Neighbor Launches Petition To Allow Walking & Biking Through Parade Grounds After Sunset

Neighbor Olgierd Bilanow has launched a petition to make it legal to walk and bike through the Parade Grounds after sunset, a move that comes on the heels of other neighbors reporting receiving tickets for being in the area at dark .

From the petition, which you can see here:

There is a constant stream of people walking and biking along the Parade Grounds bike path (the roadway also used as an NYPD parking lot). Many are coming and going to Prospect Park while others are walking home from the F train. For all these people walking through the Parade Ground path is the easiest, safest and most pleasant way to go between home and Park Circle.

Recently neighbors have been summonsed by the 70th Precinct for crossing through the Park after dusk. After complaints were raised about the tickets despite no clear signs showing such a rule the Prospect Park Alliance posted several new signs declaring that the path closes at dusk. The alternative is to walk along a desolate stretch of Coney island Avenue which leads to a dangerous intersection where it meets Caton Avenue.

Prospect Park is the prime destination for the tens of thousands of people living south of the park and is open until 1am. Other than the bike path, the Parade Grounds is made up of ball fields and a large playground. On account of the expensive artificial surface on the fields and the general rule in NYC playgrounds it makes sense that the majority of the Parade Grounds should close at dusk. This does not mean that creative thinking could not come up with a way to keep the bike path open while allowing the rest of the Parade Grounds to close at dusk.

Almost half of the people using the bike path are in fact riding a bicycle. The official name is fitting in describing the way the path is used, but not it’s legal designation. Besides the rules about closing at dusk, there is nothing stopping the 70th Precinct from ticketing bicyclists for biking on a pedestrian path or for riding on the sidewalk leading to the path inside the Parade Grounds. Being as wide as a city street, there is no reason why the Parade Grounds bike path cannot safely and legally support both pedestrians and bicyclists.

The petition is calling on the Prospect Park Alliance, the city Parks commissioner, and the commissioner of the city Department of Transportation to “find creative ways to allow us to legally walk or bike through the Parade Grounds bike path from dawn to 1 AM.”

“On account of the ticketing by the 70th Precinct and the ever shorter days we ask that you make this a priority so the community can continue to enjoy the beauty and convenience of the park without inadvertently violating (up til now) obscure and rarely enforced rules,” Olgierd states in the petition.

What do you think? Do you want the bike path to be open past sunset? Are there additional measures you think could be taken to make the bike path safer, as police have said they are ticketing people in order to keep them out of an area that has seen its fair share of crime.