Noisy dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles are roaring through Van Cortlandt Park’s paved paths and dirt trails this summer, despite a citywide crackdown that has taken more than 1,500 of the vehicles off the streets.
“They’re all over the park. They have taken over. And they go very fast,” said Benigno Veraz, a park volunteer, during a recent visit to Van Cortlandt Park.
Police in the 50th Precinct – which covers much of Van Cortlandt Park – have seized dozens of the illegal bikes from the park since the beginning of summer, said Filastine Srour, the precinct’s captain.
“There’s over 40 bikes in the lot now” outside the precinct, Srour said at a June 28 meeting of the local community board’s parks committee.
While the dirt bikes are illegal to use anywhere in the city, a parks department official said the agency’s Park Enforcement Patrol officers have been instructed not to chase groups of riders for safety reasons.
“We continue to work with NYPD to deter the use of illegal dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles in this park, and in parks across the city,” said parks department spokesperson Gregg McQueen in a statement.
One parks advocate said he wished the city could take more action.
“It’d be nice if there were more enforcement besides just the sign saying ‘no motorized vehicles,’” said Noel Hefele, a volunteer coordinator with the Van Cortlandt Alliance, which helps run the park together with the city.
Last year, the alliance asked the parks department for ways to physically “reconfigure” the popular Putnam Trail in the heart of the park to deter motorized bikes. But such a move presents a number of logistical challenges.
“Currently, we do not have any deterrents set up at park entrances or on trails to prevent the use of dirt bikes or ATVs in this park. It is difficult to set up deterrents to these vehicles, as it would also hinder access for park visitors using strollers, wheelchairs, etc.,” a parks department spokesperson said.
Van Cortlandt’s many entrances also present a challenge to enforcement, said Debra Travis, the parks committee chair for Community Board 8.
She said the bikers pop into the park from many sides, such as Jerome Avenue to the south and Yonkers to the north.
“They find these kind of perfect spots where they can drive around and do loops on their dirt bikes, and generally not run into people very much,” Travis said.
Travis said pedestrians in the park don’t expect to encounter speeding dirt bikes.
“When you’re walking on the trails where the dirt bikes are, they catch you off guard, and they’re usually going pretty fast. And so it just feels unsafe,” she said.
A particular favorite is the forested area in the northwest corner of the park near the stables, where Travis says she’s seen hills molded out of the dirt for bikers to use for jumps.
“I grew up in the country, I understand that that’s fun,” Travis said.
But she added that the dirt bikes threaten the fragile natural environment.
“These forests are some of the oldest forests left. And so it does destroy habitat,” Travis said. “It’s rough on the park.”
Another parkgoer, Omar Medina, called the bikes a “nuisance,” but said Van Cortlandt’s wooded trails and fields make it an inevitable gathering spot for dirt bikes and ATVs.
“There’s just all these kids trying to have fun. That’s basically what it is,” Medina said. “I don’t understand how people wouldn’t expect that to happen … And what better place?”
Medina suggested the city legitimize the bikes by offering permits and organized events. “It’s not gonna stop,” he said.
Mayor Eric Adams has touted efforts to get the bikes off the streets, going so far as to stage an event where a bulldozer ran over dozens of seized ATVs and dirt bikes. At least 1,600 of the vehicles have been seized by the city so far this year.
“We’re zeroing in also on illegal cars, illegal three wheelers, illegal mopeds and dirt bikes. Many of them were illegal devices, unregistered and they were being used to commit crimes,” Adams said in a July 11 television appearance. “We’re being very proactive in stopping this from continuing to occur.”
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