![\"8B7A2985\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/8B7A2985-scaled.jpg\" "\\"Parks")
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Bikes lined City Hall Park.<\/p>\n
Photo by Adrian Childress<\/p>\n
The NYC Department of Parks and Recreation<\/a> proposed a plan to permanently allow the use of stand-up e-scooters and e-bikes<\/a> within certain park areas, the agency announced on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n The proposal would integrate the same micro mobility devices that are allowed on NYC streets into parks while continuing to ban mopeds and other \u201cheavy vehicles,\u201d officials said on July 3. It would be an extension of a pilot launched in 2023, with the addition of \u201cinsights gained\u201d from the program to create new methods for managing micro mobility riders and pedestrians in park drives and greenways, such as the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway.\u00a0<\/p>\n Officials from both Parks and the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) said they are \u201cexploring further physical safety measures\u201d to protect e-bikes, e-scooters, and pedestrians from colliding. Measures include making space between the different groups, ways to separate pedestrians, cyclists, and other \u201chigh-speed users,\u201d modifications to signals, and ways to \u201cbetter direct\u201d pedestrians to archways to reduce conflicts on drives.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s critically important that our public realm can safely accommodate the diverse ways that New Yorkers get around and enjoy our city\u2019s public spaces, Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, NYC parks commissioner, said. \u201cWe are focused on improving safety in our parks, and allowing the same e-bikes and e-scooters that are allowed in city bike lanes on our park drives and greenways would make our city safer and more accommodating for pedestrians, cyclists, and e-mobility users alike.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Rodriguez-Rosa, the proposed plan was based on public input gathered during the two-year pilot.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Some street safety advocates seethe<\/p>\n However, the proposal was announced after more than 100 New Yorkers rallied outside Central Park on May 8, demanding an end to the pilot allowing the devices in parks. Many of the protestors were themselves cyclists.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Parks Department has truly let down New Yorkers by taking away our only oasis to escape e-vehicles,\u201d said Janet Schroeder, co-founder of the NYC e-vehicle Safety Alliance (EVSA). \u201cNo redesign on drives will ever stop riders from speeding through red lights, looking down at phones and riding all over the pedestrian pathways.\u201d<\/p>\n She also expressed concern about the use of unicycles in parks, which are illegal to ride in NYC.\n<\/p>\n \u201cUnicycles are illegal in NYC, but they are in our parks because whatever is permitted will always be exceeded,\u201d she added.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n According to the NYPD\u2019s latest traffic statistics, e-bike collisions citywide have increased over 11% year to date, compared to the same period in 2024.\n<\/p>\n
![\"two](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image1.jpeg\" "\\"Parks")
NYC Council Member Bob Holden, right, speaks with NYC Parks workers about e-bike riding in parks.Photo by Barbara Russo-Lennon<\/p>\n