Buttoning up for bike safety

PROSPECT PARK boosters are hoping a small button will solve the big beef between bicyclists and pedestrians sharing Brooklyn’s green oasis.

Traffic lights on the 3-mile loop inside the park have been fitted with push buttons enabling folks crossing the road on foot to signal bikers to brake. “We want bikes to know that bikes must stop at a red light,” said Eric Landau, vice president of the Prospect Park Alliance. “The light will always be green unless someone pushes the button red.”

Cops issuing summonses and volunteers wielding stop signs were out in force Sunday, trying to get parkgo- ers acclimated to what Landau described as a “change in culture.”

“A majority of bikers weren’t stopping at red lights and pedestrians weren’t using the crosswalk,” Landau said. “Hopefully, they will know how to follow the law when we are not here.”

The safety twist comes after a rash of bike-pedestrian accidents in Prospect Park, including two last year that left female walkers critically injured. In November, the Daily News used radar guns to clock cyclists routinely breaking the park’s 25-mph speed limit, some zooming by strollers at 31 mph.

It is not clear if the new system will be used in Central Park.As soon as the extra cops and volunteers left Prospect Park on Sunday, cyclists and pedestrians were back up to their old bad habits. The News counted 23 cyclists blowing red lights. Only three pedestrians pushed the buttons and others were jaywalking.