Comments on: SE Prospect Park Re-Design Includes Some Restrictions on Cars

By: Felix

Felix — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:06:36 +0000

Why is Tupper so timid on this issue? She doesn't have Iris to fear anymore.

By: Car Free Nation

Car Free Nation — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:50:31 +0000

Larry,
We used to drive to the rink when we had a car, but after we got rid of our car, we found that car services and the train are actually very convenient.

I don't think a comparison with central park is fair, since the central park rink is more accessible to trains and buses.

By: d

Thu, 22 May 2008 17:59:11 +0000

Fair point. You can't drive to the skating rink in Central Park and you can't park at the Central Park Boathouse for dinner.

By: Rober

Rober — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:11:53 +0000

There should be no parking lot at the rink. There is a shuttle bus that picks skaters up from locations all around the park and drops them off at the front door. All other park users manage to park outside the park and walk to their destination.

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:11:20 +0000

"The parking lot will be moved from its current location to nearby Breeze Hill."

Then again, if people were coming and going on Breeze Hill, perhaps I WOULD feel comfortable walking across the park at night.

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:09:58 +0000

In my case, the skating rink is one of the few short trips I've chosen to drive, back when the kids were little and went skating. Skating is generally at night, and that's when we'd drive.

The walk across the middle of the park is less than half an hour in the middle of the night, and the bike ride would be less, but it's not something I was or is comfortable with at a time when no people are there.

The skating shuttle is in frequent, and not around on weeknights.

The subway is unworkable. The bus might work if Prospect Park West were two way and the frequent B68 were extended to Grand Army to connect with the frequent B41, but not now.

If someone would take my advice in put a historic horsecar line in the park, however, that might do the job.

http://www.r8ny.com/blog/larry_littlefield/a_horsecar_for_prospect_park.html

By: d

Thu, 22 May 2008 16:51:00 +0000

I'm not sure why cars have been able to park for free inside the park for so long. Even a relatively small fee, $4 or $5 for all-day parking, could be used to offset the cost of maintaining the lot and the disproportionate damage cars do to park roadways. It would be as simple as putting a few of those parking meter boxes in the lot, the kind where people pay and then put a receipt on their dashboard.

Talk about congestion pricing. Of all the places where we should be encouraging fewer cars, Prospect Park would be at or near the top of the list. A small fee might encourage more people to use one of the many subways that can be found at each of the park's major entrances.