Drag Racers Speed Down Coronavirus-Emptied West Side Highway

TRIBECA, MANHATTAN — Once-bustling New York City streets emptied by a stay-at-home order have become standard as the city does its best to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

But for New Yorkers near at least one major roadway, another new normal has emerged — living next to a whirring drag-racing track.

“Once roads were clear, suddenly there were these gangs of motorcycles and gangs of guys in fancy cars with souped-up engines … going up and down for hours,” a neighbor who lives near the West Side Highway in Tribeca told Patch. “It’s been every single day.”

(To keep up with coronavirus news in the West Village, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Neighbors say groups of 20 or 30 motorcycles or cars have been showing up at all hours of the day and night to a mile-long stretch of the West Side Highway, known as West Street, to race between Chambers Street and where the highway loops around near Battery Park.

Some days, ATVs popping wheelies have even showed up, or groups of 10 or so BMW owners who take a break from the drag racing to have a photo shoot with their cars in Rockefeller Park, according to posts on the platform Nextdoor.

The racers are so loud that their engine revving has been heard as far up as Varick Street in Hudson Square and as far south as Rector Place.

“[It’s] hard to sleep, to put it mildly,” one neighbor wrote. “I have leapt out of my bed at 2 and 3 in the morning because it sounds like bombs going off when bikers thunder down our street.”

But despite the noise — and the larger concern that the drivers will hit people crossing the street — residents have had little luck getting them to stop.

The neighbor who spoke with Patch, who did not want to be named, said she has called the New York Police Department’s 1st Precinct at least twice, contacted Community Board 1’s staff and filed a complaint with 311, though it was closed hours later with a note that said it “didn’t require police action.”

She heard back from the precinct but soon ran into a different roadblock — depleted police resources because of the coronavirus pandemic.

One officer essentially told her that police are stretched too thin to address the problem, the neighbor said, while another told her to call 911 when the cars were racing. But the neighbor said she hasn’t done so yet out of fear it’d take first responders’ limited resources from those who need it during the pandemic.

As of Tuesday, 2,006 uniformed cops had tested positive for the coronavirus, and 7,060 — or nearly 20 percent — of the NYPD’s uniformed workforce, were out sick.

“[The drivers] probably know that the police don’t have time to come and deal with them,” she said. “It’s taking advantage of a hard situation the world is in.”

When asked how many complaints there had been about the drag racing or whether officers had taken any action, the NYPD’s Public Information Office told Patch that they “do not break out data to this level of specificity.”

The neighbor worries that the drag racing is most dangerous in spots where many people are crossing West Street, such as to get to the always-crowded Whole Foods on Greenwich Street or to the neighborhood’s various parks to walk their dogs or get fresh air.

But the racing could also be dangerous to the drivers themselves, she said.

The drag racers often weave in and out of the few cars that are still on the road, egging on what is likely an already frustrated driver, the neighbor said.

“People get pissed, especially in the environment we are in right now,” the neighbor said. “Everyone is on edge — nothing good can come out of this.”