I've heard of these tactics numerous times, but have personally never had a problem riding through New Hope. We go there several times a year as starting point to ride north along the canal. I was in a group of 8 bikes one time that got pulled over for document checks, but that was just outside of town.
I know that at one time they even had a law that stated one bike per parking spot. That only lasted a year or two then they changed it to allow as many bikes that would fit between the lines. But they were pretty picky about any part of the bike breaking the plane of the lines. If the meter expired every bike got a ticket. Now every rider drops a quarter in the meter, no matter how much time is on the meter. It's funny to watch a guy trying to force a quarter into a full meter.

I've seen guys get tickets, presumably for noise, but every one that I saw was totally deserving of the ticket.

(and yes, I know this is an old thread lol)