Tuesday’s Headlines: Eyes on the Park Edition
A cyclist died in Central Park on Monday — and NYPD, true to form, showed up afterwards to ticket cyclists.
The fatal crash occurred at 8:20 a.m. on Monday morning at more or less the same spot in Central Park where a cyclist fatally wounded a pedestrian less than two weeks ago — but this time, the victim was a 71-year-old cyclist who collided with an unleashed dog.
Media coverage focused on the dog’s lack of a leash, which is not allowed on the park drives. Our own coverage included that detail, too.
Streetsblog visited the East Drive near 84th Street on Monday afternoon and found cops giving tickets to cyclists. One officer posted up near the crash site told a passerby that the NYPD was there “making sure no one blows past the red light.” Still, few people truly honored the traffic signal’s instructions. Most cyclists slowed down, but very few stopped at the light. (NYPD did not return a request for comment about why it continues to ticket cyclists after a cyclist has been killed even though it once said it would stop that practice.)
According to the Central Park Conservancy, dogs can be off-leash until 9 a.m., but not on the park drives. However, a “desire line” dirt path runs along the drive, and Streetsblog observed four dogs per minute using the crosswalk. The grounds adjacent to the path are beaten and barren — a sign of heavy pedestrian (and canine) traffic.
Lisa B., a local cyclist and dog owner who saw the aftermath of the crash, told us cyclists are faster and more numerous on weekends. She said dogs may sprint across the pathway because they smell food from a nearby food truck, but that she walks about 50 feet away from the area before she unleashes hers.
“There’s just no reason for dogs to be off leash over there. It’s very tragic, horrible,” she said.
Ken Coughlin, who helped lead the years-long fight to make the park car-free, called off-leash dogs “a real hazard for cyclists.”
“There’s a strong argument for requiring dogs to be leashed, except in fenced-in areas, because they’re unpredictable and they’re very fast,” Coughlin said. “I do loops in the park myself and I think about it, but you can’t be prepared all the time for something darting out in your path. I think maybe the Conservancy and the Parks Department need to take a really hard look at changing the rules.”
— Reporting from Sam Brule
In other news:
- Lithium-ion batteries tied to an e-bike store may have caused a fire that spread into the apartments above it over the weekend. (QNS)
- Andy Byford: Trump will “see to” his still-unfunded Penn Station project getting built, whether New York likes it or not. (Daily News)
- Central Park Conservancy founder and former Parks Commissioner Gordon J. Davis has died. (NY Times)
- The MTA is paying for Amazon to maintain access to a delivery hub in the Bronx during agency-related construction as East Harlem merchants cry foul over their own alleged mistreatment during Second Avenue subway construction. (NY Post)
- Two drivers died in separate crashes in Queens and Brooklyn over the weekend. (Gothamist)
- Pre-tax commuter transit benefits keep New York region commuters out of cars, according to a new report. (NJ.com)
- And last, but not least — finally, a bike story in Metropolitan Diary. (NY Times)
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