NYCdog.org (New York Council of Dog Owner Groups) worked hard and long to clarify and codify the recently adopted off-leash policy in city parks.

The adjustment period is a bit confusing due to a lack of signage, brochures, and other information sources that clearly state the rules, areas where dogs may be allowed off-leash, and other dog related policies. We are working with Parks to correct this, but with 1,700 parks it may take a while.

As to Central Park, here are the rules: Dogs are not allowed off-leash on roadways. Runners should use a leash when accompanied by their dogs. This is more than a safety issue; it is common courtesy to others. As a former distance runner and a current dog owner, I appreciate all arguments on both sides of the issue, but with more than 22 MILLION visitors a year to Central Park, this simple policy is wise to follow.

Meanwhile, bicyclists should also respect the rules by not riding on pathways and other areas not meant for wheeled vehicles.

Racers typically use the park in early morning and night when dogs are allowed off-leash. Mutual respect with insure the safety of all. By the way, racers are among the smartest users of the park, yet (as with a few dog owners) all it takes are a few to create ill will among the many.

Central Park is the most used urban park in the nation. It is 835 acres. Over 200 acres are fields but almost every one of those fields are permanently off limits to dogs whether on or off leash. More than 100 acres are water bodies also off limits to dogs. More than 150 acres are natural areas where dogs are not allowed off leash. Playgrounds, fountains, restaurants, etc. comprise more than 50 additional acres (rough estimate). The roadways total over 45 acres of the park.

This leaves small areas available to dog owners to share with other park users.

Ideally, cars will be permanently banned from the park, freeing up the roadway for use by bicyclists, rollerbladers and runners.

The NYTimes has been pathetic in its coverage (or non-coverage as it were) of the off-leash issue. Most of their dog related stories have been antagonistic towards the owners of the 1.4 million dogs owned in NYC.

The story related to this blog failed to distinguish between bicyclists illegally using paths and those who properly use the bike lanes. It also failed to note whether dog owners wisely kept their dogs leashed while on the roadways.

Finally, crossing the roads in CP is always risky. Bicyclists often do not obey traffic lights. Runners do not yield to those crossing legally. Parents foolishly allow small children to cross unchecked. And dog owners often forget to leash their dogs or to walk immediately next to their dogs.

It comes down to respect. Let us respect one another so that we can all responsibly share our limited parklands.

Attacking one another accomplishes nothing. Vitriol only cements people into different camps.

NYCdog and Central Park Paws will be in touch with the New York Road Runners Club and the Road Club Association to see how our groups can work together to educate our members and to resolve problems.

For more information, please contact us at Info@NYCdog.org.

....and kites.

They should ban walkers, runners, dogs, bikers, tourists, cats, cars, ice cream trucks, hot dog stands, fun, air, grass, rocks and the general human from Central Park. We should let is grow over with weeds so people stop commenting so much on a story that came out a week ago.

Regardless of how you choose to move around the parks drive (ie bike, rollerblades, feet) or in what company (ie strollers, dogs) the real problem lies in the fact that half of everyone in the *road* has their head up their ass, not paying attention to traffic.

If you applied this situation to vehicular traffic, the fault would lie in the jerk not paying attention.

ATTENTION! Swerving kids/adults on bikes, seemingly drunk parents weaving your tandem strollers, drunk marathoners: step off the road until you can commit to being part of park traffic.

er... many others.

I'm one of those lycra-clad fools so many bitch and moan about. I commute over 4000 miles annually through Manhattan. tell me i don't know how to handle myself on the road, hmm?

wanna-be racers? where the hell do you think people start their racing careers? these amateur racers know how to get through the park more safely and responsibly than few others.

My wife was bitten by a dog that was off it's leash and had to have a painfull series of rabies shots. This was before the parks department allowed dogs of their leashes in the parks at certain times. There is no question that dogs are the biggest threat to New Yorkers. Your poll is biased by the way it lists cyclists first in a non alphabetical order. I think you should apologize to cyclists and redo the poll.

Sincerely, David

no, riding in the park doesn't develop bike handling skills. racing with 100 other cyclists on a narrow course and learning how to finish with all of your bones intact does.

many racers are also commuters. you won't see them in their uniforms riding to work, but that doesn't mean they can't ride in traffic.

The "on your left" concept is not bogus - that's a surprisingly ignorant comment from a cyclist - it's hard to believe you're telling the truth about your background.

Saying "on your left" is not to make someone move over (no one ever has for me) - it's simply to announce my presence. The reality is, if you're forced to pass another cyclist or a runner closely (because other obstacles block you from passing wider), and their back is to you so that they don't know you're coming, you just want to make sure they don't unexpectedly swerve or turn just as you're passing. I usually slow down also, but slowing down is not enough.

I've had these unexpected close calls more than once, when I was a potential victim as well as a perpetrator, and I've heard of pretty severe accidents happening this way.

For the commenter saying that cyclists should just "give up" the Brooklyn Bridge because there are fewer pedestrians and instead take the Manhattan Br.. not every one is going where you are. Many cyclist using the Brooklyn Bridge are coming from or travelling to lower Manhattan (Wall St, World Trade Center, or Battery Park area); the Manhattan Bridge is ridiculously out-of-the-way.

The elite cyclists (and certainly not everyone you see in Spandex is one) really do know how to handle a bike. They train to ride in very tight formations with little margin of error, and many of them ride hundreds miles a week, with 60-150 miles trained OUTSIDE the City. Just because you only see them in Central or Prospect Park doesn't mean those are the only place they go.

I've ridden bike a long time -- and even raced with Lance Armstrong in the early 1990s -- and the "on your left" thing being for safety is just bogus. If you're out on the street or in a park riding and you're passing someone so close you have to warn them, it means you're going to fast, or are too close, or both.

#43 -- do you appreciate cars giving you a friendly beep just to make sure you don't wander in front of them when you're out walking or riding a bike? The concept is baloney.

"The reality is they THINK they have the best bike handling skills and they THINK because they own a $1000+ bike that they are in someway superior to the rest of us, but in fact they are nothing more than self-obcessed dweebs."

I tend to agree with Reality Czech here ... I very rarely see these guys riding in the *street*, which means their bike handling skills couldn't be all that well developed. Going around and around the park in what is basically a straight line does little to develop your bike handling skills.

I am a cyclist. We can all agree some cyclists are jerks, since they are people and many people are jerks. However demonizing them doesn't help. Most cyclists are perfectly nice. In the defense of some "jerks," cyclists get disrespected (or dangerously ignored) constantly in ways others would find hard to imagine unless they themselves regularly took to the road on two wheels, so nerves get frayed.

When a cyclist blows a whistle or says "on your left," he/she is actually doing you a service by letting you know that they're coming. Cyclist recognize that people listen for cars but don't look out for cyclists, so someone walking in front of them often isn't aware of them. If that person unexpectedly turns the other way or changes direction and then BAM! both get hurt.

As to the maneuverability and right-of-way, I agree that cyclists should carve a path to safely go around pedestrians and other obstacles in the road, and in fact that is how they usually make they way through the road. However, please recognize that a cyclist cannot easily stop dead in his/her tracks, so intentionally walking straight in front of a cyclist, or into the road without looking, especially when you have the whole entire park and cyclists only have the road, is more annoying to cyclists than you might realize. It's not people on the road, but people who act as if the cyclist is invisible or should come to a dead stop for them, that is so bothersome. Note that this is not every pedestrian, which re-inforces the idea that it IS possible to use the park as a pedestrian AND have a clue.

One more thing:

To those of you deriding bicyclists for warning you with "on your left", or "on your right" while they approach from behind - we are doing this for your safety, you can't see us and we want to make sure you don't accidentally wander (left, or right) into the space where we are about to pass you.

As to those of you denigrating the "lance armstrong" types who are cycling in the park: GROW THE FUCK UP. Yes, they look like huge dorks in their dayglo outfits and spandex, but they are just as entitled to use the park as you are. Deal with it.

"before you denigrate the "lance wannabees" aka racers, you should realize that the racers have the best bike handling skills and are rarely the ones involved in accidents."

No, I doubt their bike handling skills are anywhere close to a bike messengers.

And they rarely get into accidents because they are rarely riding in the streets with traffic and pedestrians!

The reality is they THINK they have the best bike handling skills and they THINK because they own a $1000+ bike that they are in someway superior to the rest of us, but in fact they are nothing more than self-obcessed dweebs.

Last night I was riding down the Brooklyn Bridge and some homeboys (who have no respeck for da law) just wouldn't move from the bike path. I was ringing the bell, yelling but nope, they ain't moving for any white man.

I slowed up and said, "Um, this is a bike lane" and they went "OOOH" and I went "OHH that is why you is dumb ass..."

I use the park reguarly as a cyclist, rollerblader and pedestrian (though not a pet-weilding one). The responsibility of sharing the road should be shared by cyclists, skaters, tourists and resident pedestrians alike.

Cyclers are moving faster than anyone, and they cannot stop as readily as pedestrians, and cannot maneuver tightly while at speed. They have the greatest potential to enflict damage, so they have the greatest responsibility to take care and prevent accidents. It is your responsibility as a cyclist to make sure that you are looking for the widest available lane in the crowd, and to keep an eye out for erratically moving children. When I'm cycling I worry more about the people with their back to me, than the people who can see me with their eyes. As a cyclist I try to keep a particularly wide berth from rollerbladers, particularly those who are more recreational than exercise-oriented bladers ... the recreational ones are the ones who seem to make sudden swooping turns with no warning whatsoever. Whenever I'm passing through a tight corridor, I'll let people know I'm coming with an "on your left" or "on your right".

Rollerbladers are pretty innocuous, (most) aren't moving too fast. I'd say all rollerbladers have to do is make sure they aren't going so fast that they can't stop or maneuver easily through a crowd, and that you shouldn't make sudden swoopint turns left or right without looking over your shoulder for cyclists (or risk pretty severe injury).

Pedestrians, are the least innocuous of all but they still have three very minor responsibilities (which they frequently fail to uphold):

1. Don't go out of your way to step in the path of cyclists and rollerbladers. This should be common sense but for some reason a lot of people do it anyway. Playing chicken with a bike moving 30 mph is an intenslely stupid idea people.

2. STAY OUT OF THE FUCKING BIKE PATH. I have ZERO sympathy for jackasses walking in the bike path, if you get hurt, you've got it coming. I will purposefully ride very, very close to you at speed. I don't ride on the sidewalk, so stay out of my bike path. You wouldn't elect to walk around in the middle of the street with motorized traffic, why the hell are you walking around in the bike path.

3. Keep your pet within one foot of yourself. This is a no-brainer people.

I'm blown away by the number of people that seem to be so irritated by the relatively small number of serious cyclists in Central and Prospect Parks. These cyclists have chosen this as their hobby, and I applaud them with training with so much vigor. In Prospect Park, they use the main roadway, which is maybe 5% of the entire land in the park? It's not like they're flying across he soccer fields or Nethermeade...

In Central Park, I'm sure it's the same. I agree that they can be aggressive, but seriously people, get over it - it's a pretty small problem. Look both ways, and you'll be fine. Or, jog on one of the dozens of other paths.

#31/ MonsterMash: SING IT TO ME, BROTHER! I'm consistently aggravated by the entitled, aggressive, type-A cyclists in Prospect Park. I try to console myself with the knowledge that those tiny bike seats are squishing their balls and decreasing their sperm count in an act of self-styled Darwinian retribution.