The Central Park loop drive was never meant for traffic. Photo: Frodrig/Flickr

Brian Dooda was riding his bike in the park when he got into an altercation with the driver of an SUV. It seems Dooda was not riding in the "recreational lane" that the city has thoughtfully provided for those who have the quaint notion that Central Park is a place to escape the urban din. Instead, Dooda was out in one of the traffic lanes, "keeping a steady pace of 25 mph" as he later reported on the New York Cycle Club's message board.

Going the legal speed limit in Central Park apparently wasn't good enough for the SUV driver, who shared his displeasure with Dooda by cutting across his path, reportedly missing Dooda's front wheel by inches. Dooda caught up to the driver at a light. What allegedly unfolded is vividly described on Dooda's NYCC post, but in abbreviated form Dooda says the driver intentionally drove into him twice, with Dooda ending up on the car's hood and being driven some 200 feet while pleading for his life. Dooda says he finally fell off, essentially unharmed, and the driver sped away. There were witnesses, the license plate number was taken down, and Dooda has filed a report with the police.

Accounts of the incident on Gothamist and Gawker have elicited the usual quotient of "all cyclists deserve to die because a messenger hit me once" comments. Others piled on with their own "I told you so's" following the revelation that the SUV driver was a Fox News writer named Don Broderick (who apparently is using the "he hit me first" defense).

But all this finger-pointing and name-calling misses a larger issue. As most of us know, recreational users of Central Park have been unhappily sharing the park's loop road with car traffic for decades. This was the road that the park's designers, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, intended to be an integral part of the park experience and to never serve as a traffic thoroughfare. They won the competition to design Central Park precisely because they devised an ingenious way of allowing traffic to cross the park unnoticed via the four transverses.

Over the years, Central Park's recreational users have clawed back much car-free time, literally hour by hour. But as someone who has spent thousands of hours out on the loop road, I can report that clashes between drivers and park-goers -- ranging from horn honking to curses to threats -- occur with unsurprising frequency. The Dooda-Broderick incident made it beyond the park's boundaries only because of the egregiousness of Broderick's alleged actions. It stands as the latest stark reminder that Central Park's loop road cannot be both a refuge and a commuting corridor.

The city administration is boldly closing roads ranging from Park Avenue to Broadway to fulfill Mayor Bloomberg's vision of a "greener, greater New York City," but it still clings to the myth that cars must invade Manhattan's original green road, one that was never meant for traffic in the first place.

Sources within City Hall say that potential spillover traffic in Harlem is the only thing standing between New Yorkers and a car-free park. In fact, Harlem is the neighborhood that has the most to gain from a car-free park. A 2007 Transportation Alternatives study found that 57 percent of private car traffic using the park's northern entrances originates outside of Harlem. Closing the park to traffic would remove hundreds of cars from Harlem's streets and reduce tailpipe emissions in the neighborhood by about 3,240 pounds each day.

Until officials summon the small measure of political will needed to return the loop road to its rightful users, it will continue to be a contested street to which both drivers and park users believe they have a righteous claim. And the next Brian Dooda may not be so lucky.

For pedestrians, yesterday was a grand opening of sorts at the 3rd Street entrance to Prospect Park. The city officially closed off this access point to cars, giving people on foot a safe, unimpeded crossing and some additional car-free space during the p.m. rush. Before long, however, the barricades somehow shifted several feet to the right, creating an illegal traffic lane (the handiwork of a miffed motorist, the theory goes).

Half an hour after the closure took effect, reader David Alquist snapped these pics of drivers taking advantage of the opening and disregarding the posted sign. It's a familiar sight, and one that park visitors shouldn't have to put up with any more. We're told the 78th Precinct will have a traffic cop stationed here at rush hour today to enforce the new rule and help motorists adjust. Something like this might also do the trick. In case you're wondering, when the city completes the protected bike path along Prospect Park West, this entrance will be kept clear of parked cars in order to maintain access for emergency vehicles and cyclists.

Back to David's pics. Note the parents and young children on the other side of the barrier...

One more after the jump.

This summer volunteers clocked 90 percent of cars in Prospect Park exceeding the speed limit. Photo: Prospect Park Youth Advocates.

As the Brooklyn Paper and Brooklyn Eagle reported, board chair Randy Peers remains skeptical of the road diet. (In October, Peers led a rally against going car-free, along with CB14 Chair Alvin Berk and Assemblyman Jim Brennan.) "Randy said he was open to the idea, but that it's not a true compromise," Lusher-Shute told us. Peers claimed that the proposed road diet is just chipping away at park traffic and asked if the lane closure could be accompanied by an increase in the speed limit. CB14, which had earlier asked T.A. to present its ideas, made a similar suggestion linking the road diet to an extension of driving hours.

Nevertheless, the danger posed by current conditions was widely acknowledged. "Everyone agreed that there is crowding on the recreational path," said Lusher-Shute, adding that some spoke up in support of the road diet. "People seemed to think that that was a really interesting idea."

The next step toward a road diet will have to come from DOT. "If DOT wants to move on this," said Lusher-Shute, "it's up to them now to go to the community board and talk about it. Same with CB14."

While board members told Lusher-Shute there is lingering distrust of DOT -- a legacy of the Prospect Expressway, they said -- their apprehension may be softening. A presentation by DOT's plaza program earlier this year made an impression that didn't square with the agency's old reputation. "I had to tell [Peers] several times that yes, this was the new DOT and yes, they were making real progress," said Lusher-Shute.

Nothing says "fact-based public process" like "community board consideration."

Thanks for your note about Prospect Park. Last week I wrote the New York City Department of Transportation asking for a public process that would include the coummunity [sic] boards adjacent to Prospect Park in any decision involving eliminating cars from the Park. The boards include Community Board Six in Park Slope, Board 8 in Prospect Heights, Board Nine in Crown Heights, Board Seven in Windsor Terrace and Board 14 in Flatbush.

I also expressed the view that an environmental impact statement might be required because of traffic congestion and pollution concerns. I believe that a decision about elminating [sic] cars from the Park should be based on an objective assessment of the facts.

I have supported the previous change in vehicle use in the Park that have reduced vehicles to only two hours in the morning and evening rush hours. However, the New York City Deaprtment [sic] of Transportation also reduced Prospect Park Southwest from two lanes to one lane north- and southbound several years ago without consulting the Community Board.

Absent an emergency, it should be a matter of policy for any significant change in the use of the City's streets and roads to allow for local community board consideration. Eliminating cars in the Park may be a good idea or a bad idea, but I want a fact-based public process to make such a decision.

Once again, thank you for writing.

Sincerely,

Assemblymember Jim Brennan
416 7th Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11215
718-788-7221

With help from Transportation Alternatives, a group of mothers and families known as Mobilized Moms led a  car-free Central Park rally on Tuesday. Streetfilms' Robin Urban Smith says about 50 supporters, including Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and City Council Member Gale Brewer, came out in support of the Moms, who marched from Central Park West and 72nd Street to the Naumburg Bandshell.

The group plans to collect kids' artwork from the event, along with written correspondence, for a book to send to Mayor Bloomberg in hopes that a car-free trial period might finally be instituted. 

The latest push to remove auto traffic from the park has prompted Brooklyn Community Boards 7 and 14, along with Assembly Member Jim Brennan (718-788-7221), to demand an environmental review before such a trial is implemented.

In other car-free parks news, Mobilized Moms will lead a Central Park rally today at 4:30 at 72nd St. & Central Park West. The Moms are expected to be joined by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and City Council Member Gale Brewer.

Dear Mayor Bloomberg, 

As Brooklyn representatives, we ask you to explore a simple and inexpensive policy change that could greatly improve the lives of our constituents -- to study the possibility of making Prospect Park car-free with a three-month car-free trial. We call upon your office, the New York City Department of Transportation and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to implement a three-month pilot program to close the Prospect Park drives to vehicular traffic and to study the effect of this policy on park use and traffic on local streets. 

Prospect Park is the lifeblood of the communities we represent. It is their place to exercise, to escape the heat of a hot apartment, to celebrate a birthday party, to barbeque, to listen to great music and to play with their kids. Just being in Prospect Park and enjoying all it has to offer makes life better. 

Because Prospect Park is such a popular destination for our constituents, it is busy. From morning till night, the loop drive is packed with people walking, running, and riding bikes.  When cars are permitted to drive through the park, these people are often put in danger. A recent speeding survey found that over 90% of cars travelling through the park were going beyond the posted speed limit —- up to 50 mph. Runners and cyclists may find themselves just feet from this traffic and have no barrier to protect them from deadly collision. 

The dangerous and unhealthy environment created by this traffic scares people away. A 2006 survey of 450 park users found that 4 out of 5 people would use the park more often if cars were banned. This survey also found a 40% drop in people entering the park when cars are permitted. As our city struggles to fight a rise in obesity, asthma and diabetes, we call on you to explore solutions to this troubling situation. 

While the benefits of prohibiting cars from the park are many, we also recognize that closing Prospect Park to traffic may have an impact on the surrounding community. Conducting a three-month study and trial closure, to fully analyze the resulting effects on traffic and related quality of life issues would allow the City and the community to understand the full impact of a full closure. Furthermore, this study would allow the Department of Transportation the opportunity to analyze how the traffic patterns around the area are affected by the Prospect Park loop drive and to gauge what mitigation measures might be necessary to deter traffic buildups in the surrounding community, were the park to be car-free. 

Parks are the very foundation of a healthy population. As public leaders, we need to do everything in our power to make our public parks and recreational areas as safe and inviting as possible, while also making sure to balance the diverse needs of the surrounding communities.  

Sincerely,     
David Yassky   Bill de Blasio    Letitia James

A car-free park "could have a major environmental impact," said Brennan, who co-signed a letter with the CB chairs asking DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan for the EIS. Similar use of environmental regulations have postponed the development of San Francisco's bike lane network for three years.

In the midst of calling for the environmental impact study, typically a lengthy and expensive process, Peers made clear that he had already reached his own conclusion. "Closing the park to traffic is unacceptable even for a trial period," he said.

The Car-Free Prospect Park Campaign is a decades-long volunteer advocacy effort led by Transportation Alternatives, a member-driven organization with a strong base of support in the neighborhoods around Prospect Park. Two weeks ago, youth advocates delivered 10,001 signatures to City Hall in support of a car-free park. During the summer of 2002 a volunteer effort organized by T.A. produced approximately 15,000 signatures, a 400-person town hall meeting and the support of all five Council members with districts abutting the park. Subsequent expansions of car-free hours in Prospect Park have repeatedly failed to validate dire predictions of traffic cataclysm outside the park.

Nevertheless, Peers finds these community organizing efforts despicable. "We abhor the tactics of the bicycle advocacy group," he said. "They tried the same tactics when they tried to shove Residential Parking Permits down our throats. They're a well-financed advocacy group representing a minority view."

Assemblyman Jim Brennan can be reached here:

416 Seventh Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
718-788-7221
brennaj [at] assembly.state.ny.us

Photo: Randy Peers (with green sheet), flanked by Assemblyman Jim Brennan (beige suit) and Alvin Berk (bearded).

Car-free park advocates deliver 10,000+ letters of support to City Hall.

Two weeks ago, the Prospect Park Youth Advocates delivered 10,000 signatures to City Hall asking for a three-month car-free trial. Now Community Boards 7 and 14, as well as a group called the Windsor Terrace Alliance, are demanding that the park remain open to traffic during the morning and evening rush.

Here's their core argument, advanced in a press release yesterday:

...if the bicyclists get their way, the City's Department of Transportation (DOT) will shift hundreds more cars per hour onto Prospect Park Southwest and Parkside Avenue, where traffic back-ups could create dangerous air quality problems for local families.

Putting aside the crude cyclist-baiting (as a pedestrian, I would also like to "get my way"), the predictions of carmaggedon are overblown. CB14 bases its projections on loop drive traffic counts from the 1990s, says Wiley Norvell of Transportation Alternatives. In the meantime, car-free hours have increased dramatically, meaning there is much less traffic to displace than opponents acknowledge.

Then there's the question of whether the remaining traffic would shift to local streets at all. The basic assumptions behind the 11-year-old traffic study that CB14 cites have been thoroughly debunked. "We know from 40 years of experience that traffic is not like water," says Norvell. "A lot of those trips shift to transit, to different periods of the day, and some disappear altogether."

A car-free trial next summer could settle the debate. "We find it hard to understand why a trial isn't worth doing at this point," adds Norvell. "This is about trying it, and seeing what happens. The fact that we've gone from 24 hours a day, seven days a week to a few hours each workday without the sky falling shows that driving behavior is a lot more flexible than people realize."

The Youth Advocates worked with numerous local partners in Districts 7 and 14 this summer, Norvell notes, including the Flatbush Development Corporation, Project Reach Youth, the Prospect Park Youth Council, Brooklyn College Academy, and Edward R. Murrow High School. Opponents claim that their communities have not been included in the discussion.

Photo: youthforcarfreeparks / Flickr

The Prospect Park Youth Advocates get some well-earned star treatment in this Streetfilm from Robin Urban Smith. They spent the summer gathering data and collecting signatures for a car-free park, culminating last week with a rally at City Hall. Now we see what it takes to mount a 10,000-letter petition drive: resourcefulness, persistence, and the self-possession to wear a leaf costume with aplomb. Bravo to Farah, Oswald, Selena, and Michael.

The Prospect Park Youth Advocates led a joyous procession over the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday afternoon on their way to deliver more than 10,000 letters to Mayor Bloomberg in support of a car-free park. The youth advocates and students from Freedom Academy and the Brooklyn Academy for Science and the Environment were joined on the steps of City Hall by council members Tish James and David Yassky, calling for a Prospect Park that is "safe, healthy, green, and absolutely car-free."

After leading a call-and-response of "No more cars -- Where? -- In Prospect Park" at the head of the procession (backed by the strains of the Brooklyn Steppers Marching Band), youth advocate Oswald Bowman gave the opening remarks. "I don't have a backyard, but I do have Prospect Park; Prospect Park is my backyard," he said. "I don't know about you guys, but I don't like no one driving through my backyard."

Bowman and fellow youth advocates Michael Cheng and Farah Karimova spoke about gathering signatures and documenting the hazards of cars in the park this summer. Transportation Alternatives' Paul Steely White gave three reasons why Bloomberg should heed their message (download a PDF) and instruct DOT to institute a three-month car-free trial:

• Park users face a potentially deadly risk from cars, which travel on the loop drive at speeds as high as 47 mph and sneak into the park during car-free hours when people have been lulled into a sense of security.
  
• The presence of cars in the park suppresses physical activity, taking up space during the hours before and after work and school when people have free time.
  
• Closing the park to cars will not result in unacceptable traffic impacts.

This last point was echoed by Yassky, who noted that previous expansions of car-free hours have not yielded the excessive traffic on nearby streets that opponents predicted. "The best evidence of why we should have a car-free Prospect Park is that we're already halfway there and it has been tremendous," he said. "We have seen it work part of the way, now let's do it all the way."

And now for more photos. (You'll have to wait for Robin Urban Smith's Streetfilm for some audio and video of the Steppers. In the meantime, you can see their 2005 incarnation in Dave Chappelle's Block Party.)

Photos: Ben Fried

Markowitz said the current rules reflect the proper balance between making the park accessible and keeping traffic flowing.

He said closing the park to cars during rush hour would create an "unbearable" traffic burden in neighborhoods south of the park. "That is not fair," he said.

"Not everybody can get to work on a bicycle," he said. "My opinions reflect the viewpoint of the great majority of residents of Brooklyn."

Today's rally starts at 5:00. Allow a few minutes to clear security.

Having spent their summer working for a car-free Prospect Park, four young Brooklynites are taking their message to the mayor on Monday. And they'll have plenty of backup.

Prospect Park Youth Advocates Michael, Farah, Kelena and Oswald have collected 10,000 postcards signed by New Yorkers who support a car-free park. On Monday afternoon, the four will walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, accompanied by the Brooklyn Steppers Marching Band and City Council members Letitia James and David Yassky, to hand-deliver the cards to Mayor Bloomberg. The event will culminate in a 5 p.m. rally at City Hall.

In preparation for the "Brooklyn Brings it to Bloomberg" rally, the youth sent a letter to the mayor asking that he meet them at City Hall to receive his mail. Might Bloomberg, himself having expressed interest in making Prospect Park car-free, reward the efforts of these volunteers by listening to them in person?

Here are the details on Monday's activities: 

Walk to City Hall
4 p.m.
Meet at Cadman Plaza East and Prospect Street, Brooklyn

Rally at City Hall
5 p.m.
City Hall, Manhattan
Please bring photo ID and arrive 15 minutes early to go through security.

Photo: youthforcarfreeparks/Flickr

One person used our handy-dandy radar gun to clock the cars speeds, while a second person recorded the speeds, and a third person held up a sign a few feet away from the radar that read "You Are Speeding," while the fourth person stood on cyclist and pedestrian side of the Loop Drive to attract support from the joggers and bikers experiencing the wrath of cars invading their road space.

And here's what they found:

We surveyed over 570 automobiles and found that on the Loop Drive 9 out of 10 drivers were speeding! 90% of people who drive their cars through Prospect Park exceed the posted 25mph limit. We even clocked a school bus driving 42mph and some drivers going as fast as 50mph. How unsafe is that!

Unsafe, unlawful, and completely unnecessary. After the jump, some more choice observations from Michael.

It was interesting to notice how a majority of the drivers (including police cars. yes, police cars) failed to follow the 25 mph speed limit in the park. It is also notable that many cars did not slow down after reading our sign, but did slow down when cop cars were nearby.

However, some cars did decelerate when they realized that a speed gun was pointed at them. So the general driver's mentality was to obey the laws only when they might get caught, which is understandable, but unacceptable. Concerns about safety would vanish once the cars are gone, and we will try our best to make that happen.

Photo: Prospect Park Youth Advocates

It seems elitist "green" types aren't the only ones who think city parks should be reserved for people. A passage from this week's New York Magazine feature "Who Owns Central Park?" reveals that regular Joe business execs recently warned Mayor Bloomberg of the economic consequences of a city so dominated by cars.

Last April, about two dozen executives signed a letter delivered to the mayor’s office arguing that the administration’s car policy is hurting the city’s ability to prevent hedge funds from decamping to Greenwich, or Wall Street jobs’ being shipped overseas. “The talent pool we seek to draw from is increasingly focused upon maintaining personal fitness. They are disproportionately triathletes, marathoners, and the highly fit. Cycling in particular is a key interest, and has become a key business-related networking activity,” the group wrote. “What about the loss of yet another team of financial professionals, formerly based on Wall Street, who decide to move to Connecticut to start a hedge fund, because life is just too difficult in New York City?” 

Though the story focuses on the territorial battles among park users, it reads, "There’s one issue about which runners, cyclists, and dog owners are in full agreement: cars." Says Transportation Alternatives' Paul Steely White: "The anger you see in the park is similar to the ire you see in Park Slope with the double-wide strollers. Our view is, Don’t get mad at the stroller moms. Get mad at the city for providing such limited car-free space.”

Earlier this month, TA was joined by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer in calling for a three-month car-free trial for Central Park, based on a study that showed it would reduce cut-through traffic on neighborhood streets. Brooklynites are pushing for a car-free summer in Prospect Park as well. With the city's "Summer Streets" program set to launch this year, keeping cars out of parks seems only logical, but no word as of yet.

Photo: Ed Yourdon/Flickr

If you've ever wondered how Aaron Naparstek and Clarence Eckerson whiled away the hours before the advent of Streetsblog and Streetfilms, here's your answer. They donned cheeseheads and Hummer suits while role-playing in support of a car-free Prospect Park. Clarence has been hanging on to this proto-Streetfilm for some time (it was shot in 2002), waiting for the right moment to spring it on us. With the push for a car-free Central Park and Prospect Park gaining steam as summer approaches, not to mention the launch of the Livable Streets Network two days ago, that time is now.

It may look silly, but this little demonstration -- together with a 10,000 signature petition drive and a 500-person town hall meeting -- helped win a significant expansion of car-free hours in Prospect Park. Before the campaign, cars had been allowed through the park 24 hours a day during the work week, from the end of October to the beginning of April. Afterward, cars were only allowed into the park during the morning and evening rush.

So, who says the glory days of car-free park rallies are over? A few more events like this could provide just the push advocates need to get a car-free trial for both parks this summer.

A study released this week by Transportation Alternatives undercuts the claim that closing Central Park's loop drive to cars would increase traffic on the streets of Harlem. To the contrary, findings indicate that loop entrances on 110th street at Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevards "act as traffic magnets," drawing vehicles onto neighborhood streets from more appropriate routes like the FDR, Harlem River Drive and the West Side Highway.

During a series of driver interviews conducted in the spring of 2007, T.A. found that 57% of private car trips into the park through Harlem originate outside Manhattan, and that private cars -- not taxis -- make up the majority of traffic (two-thirds) on the loop drive. Reads a T.A. media release:

Much of the traffic clogging Harlem streets only enters the neighborhood because the Park drive is open to cars. This is consistent with NYC DOT's own findings that predict at least 3,107 private vehicles would be removed from Harlem streets each week during the morning commute if the drive was closed to car traffic. Armed with this information, T.A. and more than 100,000 Car-Free Central Park Campaign supporters call on the Mayor and City Hall to support a three month car-free trial in the park this summer.

T.A. initially presented its data privately to city decision-makers, hoping it would confirm the city's own analysis and provide the final impetus for a three-month trial closure. That didn't happen, so T.A. is publicly releasing the report [PDF] in hopes that New Yorkers will take up the issue with their electeds -- Mayor Bloomberg in particular -- and urge them to make good on this long-overdue improvement.

T.A. and other car-free park advocates are joined by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer in pushing for a summer trial. Says Stringer: "This action has the potential to achieve real and immediate benefits for our city, and to send an unequivocal message that New York City is serious about achieving its green priorities."

Photo: Frodrig / Flickr

Ken Coughlin, occasional Streetsblog contributor, long-time coordinator of Transportation Alternatives' Car-Free Central Park campaign and all-around mensch suffered a heart attack on Saturday. T.A. board member Jeff Prant and executive director Paul Steely White visited Ken at St. Lukes Roosevelt on the Upper West Side on Sunday. They say he's in relatively good spirits and will undergo triple bypass surgery tomorrow.

Over the last ten years or so, Coughlin has personally overseen the collection of more than 100,000 signatures in support of a car-free Central Park. When I spoke with Ken a few weeks ago he was optimistic that we would see a three-month car-free trial in Central Park this summer. But with Memorial Day approaching, there has been no word from DOT, Parks or City Hall as to whether that will be the case.

Here at Streetsblog we're thinking of him, wishing him luck and looking forward to seeing him back out in the park this summer (hopefully not collecting signatures).

Congestion pricing would have quickly resulted in a palpable drop in traffic, but it is hardly the only strategy for removing substantial numbers of cars from city streets. The administration simply has to switch city models, moving from the London one of making it costlier to drive to the Paris and Copenhagen ones of making it more difficult to move around by car and pricier to park, while creating infrastructure that encourages alternatives like biking and mass transit. The approach is more incremental -- close a road here, build a dedicated bus or bike lane there -- but eventually you get to the same place: less traffic, cleaner air, and a more livable and functional city.

If you were a traffic engineer at the Department of Transportation, you would now be looking for opportunities to close roads that are not essential arteries, particularly those that, by their mere existence, serve as enticements to drive. Can anyone think of such roads? Wait a minute! Isn't there one in some famous park just north of Midtown, and another one in a gorgeous park in Brooklyn?

In short, the stage seems to be set for at least a trial closing of both parks' bucolic loop roads to car traffic this summer. In fact, the logic of this seems so self-evident that if it fails to happen, it will be a clear sign that powerful and sinister forces are blocking it.

Here's the new, post-congestion pricing case for car-free parks:

The amount of traffic affected by closing the bucolic loop roads of Central and Prospect Parks would be small thanks to previous cutbacks in the hours that cars are allowed to invade them. But closures would nevertheless play a modest role in reducing traffic. With the loops no longer available, a significant percentage of the drivers who use them would switch to other transportation or significantly modify their driving patterns so that they would effectively disappear from the grid -- a well-documented phenomenon called "shrinkage."

What percentage would do this? Estimates vary. The Regional Plan Association has said that closing Central Park's loop would induce 20 percent to 60 percent to get out of their cars or drive when they won't be contributing to congestion. In testimony before the City Council in 2006, transportation consultant Bruce Schaller (now with the DOT) predicted that this figure could be as high as 100 percent. This is not as outlandish as it seems. After the collapse of the West Side Highway in 1973, almost none of the traffic that had used it turned up on surrounding streets. Drivers evidently found other ways to get around a city that has a notably flexible and diverse transportation system.

We also know that the availability of the Central Park loop is drawing hundreds of cars a day into Harlem that otherwise would stay on peripheral roads like the Henry Hudson Parkway or would opt for alternative transportation modes. A recent study by Transportation Alternatives of private car drivers entering Central Park from the north found that 57 percent began their trips outside of Manhattan. TA estimates that closing the park to traffic would remove at least 3,107 private vehicles a week from Harlem streets during the morning commute.

For an administration searching for politically painless ways to cut traffic congestion, the Central and Prospect Park loop roads are ripe for the picking. In fact, making our two crown jewel parks the car-free spaces they were meant to be could be the signature initiative of the mayor's shift to "Plan B." Some political pundits have said that the demise of congestion pricing may have cost Mayor Bloomberg a significant piece of his anticipated legacy. While small in its contribution to reducing traffic, permanently eliminating cars from both parks would be huge in symbolic value and help secure the mayor's historical standing as a gutsy environmental innovator.

Ken Coughlin is Chair of the Car-Free Central Park Campaign.

This holiday season, users of Central and Prospect Parks got an unexpected and welcome gift after years of finding coal (and exhaust) in their stockings. Interestingly, the sources of that exhaust didn't seem to complain (or perhaps even notice) that things had changed.

For years, cars have been barred from most of the Parks' Loop Drives during weekday non-rush hours. But year after year, an exception has been made for the period between Thanksgiving and New Years when the city has temporarily lifted the weekday traffic ban. They called it "Holiday Hours." The reason, to quote a 2005 Department of Transportation press release, was "to provide additional capacity to help process the expected increase in vehicular trips during the holiday season" and, as former DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall said in 2006, "to help make room for the many people that want to enjoy our City's attractions." In other words: Accommodating more motor vehicle traffic was the mitigation for too much motor vehicle traffic.

Whether there is any evidence that "additional capacity" is needed or does anything more than fuel traffic congestion was the subject of a post on this site in November 2006 (see "Sacrificing Central Park to Appease the Traffic Gods"). But there is no doubt that the sudden appearance of car traffic during times of day that have been car-free for the previous ten months has been an annual jolt to the park's thousands of recreational users.

This year, however, at the urging of Transportation Alternatives, DOT for the first time quietly failed to open the Parks' gates to the anticipated crush of Santas hurtling to Midtown to fill their SUVs with gifts. The suspension of car-free hours was itself suspended. What ensued is instructive: nothing.

DOT officials say that they didn't receive any calls or complaints through 311 and the Mayor's Community Assistance Unit heard nothing from motorists furious that they hadn't received their customary holiday handout. Traffic congestion around the Parks did not appear to be any worse than usual.

But while drivers may not have noticed or cared much, the Parks' recreational users certainly did. According to a DOT official, the agency received considerable feedback through e-mail and other means from people who noticed that weekday car-free hours in Central and Prospect Parks remained intact during the holidays and were pleased. T.A., too, heard from many delighted park users, some of whom could not believe their eyes (or their lungs).

"We're going to keep reviewing how it went, but certainly we'd look to do it again next holiday season," the DOT official said. "At this point we see no reason to make a change."

All this bodes well for the three-month trial closing of both parks to traffic this summer, a long-overdue measure being pushed by TA and numerous elected officials, including Upper West Side Council Member Gale A. Brewer, who introduced the car-free summer legislation two years ago. To be sure, drivers are more likely to notice when a privilege is taken away rather than simply not reinstated. But nearly every incremental restriction of car traffic in both parks has been preceded by dire predictions of traffic cataclysm. Time and time again, these fears have proved groundless.

The holiday hours story should embolden officials to take an extended holiday from traffic and make Central and Prospect Parks the refuges they were meant to be.

Photo: Swruler9284 / Flickr

At 9:40 p.m. on a Friday evening last December, 27-year-old Eugenio Cidron left an office party at Chelsea Piers, steered his silver BMW onto the Hudson River Greenway, a bicycle and pedestrian path where cars are not allowed, and drove south for a full mile until he smashed head-on into cyclist 22-year-old Eric Ng at Clarkson Street, killing him instantly.

Cidron, who was drunk, pleaded guilty in November to second-degree manslaughter, in exchange for a sentence of 3½ to 10½ years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Thursday morning, Jan. 3, in lower Manhattan. A number of Eric's friends and associates plan to be there.

I'll be there too, although I never met Eric, a graduate of the NYC Department of Education's teaching fellow program who was subbing at Automotive High School in Greenpoint at the time of his death. But I know that a prison term for killing a cyclist or pedestrian is a rarity - roughly on the order of a comet, say, or a total solar eclipse. Most killer-drivers get off scot-free or, at worst, get their license lifted or receive a suspended sentence. If Cidron is actually going upstate for a while, I want to see it happen.

Perhaps that sounds harsh or bloody-minded. Perhaps it is. But after twenty-some years of watching the brutal and cavalier way drivers routinely treat other road users, I think some payback, and pushback, is long overdue.

Perhaps those of us who ride should bring bike gear into the courtroom to self-identify. That seems fitting. Writing last year about Eric's death, I said, "Everyone who rides in New York dies a little when a cyclist is killed." Our presence will reflect that.

I hope not just Cidron and his family but the D.A.'s office -- indeed, the entire city -- will feel our grief at losing Eric and see our resolve to hold drivers accountable for acts that rend the community.

Sentencing is scheduled for 9:30 am, Thursday, January 3, at NY State Supreme Court, 111 Centre Street, Room 948 (9th Floor) "Part 32," in the court of Justice Gregory Carro. It is possible that other sentencings may precede Cidron's, so plan accordingly.