Evening Hours Eliminated on East Drive
By Sarah Tobol
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
PROSPECT PARK — Advocates of a car-free Prospect Park have come one step closer to making their dream a reality.
The New York City Department of Transportation, along with the Department of Parks and Recreation, has announced a reduction in the hours cars are permitted to drive in the park.
As of Monday, Aug. 27, vehicles will only be allowed to use the park’s East Drive from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and the West Drive from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Currently, cars are also allowed on the East Drive from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Motor vehicles will still be prohibited from using the park mid-day, overnight and on weekends.
Transportation Alternatives, a citizens group working for safer streets and car-free parks, has been campaigning to eliminate cars in Prospect Park for 20 years, according to spokesman Wiley Norvell. He said that some people worry that limiting the hours cars can enter the park would cause cars to “spill out like water” onto surrounding streets.
In reality, “loop drive was never intended to be a limited access highway,” he said. To address the traffic worries, Transportation Alternatives requested to have a three-month trial period next summer, where cars will be completely eliminated from the park, to see how it will affect traffic.
“Loop drive was designated as a scenic, recreational drive,” Norvell said. “Pretty much everyone driving on it goes over the speed limit,” he added, noting that removing cars altogether would make the park a much safer place.
Norvell explained studies that have shown four out of five people would use the park more if there were no cars in it. When cars are allowed, residents leave the park 2 to 1 over those who enter it. During non-car hours, Norvell said it’s a 1 to 1 ratio of people leaving and coming in.
Brooklyn as a borough has the second lowest amount of park space per resident in the city, “second only to Manhattan,” said Sheelah Feinberg, the director of government and community relations at New Yorkers for Parks. When considering city acreage only, Brooklyn has 547 residents per city parkland area, while Manhattan has 569.
“We are excited that Prospect Park is car-free,” Feinberg said. “It allows more New York residents to use public parks.”
Community Board 7 member and area resident Aaron Brashear echoes Feinberg’s sentiments. “Personally, as someone who uses the park, I think it’s a great idea,” he said. “I think the way the city is right now, anything we can do to increase pedestrian traffic and decrease automobile traffic is a positive thing.”
“From the perspective of a parent, I couldn’t be happier,” said Mike Dowd of the Prospect Heights Parents Association. “Our kids desperately need more car-free places where they can ride bicycles and play after school without the fear of dangerous, speeding traffic.”
Members of community groups are now advocating for closure of the park’s entrances at Third Street and Lincoln Road, limiting car traffic to one lane.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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