“When you’re walking the street, and you’re trying to cross it, and there are bicycles coming all over the place, it’s a scary thing,” William Robertson, 62, a writer and filmmaker, said. “You can’t just jump out of the way like a gazelle like you did in your 20s.”

Cycling has increasingly emerged as an alternative to the city’s troubled subways and buses, and as a way to help reduce car congestion on already crowded streets. It allows riders to go where they want, when they want, without being limited by routes and schedules. And it offers the benefit of exercise and fresh air. About 460,000 bike rides take place in the city every day, up from about 180,000 bike rides in 2006, according to the city. There are now 1,208 miles of bike lanes, 268 of which have been added since 2014.

But in recent years, the growing bike presence has drawn complaints from residents and community leaders who say that some cyclists ignore traffic rules and pose a safety hazard to pedestrians. Cyclists, in turn, have countered that pedestrians often walk in bike lanes, or dart in front of them with little warning.

Gale Brewer, the Manhattan borough president, said that while she supports cycling in the city, she hears complaints every time she visits a senior center about dangerous cyclists who ride too fast, run red lights, go in the wrong direction and cross over onto the sidewalks. “It’s a huge concern,” she said. “They’re older and they can’t move as fast. They say to me all the time, ‘I almost got hit by a bike.’”