Steve Cuozzo NY Post 8-31-19 Central Park scofflaw cyclists

Cuozzo makes another foray in the visionary cyclist paradise of CP. Surprise its radically unsafe.

Central Park is full of signal-snubbing cyclists who need to be stopped

By Steve Cuozzo

August 31, 2019 | 5:43pm

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J.C. Rice

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Steve Cuozzo

Red lights are just part of the scenery to Central Park cyclists. Nowhere else in town do bikers ignore traffic signals in such mass numbers and with such flagrant disregard for human beings on foot.
Of 68 bikers who approached red lights on the Park Drive at East 85th and East 90th streets over a 20-minute period Friday morning, an astounding 54 rode through the red. That’s 79 percent.
Laws? What laws?
Bike advocates say there shouldn’t be lights in the park at all — just let riders and walkers yield to each other as conditions require and everyone will be happy.
Sure, let’s also yank the lights from the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, and let good common sense prevail!
Cyclists don’t care that the park’s traffic lights already wildly favor them over pedestrians. Walkers at East 85th Street had barely a minute to cross — and often had to press a button to get a green signal at all.
But the green for cyclists and motor vehicles lasted at least three minutes (although cars are banned, Parks Department and emergency vehicles can still use the drives).
The red-runners included helmet-wearing jocks easily exceeding the park’s 20-mph maximum speed; a slow-moving family of four who inexplicably stopped when their light was green, only to hop into gear when it turned red; and a distracted young couple who laughed their way through the red after his wheels bumped into hers.
Since novice Citibike users and Tour de France-wannabe daredevils alike blow through park red lights with impunity, is it surprising they’re scarcely more responsible on the streets?

Cyclists routinely complain that police give them a hard time. But I’ve never seen a cop stop a red light-running biker in the park, even though NYPD cars are always there.
I decided to take a count after years of watching flagrant red-running at the two East Side Park Drive crosswalks, which I often use en route to the Reservoir running track.
Cycle traffic is naturally much higher on weekends, when packs of signal-snubbing riders scare the wits out of joggers, families, children and sight-seers trying to cross the road.
It’s mob rule on two wheels and City Hall couldn’t care less.

Filed under central park ,  cycling ,  cyclists