By the way: I’ve crossed Central Park at 3 a.m. a few times and never been ejected.

Requires car-free parks though! Give us both.

BUT as several folks have mentioned, it is the commuter times which are the main issues. So I humbly suggest we re-frame this as something like “Carfree Central Park Rush Hour” or “Central Park Carfree Rush Hour” etc.

About a year ago I was stopped riding through Central Park on my bike at 1:30am. My pretty wife’s demeanor probably helped us to be let go with a warning, but the cops were pretty grumpy about us not knowing the curfew is still in effect.

Oh, and Kaja — you say harassment and it probably was, but I’m willing to bet the cops thought they were doing you a solid.

Some worked on this a while back… to no avail. It sucks that when the park is quiet —except for boat house drivers ‘picking up and dropping off’ between 72nd and 96th– and bikers are ticketed.

At least one person who complained at the central park precinct community meeting about this was told by a CP Conservancy rep that the reason for closing the park was ‘so the animals could sleep’.

This is how I found out that parks in NYC close at 1am: Using Prospect Park northbound as a cut-through a bit after one, cops flagged me down and explained the situation. I said I’d book it to Grand Army, and then began climbing the great hill…

with the police SUV directly behind me, as in tailgating, with the brights on. So that I couldn’t slow down, and requiring every ounce of control to avoid tripping my fight-or-flight response. Outright harassment. Following me up the hill.

Lessons come in many forms!

Close the park to auto traffic both ways, and put a double yellow stripe down the center of it. I’d use the loop way more, on my bike, were it bidirectional; as it is I avoid it since it’s mostly going the wrong way.

Focus on getting a few more slices off the salami.

Make the evening Rush Hour only two hours long. The stock exchange is open until 4 p.m., how the heck does “Rush Hour” begin at 3 p.m.? Aim for a Rush Hour of 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., but live with 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. This really should be an easy win.

Close the East Side Drive at 90th St. The fine citizens who dine with Bloomie and those who vote for him leave the Park at 72nd or 90th St already. Very few drivers exiting at 110th St are going to Harlem — they’re headed to Westchester and Connecticut.

Get Summer Hours that close the drives from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day. After all, that’s when the Park is full of kids from child care and summer camp programs anyway. Call the Summer Hours a “trial period.” We’ll never see traffic in Central Park during the heat of summer again.

Finally, that strip from 6th Ave to 72nd isn’t going car-free in our lifetimes. So toll it. More than half those vehicles are taxis and town cars anyway, and they all carry E-Z-Pass. Send the proceeds to the Parks Department for use in the parks outside Manhattan.

Every time the salami gets sliced, we get fewer drivers using the Park and less opposition to closing it to cars altogether. Let’s keep whittling our way to victory.

The DOT has done three major, detailed studies of the traffic impact of various closings — two studies in 2005 (one on the impact of The Gates) and one in 2007. There is nothing in any of these studies that justifies hesitating on a three-month trial closing.

I second BicyclesOnly, it’s not really sensible to include the night hours when the park is CLOSED. If one excludes those hours (one should) in calculating the percentage of time the park is car free, then it’s way less than 98%.

As far as the curfew, as I understand it, no one–bikes, cars, peds–is allowed in the park after 1:00am. Those who have gotten off without a ticket (not for being on a bike, but for being in the park) have just been lucky.

Now, why is there a curfew?