Lawless e-bike riders turn NYCs Central Park into danger zone as fed-up locals push for a ban

So much for a walk in the park.Central Park goers want lawless e-bikes to slow down but the reckless riders are defiantly flouting laws and turning the greenspace into a danger zone.Now some fed-up locals say it’s time for an outright ban.E-bikes and e-scooters were involved in 33 crashes in the park through Oct.18 and Central Park while precinct cops wrote 144 e-bike tickets through Oct.

25, up from 39 a year earlier, according to NYPD data,After the crashes and rule-breaking, safety advocates are pushing to ban e-bikes from Central Park, as Parks Department workers struggled to get riders to obey “no riding” signs in areas of the park where riders are asked to get off their bikes.When a Citi Bike rider was told to stop by a park worker riding in the “no riding” zone Wednesday, he cheekily called back, “Have a nice day.”Minutes later, an e-scooter rider sailed past a worker asking him to slow down.“He don’t give a f–k,” a bystander observed.“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 uses the park whenever he’s back in New York.The NYC E-Vehicle Safety Alliance rallied in the park Tuesday to call for an e-bike ban in city parks, joined by crash victims including Dave Katz, 71, who was hit head-on two years ago by an e-biker he said was looking at his 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 crash still weighs 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.Community Board 8, which covers the Upper East Side, voted Oct.21 to ask the city to ban every e-bike from Central Park except pedal-assist models, plus e-scooters and m...