A woman was seriously injured after a cyclist struck her in Central Park on Tuesday morning, police said.
The 26-year-old biker hit the 49-year-old victim inside the park near W. 74th Street at about 7 a.m., police said. The woman was taken to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in “serious condition” with head and body trauma.
But a police spokesman could not say whether the cyclist, who remained on the scene, was speeding or had gone through a red light — which one member of the local community board said bikers do too often.
“This may or may not have contributed to this incident, but is a common problem that poses a serious risk to pedestrians,” Susan Schwartz, a member of Community Board 7, told the West Side Rag.
The board is expected to vote tonight on a resolution calling for more NYPD enforcement to crack down on rogue cyclists, but advocates say the solution is redesigning the notoriously dangerous pathways in Central Park to make them safer for both bikers and pedestrians, not sending in more police. The city has banished cars from the park, but has not reconfigured traffic lights that were installed to control motor traffic.
“We've been arguing that the roadway is designed for cars/vehicles, and needs a complete reimagination, not more enforcement,” said Lisa Orman, director of Streetopia UWS.
Since 2012, the first full year when the Department of Transportation was required to collect such data, seven pedestrians have been struck and killed by cyclists — several of which have been inside Central Park. Over the same period, more than 1,000 pedestrians were killed by drivers.
