Skateboard and Scooter Expansion Means New Signs in Central Park
Posted on May 8, 2019 at 1:28 pm by West Sider
Wheeled vehicles used to mostly mean bicycles, but new modes of transportation have been expanding in the city. So the parks department added new signs in various parts of Central Park to remind people to dismount on park paths that aren’t meant for wheeling around.
“These signs replace previous signage that only addressed bicyclists on paths – but not scooters and skateboards, or the correct one-way direction for all wheeled devices on the Drive,” parks spokesperson Crystal Howard wrote.
this is news: I haven’t seen anything in the official NYC Parks Department rules about scooters and skateboards (though in-line skates are in there). Do they mean to say that children on scooters or skateboards should not be on park paths? That seems exceedingly unwise (isn’t that where one might, as a child, learn to ride scooters and skateboards safely?)
Also, those signs are unfortunately unattractive. They can do better.
As with many other things concerning city agencies the Parks Department will take some time updating everything.
Inline skating/rollerblades were the thing back in the 1990’s but largely have become passé. You still see some rollerblading in the park, but nothing like it was years ago.
These signs do not apply to children and I am sorry that they are not up to your aesthetic standards.
They don’t apply to children? Where does it say that? I wish we could have more clarification from the police or WSR. This is really important. If that’s the case I won’t let my children or their friends ride there on their scooters.
Jen, I spoke with Park Officers today who confirmed that children 12 and under are still permitted to ride wheeled vehicles on the paths. I will continue walking my scooter through the park but I am relieved that my children can scooter alongside me with consideration to others.
It’s kinda funny that there’s a motorized cart on the path in the background.
So perfect
Yes!
The police won’t enforce prohibitions on the electric bikes that drive 25 mph in the wrong direction down avenues and side-streets – they probably won’t enforce this either.
Unfortunately, you’re so right! And it would take so little enforcement to start to deter this conduct.
Yes – and if the police would stop looking for reason to ticket legally parked cars, maybe they could spend more time chasing the electric bikes, bikes traveling in the wrong direction in the bike lanes or worse still not using the bike lanes at all, double-and triple parked trucks that reduce all of our west side avenues to one lane and impede visibility of pedestrians and of course I could go on and on … spending resources on chasing scooters and skateboards is absurd!
The new signage is useless unless the posted rules are enforced. Unfortunately, I don’t see this happening any time soon. I never see NYPD attached to the CPW precinct driving around in the park at the 85th Street pedestrian entrance. Cyclists know that there will be no consequences for their flagrant disregard for the rules and laws v
The signs won’t be “useless.” Most people are law-abiding and will follow the rules when they see the signs. A small handful won’t and a few vocal pedestrians may shame them for it.
It’s not practical to have police aggressively enforcing every minor law and rule. That’s how you end up with a police state like Malaysia or Singapore. Just chill out! It’s Central Park… enjoy it and stop worrying about what everyone else is doing.
I want my Seamless delivery within the promised timeframe
I expect that this is a common concern here on The New Upper West Side.
Children on skateboards and scooters can be dangerous to pedestrians, especially elderly or disabled ones, because young children cannot or do not always exercise control when speeding along paths.
Yay! Riverside Park next please
Since the bike path runs through Riverside, and the promenade allows bicycles, I really dont see any cyclists riding on paths on which they are not allowed to ride. Only the ramp near 66th street going down from Riverside Place to the bike path near Pier I.
Take a walk on the path north of 96 Street.
>Take a walk on the path north of 96 Street.
Indeed, you will seek cyclists riding there, because it is a shared use path on which cycling is explicitly allowed.
Cy Clist,
There are painted lanes to separate the Walkers from the Wheelers which bicyclists ignore. Cyclists are NOT allowed in pedestrian lanes.
@dannyboy – I see just as many if not more pedestrians walking in the dedicated bike space as southbound cyclists riding right of the green line, in the pedestrian lane. But somehow the cyclists who do it wrong are the only story here, and all other parties completely blameless.
Really the arrangement of the lanes there is just garbage all around. If they’re gonna do something so clearly counterintuitive, they need to paint icons on pavement on who belongs where every 20 feet and signage every 100 feet.
Matt H
I stay within the pedestrian lanes consistently. Why do you excuse the bikers that push me out based on some other walkers’ style?
There are painted icons. Please look and then you will see them. Then you can respect them. Then we can share the path.
Enough excuses!
I second that!
How about banning children’s scooters in stores like Whole Foods where they are a menace to shoppers, especially elderly ones. Parents seem oblivious to the problem or don’t want to deal with it. A complaint to the management of the store(s) might put pressure on them to post signs forbidding parents to allow their children to enter with scooters.
On Saturday I confirmed with CPC official that the signs were NOT meant to apply to children.
The city needs rules and enforcement of rules for motorized bicycles. I see them in cCentrak Park and on the Riverside Greenway, not pedalling and going at terrorizing speeds .
I think that all motorized vehicles including bicycles need to be licensed and not allowed in Street bike lanes or greenways.
Do pedestrian have anywhere to walk. The signs won’t work because they won’t be enforced.
The biggest problems aren’t the “children”.
The signs don’t apply to children. They are directed at “children”.
Good luck with this. I expect to die by being run over by a bike on the sidewalk.
Saw new signs as I watched cyclists speeding right pass them at entrance at 77th street and CPW.
The entrance at 77th Street and Central Park West is a bicycle entrance. Full car length in width. There’s also a sidewalk with hexagonal pavers on the north side of the roadway; that part is dedicated pedestrian space to be sure.
If one of those new signs is there, it’s there to indicate that once on the drive, bicycle traffic goes only one direction (counterclockwise). Not to tell cyclists to dismount.
The wrongheaded grouchiness some commenters are displaying here is a thing to behold, truly.
Full car *lane* in width, I meant to say.
As a commuting bicyclist who crosses the park every day, I (and many others) have resigned myself to respecting these signs. However, it is STILL a glaring issue for us that there is ONLY ONE place in the entire park where a bicyclist can SAFELY and LEGALLY cross all the way from one side of the park to the the other side of the park in both directions—-that is at 72nd.
Given that the park is 2.5 miles long, this is UNACCEPTABLE.
Every day of the week I risk my life bicycling through the 86th street transept, with speeding buses, trucks, and cabs coming up behind me while I navigate the familiar obstacle course of dangerous potholes in the slim portion of the road that we are given (as well as the notorious wide grid drain at the east end of the final unlit tunnel that can catch a bicycle tire and throw you into traffic if you are not aware and careful()
This is what we put up with so that walkers can enjoy all of the parks paths stress free.
We need more safe and legal ways to cross the park.
Thank you.
There is actually a signed route from the west drive to the east drive on footpaths at about 95th street. Also a signed route from 106th/CPW to the West drive at the shoulder of the Great Hill. There should be more paths designated for slow and careful crossing bikes, tho.
Yeah, I know all about those routes. Neither of them goes all the way across the park in both directions. The one at 106 requires you to illegally go south on the northgoing loop if you want to reach an exit when crossing east (the exit is not signed either, it’s a utility access road)
The one that is slightly south of that requires you to walk your bike part of the way, and is also in horrific condition.
Still, I’m glad they exist.
There should be at least one full bike path across the park corresponding with every transept. All of the transepts are dangerous for bike riders. In addition to no shoulders, winding roads with potholes and dangerous gratings, they also have numerous tunnels that have no lighting, rendering bike riders less visible to the buses and trucks that speed through them.
I’d challenge any pedestrian that feels threatened by bike riders going slowly by on one or two shared paths to consider giving any of these transepts a try on a bicycle and hopefully realize that by denying us more safe passages across the park, this is what you are forcing us to do.
I personally choose to ignore these signs and ride my bike very slowly as I always do when on shared walkways. It takes up less space vs if I were to walk it! And it’s just as safe for everyone!
Children on scooters are very threatening to older people. Parents often let them ride with little supervision, yelling after them–pay attention! By definition children do not pay attention. If a child injures an older person the parents can say I’m sorry all they want. It does absolutely no good.
Next proposed sign will read, “No Smiling or Having Fun!”
Or maybe just “don’t be a jerk”