NYPD Finally Makes a Feeble Attempt At Enforcement
Monday was Juneteenth and the volume of pedestrian and vehicular traffic was light. I was in the crosswalk at 7:34 am to check on the barrier and moveable signs that had been removed and placed on the sidewalk the day before. Everything was still in its place where it should be.
I returned at 9:35 am but traffic was so light, that I decided to return after lunch and instead inspect the lower loop to see if the lone poster of the CPC Park Rules for Bicycles that CPC had not removed was still standing. It was but I'm not sure why.
On the way back, I spotted an NYPD cruiser parked in the shade near Tavern-On-The-Green with two officers lounging around. Obviously, they were not in a hurry to an emergency, so I engaged them for a long time about the situation in the park generally. They told me that CCTV cameras were not allowed in Central Park so there is no coverage at all of our crosswalk. I also learned that one of these officers was a first responder when Jill Tarlov was struck and killed in our crosswalk. They both suggested in unison that the best way to reach someone with authority at NYPD Central Park Precinct was to attend the community meeting on Thursday at 7 pm in person because the commanding officer, Deputy Inspector William Gallagher, would be there and might be able to answer questions about why enforcement in our crosswalk is so lax.
By 1 pm the traffic volume in our crosswalk had increased and I shot 32 clips from 1:17 to 3:01 pm. I got a return call from Myte from Bicycles Unlimited regarding my visit the day before about their tour guides leading whole tour groups thru the red light. She assured me that she knew the woman I was talking about and would counsel her about the importance of leadership when it comes to following the rules in pedestrian crosswalks.
While I was filming the traffic in our crosswalk at a red light, I noticed an NYPD vehicle stopped behind me, the camera, waiting for the light to change to green. He kept pulsing his siren to warn the bikes to remain stopped, and most of them did, but one of them slipped thru anyway. I turned to the cops and raised my hands in a "what's up with that?" expression and as soon as the light went green, they sped up to the cyclist, pulled him over, and had a talk. It's the first enforcement action I have seen in three weeks. Probably it was the guys I talked with at Tavern-On-The-Green, LOL.
In the evening I returned to shoot a clip of the timing on the crosswalk light. I've been thinking a lot about performance art and the possibility that we could do 30-second performances in the crosswalk while the light is red. This would entertain everyone except the Tour-de-France guys and keep them occupied for the duration of the red light.
Later I went home and composed a soundtrack to go with the timing of the various phases of the traffic light and the pedestrian light. Thru the orange phase after calling the light, I use the first few bars from Beethoven's 5th, followed by the Michigan State University fight song during the 30-second white safe-to-cross light. Then at the flashing pedestrian orange comes "Danger, Will Robinson" from Lost in Space, and finally "Please Don't Hurt Me Any More" by Norma Jean as the solid orange comes on that is displayed until the next cycle begins.
Today's screengrab is a lone pedestrian in the middle of the crosswalk being swarmed by four bicycles.