10/07/2026
Last week I decided to do something incredibly glamorous: complain about traffic safety in Central Park.
I called the Central Park precinct. I called Gail Brewer’s office. I called the Parks Department. I explained that there are still a couple of traffic lights on the East Drive that people routinely ignore.
And honestly? I get why.
Bikes blow through them. Runners blow through them. Horse carriages blow through them. Park vehicles seem to treat them as a suggestion. At this point, I’m surprised the lights haven’t filed for unemployment.
The problem is that pedestrians crossing legally at those lights don’t know that everyone else has apparently decided the red light is merely decorative.
I literally said, “Mark my words, someone is going to get killed if this isn’t addressed.”
Within a week, two people were hit and died.
This is not a victory lap. It’s actually the opposite. I would much rather have been completely wrong.
Central Park has an enormous mix of pedestrians, cyclists, runners, horses, park vehicles and tourists all sharing the same limited space. If a traffic signal is intended to protect people crossing the road, it has to actually be enforced—and people have to understand that it applies to them.
We shouldn’t have to wait for someone to be seriously injured or killed before a dangerous intersection gets taken seriously.
The sad part is that this was predictable.
