A bicycle on a public street is considered a legal road vehicle just as a car is which means bikers must also follow the rules of the road. However, as Lisa Guerrero reports, some bikers don’t and sometimes the consequences can be deadly.
Everyone seems to be bicycling these days. It's healthy, it cuts down on traffic and it's a great way to get around.
But when bicyclists ride recklessly, it can sometimes be deadly.
In New York City’s Central Park, two pedestrians have been killed in recent weeks after being run over by bicyclists.
Many New Yorkers who use the park expressed outrage. “Those bicyclists will run you over,” said one woman.
One man strolling through Central Park said, “Most of them are respectful but some of them speed like crazy.”
So to find out how dangerous it can be, INSIDE EDITION spent a day in Central Park and brought along some cameras and a radar gun.
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We teamed up with radar expert Donald Sawicki who found the vast majority of bicyclists were obeying the law by keeping their speed below the posted limit of 25 miles per hour.
In fact he only clocked two going over the speed limit, but it was in a congested part of the park, so our Lisa Guerrero, who was waiting down the road, flagged one of the speeding bicyclists down.
“We clocked you at 27 miles an hour. That's too fast,” Guerrero said to the bicyclist.
But rather than show contrition, the bicyclist responded: “Wow, that’s impressive. … I like riding fast.”
While many of the bicyclists were respectful and stopped at the crosswalks, INSIDE EDITION found many others who hardly even slowed down for the crossing pedestrians who had the light. Just like cars, bicycles have to stop at red lights, too.
Guerrero confronted one of the red light-running bicyclists saying, “It's a red light! You gotta slow down!”
But instead of slowing down, he blew right past her while giving her a rude hand gesture.
At one point, we witnessed three cyclists blowing through the red light at a busy crosswalk at the same time.
“Pedestrians are the most vulnerable,” said Caroline Samponaro, the deputy director at Transportation Alternatives, a group that advocates for safer streets. “Whether you’re driving a car or riding a bicycle everyone has to yield to pedestrians.”
For more information and to get involved in safe bicycling, visit transalt.org.
