New Yorkers can expect changes to Central Park in 2025. After input from parkgoers, officials said there will be new striping on the 6-mile loop around the park, with a distinct color scheme for pedestrian lanes — instead of the all white — and uniform 10-foot lanes for walkers and bikers.
“We’re working out over here because there is not enough space in that lane for us to work out,” Leilani Heins, who lives in Brooklyn, said.
What You Need To Know
- Officials say new striping will better space pedestrians, cyclists, other motorists and pedicabs
- Protected bike lane structures will be explored, including on the 86th Street traverse
- Raised pedestrian lanes will also be considered for the southern end of Central Park
Heins is a personal trainer and says she does not use the pedestrian lanes of the drives closest to 59th Street-Columbus Circle, so she welcomes that change.
The drives vary from 22 feet to 42 feet from one curb to the other. A report conducted by the Central Park Conservancy, the city Department of Transportation and the Parks Department concluded they should be more uniform.
Walkers and runners share the road with cyclists, pedicabs and horse-drawn carriages. Cars were banned in 2018 but there are still dozens of traffic lights which the report recommends replacing with signals designed for bikers and pedestrians. But more research will be conducted before that process could begin.
“Are they going to stop at the light for pedestrians so nobody gets hurt? That’s the bigger question and not everybody does right now,” Mary Jones, who was visiting from Westchester, said.
Jones says she would like pedestrian crosswalks to be made safer. The report says that needs further study. The nonprofit Central Park Conservancy, which helps run the park, says safety improvements are the goal.
The conservancy says it will explore changes to bike infrastructure, including a possible protected bike lane along the 86th Street traverse in the future, which would give delivery workers a more efficient way to cross town.
In the long term, the conservancy says it will research making potential changes to the entrance near the drives at Central Park south, possibly raising pedestrian lanes to prevent walkers, cyclists and pedicabs from merging.
“A couple times today in the crosswalks, walking across the streets, we had some close run-ins with bikes going very fast and we had to run across,” Chloe Parish, who was visiting the park from California, said.
Official said some of the most tangible changes, including repaving and restriping, will start next summer. No word on how long it will last or the impact it will have on people using the park.