Brooklyn, NY – Emboldened by a three-week experiment to shut streets to car traffic on the East Side of Manhattan, bicycle activists are preparing to press Mayor Bloomberg to rid Prospect Park of car traffic by arguing that a car-free park would become part of his lasting legacy.
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Advocates of a car-free Prospect Park say they have successfully whittled away at the number of hours that cars can use the park each day and are within striking distance of having them banned altogether.
With vehicular traffic allowed only for two hours in the morning and two hours at night Monday through Friday, they argue that ridding the park of cars at all times wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.
A organization is asking for a three-month, car-free summer in 2009, which they said would give the city the opportunity to study the effects of the street closures on traffic patterns and park usage.
Critics of a car-free park have argued that it would lead to traffic congestion around the park and clog neighborhood streets during morning and evening commute times.
Next month, teenagers who worked with Transportation Alternatives will present the mayor with some 7,000 postcards signed by park users in support of a car-free summer next year.
The students also tracked the speed of cars using the park this summer and found that more than 90% exceeded the speed limit, often by more than 20 miles an hour.
A spokesman for the city’s Department of Transportation, Scott Gastel, said the city implemented a partial closure to vehicles a year ago, but has no plans at this time to completely close the park to vehicles.
Oh No way
this is fantastic! it’s abbout time we rid cars from the park. no idea who came up with the idea in the first place to let cars in.
There the Transportation Alternative people go again with no regard for those who only get to experience the park by driving through or the communities that experience traffic backups whenever the park is closed to cars.
Why should a handful of bicycalists inconvenience many thousands? Drive through the park any time it’s open and count the joggers ank bike riders.
We need more of those “NYPD beating up bicyclists” cops out there
And besides bicycles are also bad for the world, I say we start a walking only movement anyone want to join i already sent a petition to the mayor to shut the city to all traffic except foot traffic
Mr Bloomber is making our lives HARDER AND HARDER when will he stop all those stupid ideas
We should close it to bikes also. That would be a Bloomberg legacy.
does anyone know how to go about fighting this proposal?
Yankel – you are completely wrong. Closing the park to cars does not and will not cause traffic backups. This has been proven again and again. How many more times will you repeat this falsehood?
lebediger – stop driving and your life will be easier
Hey – while they are at it they should close 13th Ave and Ave J for cars
I NEVER SEE THE PARK OPEN TO CARS WHEN IS IT OPEN
Why don’t they just ban all cars and trucks for good?
# Anonymous Says:
lebediger – stop driving and your life will be easier
08-26-2008 – 9:06 AM
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i could just imagine biking from flatbush to lakewood whoa so much easier no gas no accidents well maybe but either way i just can’t leave to close to shabbos.
No way! The ride from Boro Park to Williamsburg takes as is during rush hour a half hour for what a mere 4 miles!!!!! NO WAY! We will fight this with all meens possible!
This is a fantastic idea. I run the park many times a week and there are literally many hundreds (if not thousands) of joggers, bikers, and walkers enjoying the park. I always have to watch out the the yoily flying by 70 miles an hour weaving in and out of lanes.
How do i get me a post card.
Throw the bicycle activists out & keep the cars.
These bike riders have such chutzpah. How can they complain about “Yoilis” speeding when half of the bike riders don’t follow their own riding rules, and always ride “lehachis” on the road where cars go. I witnessed once a car honking politely to a bike rider to get out of the road and the biker sped after him and got to him by a red light, smashed his mirror and sped off. So before you say “how do I get ‘me’ a postcard” , let’s see you guys listen and obey the rules, if not, we will abolish YOU!!
and by the way the same if for the joggers and runners. They are careless and do not jog in their designated lanes, but “davka” where the cars go…
send the bikers to Thailand there they can ride in the streets
notsofrummie Says:
comments – arrow This is a fantastic idea. I run the park many times a week and there are literally many hundreds (if not thousands) of joggers, bikers, and walkers enjoying the park. I always have to watch out the the yoily flying by 70 miles an hour weaving in and out of lanes.
How do i get me a post card.
===
Correct. I both bike and jog in the park and there are many many runners and bikers. Parks are for running, biking and relaxing. Not cars!
Its about time to stop car`s
going through Parks..
All that Air Pollution in a Park…..
L&L
I think Its about time to ban cars period. To protect The enviroment,to save the planet from unwanted carbons, to breath fresh air again , and just that people should start making exersize again and walk
# menachem Says:
this is fantastic! it’s abbout time we rid cars from the park. no idea who came up with the idea in the first place to let cars in.
08-26-2008 – 7:58 AM
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menachem you fail to understand that it’s not that they let cars into the park it’s just that they built the park in the middle of the road DUMBOS what they are
If cars are never allowed in the park, this will place a burden on the person who checks the eruv. Instead of driving along the route for 10 minutes, it will become an hour’s walk.
these people are trust fund babies and don’t work for a living and don’t know what it means to extend your trip by 15 minute 2x a day crossing brooklyn north/south. let them get jobs! these green bums!
bssp – i’m not sure what employment status has to do with all this. maybe you could explain? anyway, none are trust fund kids, and all do in fact of jobs, something you’d find out pretty easily if you bothered to look.
milhouse – there are these things call bicycles, buses and trains. you may have heard of them. and please, the car traffic concerns are WAY overblown.
tachlis – wrong. read some history on central and prospect parks.
To 9;06am I don’t know who proved this. I take the park daily to get to CH on my way to Queens, On days the park is closed its a nightmare to go from Coney Island Ave to Ocean Ave. On the way back PPW is 3 lanes one way traffic so it’s a little easier.
Anon, why do you mention buses and trains? None go through the park, and even if they did one could hardly use them to check the eruv!
In any case, this whole fuss is about one thing: these stuck-up people hate cars, and look down on those who choose to drive them. Why shouldn’t drivers be able to enjoy a drive through the park, just as bikers and joggers and walkers do? Their taxes pay for the park just like anyone else’s. The park was built for everyone’s benefit, including drivers. Now these bigots want to take it away from the drivers, because they think they’re better than them. It’s time someone taught them a lesson, that their chosen mode of transport or recreation is not morally better than anyone else’s.
These environmentalists are a bunch of selfish goody – goodys. I drive thru the park every day on my way to crown hights, there is plenty of room for bikes and cars if the bikes kept to THEIR lane. On the days the park is closed to traffic it’s a nightmare to go from coney island avenue to ocean or flatbush ave. The air quality definitly won’t be better if this went thru.
To the biker who saw people speed through the park I don’t know which park you are talking about. In prospect Park the way the lights are set up you can’t speed uness you are going through the red lights.
The people driving cars should breathe in the exhaust pollution they create themselves instead of making us all breathe it in.
Cars cause so much trouble, noise (all the honking), pollution, and people get addicted to them and don’t get enough exercise.
Too many frum people are addicted to cars, enough is enough. If not for Shabbos and Yuntiff some people would hardly ever walk.
And then there are the chazeirim who eat in their cars and then throw their cans, bottles, and other garbage, out their windows and on to the street.
Sorry guys, despite your whining, Prospect Park is going car-free.