Car-Free Parks
Streetsblog Basics
Central Park Drivers Get Bigger Holiday Gift Than Usual
In what's shaping up to be a yearly tradition, car-free hours in Central Park have been cut back for the holiday season. Each weekday this month, on the southeast corner of the park drive, the park's pedestrians, joggers, cyclists, and dog-walkers have three fewer hours of quiet and safety.
December 6, 2010
Central Park Administrator Pushes East-West Bike Routes, Car-Free Park
Central Park Conservancy head Douglas Blonsky wants his park to get a lot more bike-friendly, he revealed at a meeting of Manhattan's Community Board 7's parks committee last night. Not only is he working to create shared use paths that would allow cyclists to cross the park east-west safely and legally, he repeatedly announced his support for removing vehicular traffic from Central Park entirely.
September 21, 2010
Parks Department Vows to Save New Yorkers From Menacing Street Life
The parks department will hold a hearing Friday on plans to clamp down on what it sees as an unnecessary, untamed incursion into some of the city's most vaunted public spaces.
April 22, 2010
JSK’s “98 Percent” Car-Free Central Park Claim Is 100 Percent Wrong
DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan appeared on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show last Wednesday to talk about the agency's plans to, as Lehrer put it, "spread the Times Square model." When Lehrer invited listeners to call in with their ideas for other streets that should be made car-free zones, "Steve from Manhattan" asked why the Central Park loop wasn't being closed to traffic, calling it "obvious" and a "no-brainer." In her response, the commissioner said that Central Park's loop road already is closed to traffic "98 percent of the time."
March 9, 2010
Who Can Make Parks Car-Free? Commissioner Hoving Says: “Benepe”
If New York City had a livable streets hall of fame, Thomas P. F. Hoving would be enshrined alongside heroes like Jane Jacobs. As Parks Commissioner under Mayor John Lindsay, Hoving spearheaded the original effort to reverse the onslaught of motor vehicle traffic in the city's flagship parks, instituting the first car-free hours on the Central Park loop drive in 1966. It was a pioneering act of reclamation for pedestrians and cyclists.
December 14, 2009
The NYPD’s Holiday Gift to Motorists: Central Park
After introducing some yuletide sanity two winters ago, the city is back to sending a schizophrenic message to New Yorkers this holiday season: Please use mass transit, but if you choose to drive, we've made it easier by increasing the hours when cars are permitted on a section of Central Park's loop road. Only this time it's the NYPD, not the Department of Transportation, behind the double message.
December 11, 2009
End Central Park Road Rage: Keep Cars Out
The city's ongoing effort to have it both ways in Central Park resulted in another near-tragedy last week.
June 11, 2009
Brooklyn CBs Open to Prospect Park Road Diet
On Tuesday, Transportation Alternatives made the case for a car-free Prospect Park to the transpo committee of Brooklyn Community Board 7. Reactions ran the gamut from wholehearted support to outright opposition, reports T.A.'s Lindsey Lusher-Shute. Toward the end she unveiled a compromise -- reducing vehicle lanes on the loop drive from two to one -- which piqued the interest of several people and appeared capable of generating broad agreement.
December 5, 2008
Jim Brennan: “Objective Assessment” Must Precede Prospect Park Trial
Following up on other car-free parks news, last week Assembly Member Jim Brennan joined the chairs of Brooklyn Community Boards 7 and 14 in calling for an Environmental Impact Statement before any trial program to remove car traffic from Prospect Park. In this tipster-submitted constituent letter, Brennan rationalizes his position.
October 9, 2008