Here’s a fun Coney Island quiz.

Which is scariest in the land of thrill rides, hot dog-eating contests and mermaid parades?

A). A screaming ride on the Cyclone roller coaster

B).  A frozen dip in the Atlantic on Jan. 1 with the Polar Bears Club

C). A leisurely stroll on the Boardwalk.

The correct answer is C.

It’s so bad that more than 30 injury claims were filed in the past five years by people merely out to enjoy the salt air, according to City Comptroller data reported by CBS News.

They weren’t due to crime or aggressive seagulls, but to the  “iconic” boardwalk’s perilous surface of broken and loose wooden planks, exposed nails and potholes.

Cops this month rescued an illegally-owned wallaby wandering on the boardwalk, where marsupials are traditionally scarce.

But it’s the boardwalk itself that needs rescuing.

A supposed program to fix it is years behind schedule and bogged down in controversy.

The boardwalk is People’s Exhibit No. 1 of city government contempt for Coney Island.

Following significant improvements under former mayors Rudy Giuliani (who tamed crime) and Michael Bloomberg (who brought in a wonderful new Luna Park), Coney Island threatens to regress into its former condition as a dumping ground for undesirables.

In such a climate, neglect is not merely the natural order of things, but a tool to turn the clock back to the bad old days of violence and squalor.

I love the Riegelmann Boardwalk, as it’s called by no one  — a wide, three-mile, mostly wood-plank esplanade fronting New York’s Lower Bay.

From private Sea Gate in the west to almost-Russia Brighton Beach in the east, it’s a stroller’s paradise of open sea views, friendly shore birds and beachgoers of all sizes and shapes — all anchored by that famous, gaily-lit amusement area.

But I nearly broke my neck every time I set foot on the promenade this summer; how cyclists manage to survive is a real wonder.

The city routinely forks out large payments to accident victims.

For example, as reported by online magazine The City, Yevgeniya Bereznyak collected $125,000 after falling on a damaged section of boardwalk between West 5th and West 6th streets.

Another $125,000 went to Irina Shapiro, who also  tripped and fell around West 6th.

The Alliance for Coney Island advocacy organization says that repairing the boardwalk requires a “strategic plan” involving a “city-state partnership.”

But excuses for letting the boardwalk rot are legion. Residents blame the Department of Parks’ sluggish bureaucracy.

Parks officials cite concerns over what replacement materials to use and butting-in by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Local pols and activists cite “community” concerns.

City Hall blames contractor-selection challenges, a shortage of funds and everyone’s all-purpose excuse — Covid 19 “supply disruptions.”

But cut through the minutiae and the big picture is really quite simple: the “world’s greatest city” should be able to make its most famous waterfront esplanade safe to walk upon.

It’s a boardwalk, not the Saturn V rocket that took astronauts to the moon.

Fixing it might be more complicated than just getting out some hammer and nails, but not that much more complicated.

Sure, it will cost a bundle — a reconstruction plan for a mere three blocks between West 24th and West 27th streets is budgeted at $11.5 million.

A plan by former mayor Bill de Blasio called for $114.5 million to be used for wider repairs  — but none of it’s started and construction experts say it still wouldn’t be nearly enough for the entire boardwalk.

But the city has an operating budget this year of $107 billion.

Among other atrocious boondoggles, it blew $224 million on useless pandemic health gear that’s being auctioned off for $550,000.

Surely there’s a way to pay for a safe-and-sound boardwalk — but for that to happen, Mayor Eric Adams has to care.

The boardwalk’s decay reflects the municipality’s historical, sneering disdain for one of its historic treasures.

Despite some recent, necessary infrastructure upgrades, the city has inexplicably thwarted middle-class growth on the Coney Island peninsula.

More market-rate apartments are needed to support better stores and restaurants in one of the most retail-deprived corners of the five boroughs.

Zoning rules promote “affordable” housing but not “gentrification” feared by local pols and activists.

Such archaic, “progressive” priorities, for example, frustrate developer John Catsimaditis’ dream to build more middle-income apartment towers next to the two he previously completed at his Ocean Drive complex.

They stan  at the creaking boardwalk’s lonely western tip.

It’s a lovely walk from there to the Parachute Jump, the Coney Island Amphitheater, Luna Park, Deno’s Wonder Wheel, the New York Aquarium and the alfresco cafes of Brighton Beach — if you don’t break your neck along the way.    

scuozzo@nypost.com