New Rules May Be Down the Road for Bikes on BPC Esplanade

Some residents have long complained that bikes and pedestrians are not a safe or pleasant mix on the Battery Park City esplanade. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

The wheeling may get less free on the Battery Park City esplanade.

With the bike path along West Street recently reopened outside Brookfield Place, cyclists finally have an alternative to the esplanade, where they often must weave through the many walkers, joggers and baby strollers. As a result, the Battery Park City Authority is seeking possible new rules for bikes on the esplanade—and even questioning whether they still belong there.

“There are families there, there are children, there are people enjoying the view and you have bikes that could, depending on who you ask, present quite an issue for people trying to enjoy the esplanade,” Nick Sbordone, the BPCA’s director of communications and public affairs, told Community Board 1’s Battery Park City Committee last week. He added that the authority is seeking the board’s opinions “on some type of limitation or elimination of bicycle riding on the esplanade.”

Michael Gordon, a public member of the committee, noted that it is “extremely difficult” to walk on the east side of the North Cove Marina, where cyclists whiz by pedestrians.

“I had my four-year-old grandson and I had to pick him up and dive out of the way from someone on a bike the other day,” he told Sbordone. “It is not an area that people can go flying through.“

“We’re such a hot area now and all these tourists now rent bicycles and don’t know the rules,” said Maria Smith, another public member, who noted that some people ride on the pedestrian-only upper level of the esplanade in the southern neighborhood. “I’m not saying we should ban biking entirely but I think something needs to be done.” She said she knew a woman, years ago, who successfully sued the authority after being hit by a cyclist.

Though the bike path on West Street is open, cyclists at the meeting complained about tourists who meander along the bikeway, making it difficult to ride there.

“There are just too many people in the way,” said Justine Cuccia. “So for me, I find it less stressful to ride slowly and carefully along through the Battery Park City esplanade.”

There were suggestions for a dedicated path for bikes along the marina as well as dismounting zones and more and better signage, especially aimed at tourists. But in no way, said committee member Jeff Mihok, should bikes be banned.

“I think it’s a terrible idea to get rid of bikes on the promenade,” Mihok said.  “It’s my right to bike along the promenade and be along the river.”

“I’m only relieved by the thought that you can’t enforce it anyway,” he added.

Anthony Notaro, the committee chair, called for the formation of a working group to “brainstorm” ideas. But it will not be the first time that the authority and community board have sought solutions to the problems of bikes on the esplanade. As far back as January 1997, the BPCA’s then subsidiary, the Battery Park City Parks Corp., solicited ideas for how to keep pedestrians safe from cyclists, and from rollerbladers which were much more popular then.

After studying the issue for months, the Parks Corp. assigned yellow-shirted “park hosts” on bikes and blades to leaflet people on wheels, reminding them of safety rules. And they were in radio contact with PEPs to report speeders. Signs went up on the esplanade warning “RECKLESS SKATING & CYCLING PUNISHABLE BY FINES UP TO $200.”

It was all short-lived.

The only lasting change from the effort back then are signs that direct cyclists to use the lower level of the esplanade in the southern neighborhood.

Now a solution is being sought again.

“People on weekends want to come down and ride along the esplanade. They are not going down the bikeway walkway,” Notaro said. “So we need to figure out how to manage that.”

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