"I saw it too, around 1pm. The Parks Dept. cops had set up a ""dragnet"" on the west side drive around 75th Street, near their headquarters, where there's a downhill and cyclists typically pick up speed.

The roadway was blocked off by crowd-control grates and SUVs, and a flagman was waving cyclists onto the narrow bike path (which was crowded with runners, walkers, strollers, and parks dept. officials). Someone was screaming into a loudspeaker that cyclists had to slow down, respect others, blah blah blah.

I was on my maiden voyage as a fixed gear rider (wouldn't you know). While I wasn't going very fast (""pedal to stop!""), it was no easy feat to grab the business-card-size flyer the parks dept. was forcing on all of us. ""So cyclists are the new Taliban?"" I said to one fellow. Sounds like we are.

Here's what the card says:

All bicycles are subject to the rights and duties of vehicle operators.

No more than one (1) earphone.

No bike riding on foot paths.

Drive bicycle at a reasonable speed. [huh?]

Do not create risk of physical injury; (Bicycle will be seized as evidence) [sic]

You must stop at red lights and yield to pedestrians in crosswalks

Bike routes in the parks are one-way (counterclockwise)

Bike must have warning device (bell, etc.)

Refer to VTL and Traffic Regs.

------------

While a concern with public safety is warranted, what's bizarre is the selected level of enforcement. Are cyclists really more of a hazard than pedestrians wandering all over the road without looking? Than insolent runners going four abreast against traffic, forcing everyone out of their way? Than walkman-wearing roller bladers taking up a full lane? Than anyone else behaving without regard for the welfare of others?

As it is, I rarely ride in the park, certainly not in the morning when the stupid runners force you into the traffic lane, where the motorists don't care if they leave you for dead. And on the rare occasions when I do ride there, I am indeed cautious of others. Some are not, but mosts cyclists I see are the same.

I think this campaign is BS and an abuse of tax dollars. Why couldn't they send one of those agents over to fix the overflowing toilet at the Boathouse?
"

This is another good reason for getting cars out of Central Park. The drive is now overburdened and often dangerous. It's true that the road can't serve as a workout course for bikes, a race course for runners, a learning place for skaters and a safe crosswalk for tourists and children all at the same time.

Without cars, especially on weekdays from 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM and from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM, there would be more opportunities for dedicated times to meet everyone's needs to a reasonable extent...bikers, runners, skaters, and wandering tourists. And the stoplights could be removed.

If the cops need money, why not ticket the THOUSANDS of pedestrians that jay walk in the park. You know the ones, cross the road anywhere that they like even though there is no cross walk, cross at the cross walks when there is a don't walk signal so you have to swerve to avoid them even though you are riding properly and have the green light.

I rode in Central Park today betrween 10:30am and 12:30pm. There were several cop cars and cops riding horses, but none of the cops made any attempt to ticket or harass any of the bike riders.

"October 28, 2004
Ruling Due in Effort by City to Restrict Mass Bicycle Rides
By COLIN MOYNIHAN

federal judge said yesterday that he would rule this morning on the city's request for an injunction to bar the monthly Critical Mass bicycle ride from taking place in Manhattan on Friday night. The city also wants to require police permits for all future rides.

The city's motion was a response to a lawsuit filed last week by two civil rights lawyers, Norman Siegel and Steven J. Hyman. They are representing five plaintiffs whose bicycles were seized during a Critical Mass ride on Sept. 24. The suit had asked the judge, William H. Pauley III of Federal District Court in Manhattan, to prohibit the police from seizing bicycles belonging to people who are not charged with crimes or violations.

The lawyers for the bicyclists argued in court yesterday that the seizing of the bicycles violated the constitutional rights of the owners and said that permits were not necessary because state law gives bicyclists an automatic right to the road.

""The bikes have a right to ride the streets just as vehicles do,"" Mr. Siegel said. ""When cars go through the street, they don't need a permit.""

The seized bikes had been locked to lampposts and parking meters at West 36th Street and Fifth Avenue by Critical Mass participants who ran away as the police began to make arrests. Officers sawed off the locks and took 30 to 40 bikes to the Seventh Precinct station house on the Lower East Side, but returned most of them later.

Participants say the rides, which are held on the last Friday of every month to promote nonpolluting transportation, have no preplanned routes, and the riders claim no formal organization or leaders.

A lawyer for the city, Sheryl Neufeld, argued that the rides were unpermitted processions, which are illegal. She said that the rides have grown to include 1,000 or more bicyclists who fill the entire road and sometimes disobey traffic laws, posing a public safety threat. The city contends that the law requires bicyclists to ride no more than two abreast and to obey traffic signals.

Ms. Neufeld added that the police did not want to stop the riders on Sept. 24, but simply wanted to know their route.

Judge Pauley questioned some aspects of the city's argument.

""It's nothing new, is it?"" he asked, noting that thousands of riders had participated in a mass ride in the summer of 2003.

""We're not aware,"" Ms. Neufeld responded.

""Well, you cite it,"" the judge said, consulting the city's papers. ""At least since July of 2003, at least a thousand people have participated in good weather.""

And after Ms. Neufeld said that leaving a movable object unattended on a sidewalk was against the law, the judge asked, ""How often do the police seize bicycles that are chained to a parking meter or light posts?""

She said they do so occasionally; for example, when a motorcade for a dignitary is scheduled to pass down the street.

When Judge Pauley asked if the police planned to seize more locked bicycles in the future, she said that she could not rule it out. Yesterday, the Police Department issued a warning that it might seize bicycles and arrest riders if they participated in a procession without a permit.

"

"New York Times, October 31, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/nyregion/31cars.html?th
Taking the Drive Out of Central Park
By JOSEPH BERGER

Almost four decades ago, city leaders forced the drivers who use the looping Central Park roadway to start sharing it with joggers and cyclists, first on weekends and later during the week as well. Now the joggers and cyclists are getting closer to having the road all to themselves.

Two recent traffic studies show that the number of cars that use the six-mile roadway has been diminishing - by at least 25 percent since 1991 - as the city has blocked entrances to the road and reduced the hours that taxis and cars can use it. One study by the Regional Plan Association has indicated that shutting down the roadway would not significantly increase traffic on major avenues outside the park, as some have ominously predicted.

Discussions are under way among New York City park and transportation officials about a trial starting as early as this spring in which three more vehicular entrances to the park would be blocked off and cars barred entirely between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., except for the four transverses that cross the park. That would give trees a 12-hour break from fumes and add some car-free running time for late-night and early-rising joggers. The plan still requires the approval of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

...

Any further closings are sure to anger the city's taxi industry, whose drivers rely on the loop as a shortcut around avenues like Fifth Avenue and Central Park West that are jammed during the rush. A majority of the cars that use the park road are taxis.

...

Warner Johnston, a spokesman for the parks department, and Tom Cocola, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, issued a statement Friday saying only that ""several options to improve vehicular conditions in the park have been considered and continue to be considered.""

Douglas Blonsky, president of the Central Park Conservancy, the private organization that manages the park under a city contract, said, ""If a study supports that we can have some reduction of vehicular traffic in the park, I think that's terrific.""

The talks among city officials do not touch upon the transverses that cross the park at 65th, 79th, 86th and 97th Streets, which carry significant volumes of cross-town traffic. Rather, they focus on the six-mile serpentine roadway built 150 years ago for carriages and designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux as a way of bringing the gentry in touch with the masses.

By the mid-1960's, pressure from environmentalists and groups representing runners and cyclists closed the park to cars on weekends; in following years, the drive was also closed to cars at certain weekday times. Currently, the park is closed to cars all weekend and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays. A weekday exception is made for the branch of roadway that connects the entrance at Sixth Avenue and Central Park South to the one at East 72nd Street and Fifth Avenue; it remains open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

City officials have resisted shutting the park completely to cars, fearing that congestion on nearby avenues could create more pollution than a car ban would prevent. But in the past two decades, the Department of Parks and Recreation has closed off entrances to the roadway at West 110th Street, West 106th Street and Columbus Circle. Among the gateways now under consideration for closings are those at East 102nd Street, East 90th Street (except for exiting cars), and an exit ramp that runs from West 74th Street to West 72nd Street.

In recent years, joggers and cyclists have each had half a lane to the left of the two traffic lanes, though they have often complained that the strip is too narrow, causing them to bump into one another or stray perilously into the car lanes.

Transportation advocacy groups like the Region"