NJ roads are becoming playgrounds for reckless young riders

Reckless groups of young riders weaving through traffic, popping wheelies and daring drivers to react may look like a new social media trend.

It isn’t.

We were covering this problem in Trenton when Chasing New Jersey launched in 2013. A later segment, “Wheelie Bad Boys,” examined the same culture of illegal ATV riders terrorizing streets in New York City.

More than a decade later, the behavior has spread well beyond neighborhood roads.

NJ highways are becoming a stage for dangerous stunts

In July, videos showed dozens of young cyclists taking over Route 80 near Paterson and Clifton, occupying a travel lane, slowing highway traffic and performing dangerous stunts near Exit 60.

Some stood on their bicycle seats.

This was not kids playing in a park, it was an organized takeover of an interstate highway.

Daily Voice documented the Route 80 incident.

Paterson had already demonstrated the scale of the broader problem. During “Operation Confiscation” in 2022, police targeted illegal dirt bikes, motorcycles and ATVs following complaints about wheelies and doughnuts on public roads.

Officers seized several dozen vehicles, issued 32 summonses and filed 16 criminal complaints.

ABC7 reported on that enforcement effort.

The same dangerous behavior is spreading across NJ

The Trenton and Hamilton area is now dealing with the same pattern.

Joint operations this year have confronted groups numbering around 50 riders and produced arrests, dozens of citations and multiple vehicle seizures.

There is an important distinction: the Route 80 takeover primarily involved bicycles and e-bikes, while the Trenton and Paterson crackdowns have focused heavily on illegal dirt bikes and ATVs.

The dangerous attitude is the same: public roads treated as a stage, innocent drivers forced to brake or swerve, and riders gambling that police will be reluctant to pursue them.

That said, the reports of these marauding teens on bicycles are on the rise, with reports from our own Jill Myra getting 'flipped off' after being confronted by a 'Wheelie Boy."

Similar reports from our friend Bob Considine from NJBIA, reporting the activity in Bayville.

These kids are acting out and directing their anger and frustration in a very negative and counterproductive way.

There are better ways to make your voice heard

Too bad they can't turn that energy into productive protests against some of the more egregious infringements to our community life and privacy; like Flock cameras and AI Data Centers.

For now, while they act out and endanger themselves and others, law enforcement should crack down and throw the book at any bicycle rider disrupting traffic and putting drivers in a dangerous and potentially deadly situation.

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Gallery Credit: Erin Vogt

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill's own.

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