So much for a peaceful stroll through the park.
Central Park visitors want electric bikes brought under control, but reckless riders continue to flout the rules, turning the city’s iconic greenspace into a hazardous corridor.
Now, frustrated residents and safety advocates are calling for an outright ban.
E-bikes and e-scooters were involved in 33 crashes in Central Park through Oct. 18, while precinct officers issued 144 e-bike tickets through Oct. 25, according to NYPD data. That figure is up sharply from 39 tickets during the same period a year earlier.
Following the crashes and repeated violations, safety advocates are urging the city to prohibit e-bikes in Central Park. Parks Department workers have struggled to persuade riders to obey “no riding” signs in areas where they are required to dismount.
On Wednesday, a Citi Bike rider told by a park worker to stop in a “no riding” zone responded cheekily, “Have a nice day.”
Minutes later, an e-scooter rider sped past another worker who asked him to slow down. “He don’t give a f–k,” a bystander remarked.
“It seems like it’s mostly the delivery guys on their electronic bikes that are speeding because they’re always in a hurry to deliver something,” said Lee Zehngebot, 75, a snowbird who visits the park whenever he returns to New York.
The NYC E-Vehicle Safety Alliance rallied in Central Park Tuesday to demand an e-bike ban in city parks. The group was joined by crash victims, including 71-year-old Dave Katz, who said he was struck head-on two years ago by an e-bike rider who appeared to be looking at a phone and wearing earbuds.
“I had a concussion, two major gashes, one that they couldn’t stitch up. My nose was broken, I had broken teeth and six ribs broken,” Katz said.
The effects of the crash continue to weigh on Katz.
“It’s really impacted me emotionally, I have to say, to this day, there is some depression that you never shed so easily, and I’m the half full type of guy,” Katz said.
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Community Board 8, which represents the Upper East Side, voted Oct. 21 to ask the city to ban all e-bikes from Central Park except pedal-assist models, as well as e-scooters and mopeds.
Supporters cite crashes such as the one that left 43-year-old Jean Kotler with a traumatic brain injury. She was hit from behind by an e-bike rider while jogging on West Drive near West 64th Street on July 7, prompting doctors to remove part of her skull.
The rider attempted to flee, but pedestrians surrounded him and made him remain at the scene until first responders arrived, a witness told The Post.
Despite the widespread rule-breaking, Mayor Zohran Mamdani ended criminal summonses for e-bike traffic violations in March, leaving officers to issue civil tickets instead.
Meanwhile, City Council Speaker Julie Menin removed e-bike registration from her 17-bill public safety package in August, sending the issue to Albany. In previous years, state lawmakers have shown little interest in registering e-bikes in New York City.
Cars have been barred from Central Park’s drives since 2018, but a city pilot launched in 2023 allows e-bikes and e-scooters to use those routes, along with other park drives and greenways. Safety advocates say the experiment has failed.
“They run all the lights,” said Janet Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the e-vehicles safety alliance. “Our park is not for transportation, it is for relaxation.”
A Parks Department spokesperson told The Post that it is “critical that our public realm can safely accommodate the many diverse ways that New Yorkers get around.”
“Reckless behavior is never permitted, and our Parks Enforcement Patrol have been enforcing these rules since the pilot began in 2023,” the spokesperson said.
Even so, some riders who violated the rules said they were simply trying to make a living.
When a park worker instructed an e-bike rider carrying a delivery bag to stop, he continued riding and shouted back, “I got to go to work, bro!”
