee both stand behind the Park Station’s crackdown, saying that bicycles are considered vehicles and need to follow the rules of the road.

The petition against the can be found at www.thepetitionsite.com.