A Scourge Of Bicyclists In Central Park
Entitled fools who don't obey the rules of safety
Early each morning I take my Shih Tzu Sophie to Central Park. It’s a precious time; it’s quiet and calm, and before 9 am the rule is that dogs can be off leash.
Sophie’s free to roam. She chooses her own way to her little heart’s content. She often stops to accept petting and cuddling from dog owners who know her. As for other dogs, she’s courteous but unenthusiastic.
I follow along behind Sophie, taking in the smiles and “good mornings” that are my due only because Sophie is a “10” in terms of cuteness.
The view this week for Sophie and me.
The other relevant rule, made clear by signage, is that riding bicycles is prohibited on pedestrian footpaths. Bicyclists must dismount and walk their bikes so that they don’t crash into or run over adults, children, or dogs.
But this rule is almost always dishonored in the breach. It’s rare for me to see someone walking their bike. So rare that when someone does it I thank them.
A few days ago, a bicyclist, a woman, entered the park path from Fifth Avenue going like gangbusters on her motorized bike. Sophie and I, both of us unleashed, were headed out of the park on the same path .
A jogger, ahead of us and nearer to the bicyclist, told her she was not allowed to be riding her bike. The bicyclist flashed by us and then turned her head and screamed “fuck you” at the jogger. She was moving too quickly and was too far gone for me to make out clearly her additional imprecations although I’m quite sure she made generous further use of the word “fuck.”
They upset me so, these people who flout the rules, are called out for it, and then resort to vulgar belligerence. It gives rise within me to an expanded version of what the French call l’esprit d’escalier, words on the stairs, or what you wish you had said or done in the moment.
I imagine myself equipped with a long pole that I’d thrust into a wheel of the bike sending the scofflaw rider catapulting headfirst onto the pavement. No helmet, no problem.
Or I think about hiring someone to snap pictures of each illegal bicyclist, posting them on a public website, and asking the public to identify these people who prize saving a bit of time over potentially injuring an innocent.
If a bicyclist ever ran over Sophie, I would be capable of doing anything to them, limited only by my adrenalized strength and my ability to inflict bodily harm.
In the picture below, I imagine a bicyclist moving at great speed. Would he even see Sophie?
As a result I have to constantly be on guard against someone like that woman on her mechanized bike moving at lethal speeds.
Whatever her station or status in life, whether her action is the result of being used to getting her privileged way or a pathetic act of rebellion against a life of sad desperation (FWIW, my “vote”), she and the other scofflaw bicyclists are the very modern model of entitlement.
And of course bikers’ disregard for traffic rules is not limited to Central Park. On the streets, red lights for them are an option not a command. Bikers and their bike lanes have made the city not better but worse for pedestrians.
The success of a society depends on voluntary adherence to certain standards of behavior that often prioritize doing what’s right for a community even when it involves some sacrifice. It could be something as trivial as moving aside on a narrow sidewalk to let a parent with a baby carriage pass. Or it could be coming to the rescue of someone who has fallen and may need an ambulance.
Like paying taxes, that standard of behavior Is the price we pay for a civilized society.
And if you think I’m overreacting, if you think I’m a caricature of a curmudgeon, know that a pedestrian was killed some time ago in Central Park by a bicyclist zooming through a crosswalk at close to forty miles per hour.
Know also that flouting one rule of safety for the sake of personal convenience is a sign of a person’s moral character. I wonder what other compromises such a person is willing to make. I wonder what their sense of entitlement might lead them to do in other spheres of life.
This is Manhattan so I suspect most of the flouters would claim to be good liberals and look down upon conservatives in the middle of the country. But do they understand that a liberal society can only function when the rule of law is obeyed as a matter of course?
It’s a slippery slope when people don’t follow the rules. When they conflate their confidence that they won’t be held to account with the assumption that their actions are just fine.
When indeed people think the rules don’t apply to them.
Hypocrites. Sophie and I both fear and loathe you.
David, I totally get your frustration. We have a similar problem in Prospect Park, where crossing the street to get to the soccer fields feels like a game of chicken, as the bikers don't stop when the light changes. Worse are the streets by my house, but in this case, it's often delivery workers on electric bikes who speed through lights. I've done my share of yelling, which gets me nowhere (and scares my husband to death). Unfortunately, even scarier than bikers are the drivers who speed in this city. Last spring, a child my son's age was killed crossing the street at a crosswalk with his mother while walking to school. There are too many stories like this. I just wish everyone would slow down. Why are we in such a hurry?
Cities should make older, 16 and above get licenses for their bikes and buy insurance. If bicyclists aren’t willing to share the road and obey the law, then cities must address it.
The small town in Nebraska I grew up in had a law that you had to have a license plate on your bike.
The wit of the staircase. Love it. Steve Martin said the French have a name for everything.
Je ne sais quoi.