Photo: bicyclesonly/Flickr

If this were true, it would invite the question why it's such a big deal to finish the job, but in fact Sadik-Khan's statistic is simply false. Worse, she's clearly been using this inaccurate figure for quite some time, because she also cited it in a conversation I had with her back in October 2008.

Here are the facts: Because different sections of the loop are open to traffic for different lengths of time, the actual percentage depends on where you are on the loop and also on what you define as "the time" (for example, is it every hour of every day or only the hours when people are actually in the park?). Given this, the actual percentage of time that cars are banned ranges from a low of 25 percent to a high of 94 percent, depending where you are on the loop.

Let's assume that "the time" means every hour of every day. With the West Drive now open to traffic for only two hours on weekday mornings, it's closed to traffic 94 percent of "the time," which is the likely source of Sadik-Khan's "98 percent." But as any recreational user of Central Park knows, the six-mile loop has an East Drive as well, which is open to traffic far longer. The East Drive north of 72nd Street is open from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and the half-mile segment between the Sixth Avenue entrance and the E. 72nd Street exit permits vehicular access from morning until night, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. This means the section north of 72nd is closed to traffic 88 percent of "the time" and the southern section is closed only 64 percent of "the time."

The percentage of car-free time drops if we limit "the time" to weekday hours when people are actually likely to be in the park, and exclude weekends (when cars have been banned for 43 years), the overnight curfew (when no one is allowed in the park anyway), and the period from 10 p.m. to the curfews' start at 1 a.m. If "the time" is instead defined as weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., the West Drive is closed to traffic 87 percent of the time, the northern part of the East Drive is closed 77 percent of the time, and the southern section is closed only one quarter of the time.

Whatever the percentages are, the fact remains that the drives are open to traffic during the precise hours when non-motorized use is highest: before the start of the workday on the West Drive; when kids are getting out of school and adults off from work on the northern section of the East Drive; and virtually all day on the East Drive's southern corner. The commissioner's implicit assertion that the park is almost completely closed to traffic is highly misleading and unhelpful.

On the more hopeful side, Sadik-Khan told Lehrer that closing the park to cars is "something we've been looking at," but she hastened to add that "it's a balancing act in terms of understanding how the traffic flows through this important part of the city."

One wonders how much more data DOT needs before its understanding is complete. Over the past two decades the agency has repeatedly installed traffic counters both in the park and on surrounding streets. After each of its major adjustments to car access it has conducted detailed studies, none of which found any significant traffic problems. Isn't it time DOT heeded the advice that urbanist Jane Jacobs offered me in a letter from 2002?

We had the same sort of fight in Washington Square Park in the late 1950s and in my neighborhood here in Toronto a couple of years ago: same prediction of traffic chaos, same result of no chaos, diminished traffic counts and no counts increased elsewhere in consequence. Isn't it curious that traffic engineers are so loath to learn something new even after repeated demonstrations? Both in Washington Square Park and in my Toronto neighborhood we got our way by pressing for an experimental trial period. A trial, with traffic counts on the Central Park perimeter streets, will be more persuasive than any amount of talk, letter-writing, resolutions, and other endless wheel-spinning.

These small, flimsy flyers are the only thing tipping off pedestrians and cyclists to the presence of more traffic in Central Park. Photo: Ken Coughlin.

The road in question is the southeast corner of the Central Park loop, a half-mile stretch that allows drivers to go from Sixth Avenue to the Upper East Side by cutting across a corner of the park. Two years ago Streetsblog reported that the DOT had quietly done away with "holiday hours" on Central Park's loop road, ending the annual suspension of car-free time that had been used to accommodate motorists during the holidays. The change was a huge success in that the only people who seemed to notice were the park's recreational users, who were delighted. Holiday hours didn't resurface last winter, and the annual holiday traffic plan that DOT produced for 2009 contains no mention of the change [PDF]. (The DOT and Parks Department press offices both directed inquiries to the NYPD.)

Park users may have thought holiday traffic hours were gone for good, but they were wrong.

Would you notice this sign if you were passing by? Photo: Ken Coughlin.

"I was riding home through the park at 8:30 p.m. and cars were pouring in from Sixth Avenue," said commuter cyclist Albert Ahronheim, who first alerted Streetsblog to the extra time allotted to park traffic. "I thought someone must have left the gate open by mistake." Ahronheim only discovered the small signs when he returned the next evening to take a closer look.

By contrast, the city has taken great pains to ensure that any driver traveling up Sixth Avenue is aware of the change. Like a bright star in the east guiding the Three Wise Men to Bethlehem, a large mobile electric sign is positioned at Sixth Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets, announcing in foot-high, blinking letters: "PARK OPEN TILL 9 PM N/B [northbound] ACCESS 59TH AND 6TH EAST DRIVE IN CENTRAL PARK UNTIL 9PM." To ensure that no motorist will fail to remark the glad tidings, a duplicate sign flashes between 58th and 59th Streets -- still enough time to change lanes and speed into the world's most famous urban green space.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Dave Lutz of the Neighborhood Open Space Coalition has been digging through the Municipal Archives and look what he found: a 1938 memo from Robert Moses to Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia about the need to create a network of dedicated bike paths in city parks. Moses's reasoning looks odd to modern eyes, in part because he argues for bike paths as a purely recreational amenity. His rationale for bike infrastructure fails to see cycling as transportation (sound familiar?), choosing instead to segregate bike facilities from the street network.

In this section, where Moses makes a public health argument against having bikes on the street, you can see the streets-are-exclusively-for-cars mindset that famously led him to construct rights-of-way that excluded rail and even buses:

The need for taking children off of public streets where they are constantly threatened with serious injury, and are themselves a hazard to motorists is imperative, and is evidenced by the increasingly numerous letters received from parents and others interested in the welfare of the youth of the city. Every motorist is aware of the hazard created by children of the adolescent age exploring the whole width of the roadway...

Recognizing that bicycles have no place on public highways, and fully aware of the marked rise in enthusiasm and growing interest in bicycling on the part of the general public within the city limits, park executives have for some time been studying the entire park system to ascertain local unsatisfied cycling needs, and where proper facilities can be located advantageously to furnish the opportunity for bicycle riding without too long a delay and without involving large expenditures for construction.

Lutz's sleuthing inspired another tipster, Daniel Bowman Simon, to cull together a collection of press reports from the time, including this coverage of the bike path plan in the New York Times. To Moses's credit, when discussing the impact of the Central Park bike path on cars driving through the park, he offers a surprisingly prescient argument for a road diet:

"All of these pavements," Mr. Moses said, "are now unnecessarily wide, and reducing their width by one lane will have no material effect on the movement of traffic though the park."

From Streetsblog commenter Steve:

Project "Look" may include new programmatic law enforcement efforts targeting bicyclists. Each morning this week we were confronted by a Parks & Rec. Department law enforcement personnel operating checkpoints at different locations on the Central Park Loop.

Today's checkpoint was different than the previous two. There were two serial checkpoints, with the officers at the first one (located midway up a downhill stretch) gathering information on the bicyclists passing them and radioing it down to a more formal checkpoint at the foot of the hill.

We were actually waved through a red light by the officers up the hill, I think because they saw that we were going to stop in time for the red light and thus yield no useful information for the officer at the foot of the hill.

The officer at the foot of the hill didn't seem to be giving out tickets, only warnings. However, we saw him grabbing and detaining bicyclists who attempted to evade him by riding in the traffic lane outside the cones, and giving them extra-long warnings. One of these counseling sessions was actually pretty intense, with the bicyclist attempting to wrench his arm free.

Photo by ifreedman500/Flickr. Click through to see the shot with notes added. 

A Streetsblog reader brings us an update on the case of the cyclist killed last December in the Central Park Transverse, through information obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.

In the documents sent to Streetsblog, it shows that the motor vehicle "struck the bicyclist as both vehicles attempted to merge into the same path in lane to avoid wooden barrier in roadway." As the very short video above, taken this week, shows, not only is the wooden barrier still in place, causing extremely tight conditions on the roadway, but there is a large pothole on the right side of the lane, exacerbating the problem. Here are current photos of the scene.

An eyewitness driving behind the car that hit the cyclist reports: "The bike and the car came together where the road narrowed. He (the motorist) hit her (the cyclist) with the mirror of the car and she hit a wooden divider and fell over the divider onto the sidewalk. The driver stopped about a half-mile down the road, that is when I told him he hit someone."

According to the report, the cyclist did have reflectors on the bike, but was not wearing reflective clothing or a helmet. (The collision happened at approximately 6:30 p.m.)

Initially a breath test was conducted on the driver, which produced no evidence of alcohol consumption. No charges were made against the motorist. The injured cyclist later died of head wounds suffered from the crash. Then on March 15, the driver was issued a summons for "Violation of VTL 1146, Failure to exercise due care." The driver stated he would plead not guilty. Here is the definition of "Due Care" by the NY State DOT:

1146 Drivers to exercise due care. Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law to the contrary, every driver of a vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any bicyclist, pedestrian or domestic animal upon any roadway and shall give warning by sounding the horn when necessary.

On Saturday April 7, the final determination was made by the investigating police officer that "the possible contributing factors in this accident are due to the operator of the vehicle failing to exercise due care in the presence of a bicyclist and the bicyclist's failure to have the required safety equipment." It is not stated in the documents we received whether a court date was set or if a decision had been made.

Streetsblog will continue to investigate and bring you more as we know it. In the meantime, be extremely careful if you use the 66th Street transverse to bike across town, especially going west-bound. It is not safe. It is unclear what purpose the wooden barrier serves. We hope to determine this over the next few days.

From a Streetsblog tipster:

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all get the City Council treatment?

Last night, NYC Councilmember David Weprin made an appearance at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park to let the public know that he helped direct taxpayer dollars to support Shakespeare in the Park. But unlike the hundreds of theater goers who walked the two blocks from Central Park West to the theater, Councilman Weprin had his driver illegally enter the loop road -- which was closed to vehicles so joggers, walkers, and bikers could enjoy some exercise without being menaced by traffic -- drive to the theater, and park illegally on grass and pavers by the side of the road. The area where his car was parked was dense with pedestrians as they gathered for the theater.

Central Park is a big place and one car can always fit in the park, but if everyone were to use Central Park like Councilman Weprin, Central Park would be one big traffic jam and parking lot. I suspect that it never occurred to Councilman Weprin that his driving might damage the fragile fabric of Central Park. Most cars in the city drive without the slightest sense that they are surrounded by children and senior citizens and that their driving harms the neighborhoods through which they pass.

No one likes living in a traffic choked world. The people who drive in New York City need to be aware of how they contribute to the degradation of our communities. Our elected officials should serve as role models for the rest of society rather than sending the message that personal benefit is more important than public good.

Photo: Larry Greenberg, QCLDA

Last week the Dept. of Transportation extended the car-free time on the West Drive of the Central Park loop one extra hour, from 7am to 8am. While this is far short of the goal of a totally Car-Free Central Park, and DOT's failure to make similar improvements in Brooklyn's Prospect Park is inexcusable, the additional car-free hour represents a step in the right direction.

Members of Upper Green Side and Transportation Alternatives woke up early to celebrate the new car-free hours and monitor the situation. DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan stopped by to join the celebration where we thanked her for the extra hour and lobbied her for a total traffic ban in both Central and Prospect Parks. She complimented us on our positive attitude, saying, "I love how with TA folks it's always 'Thank you, and...'"

There were many park users on-hand to celebrate as joggers, cyclists, parents, children and dog owners enjoyed the park uninterrupted by the typical armored column of motor vehicles rumbling down the West Drive. But we did have to turn around a few motorists trying to enter before 8am, telling them they were risking a ticket.

We also kindly asked some motorists that somehow did get into the park to "Slow Down"

A tipster points us to a few good pictures on Flickr from the morning.

In Brooklyn, where over 10,000 Prospect Park have sent postcards to DOT in support of a three-month car-free trial, a coalition of local organizations issued a press release suggesting that "City Hall overlooked several clear and easy options to make Prospect Park safer, healthier and more enjoyable for Brooklynites." These incremental improvements include:

It is our goal to reduce the number of vehicles throughout Central Park.  Not only are we asking all employees to reapply for parking permits but today was the first day of the additional increase in car-free hours in Central Park.

-----Original Message-----
From: Parks Dept. Assistant Commissioner Jack Linn
Sent: Fri 8/3/2007 12:04 PM
To: Broadcast Message
Subject: East Drive Parking Permits

All employee parking permits for Central Park's East Drive are hereby revoked, effective August 15, 2007. If you believe your circumstances justify having a permit for parking, you must reapply by filling out one of the usual forms available in my office.

As always, your request must be endorsed by a Commissioner or Chief on the line provided on the application form.

Anyone who does not now have a permit but feels justified in requesting one may also apply at this time.

However, we intend to reduce the overall number of vehicles on the East Drive, so any request for a permit may be denied, whether it is a request for a renewal or for a first-time permit.

And, of course, you can find lots more on this issue at UncivilServants.org.  

The Boston Globe ran a front-page story yesterday about confrontations among users of the super-popular tree-lined Minuteman Bikeway in Boston. Police have already filed more reports of clashes between users of the bikeway this year than the previous two combined. As the Arlington Police Chief noted, "We have road rage, and now we have bikeway rage."

"It's a good thing that it's used so much," said David Watson, executive director of the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition. "But in some ways I guess you can call it a victim of its own success."

There are cyclists in full-body spandex suits, aerodynamic helmets, and titanium bikes that go fast enough to leave roadkill in their wake. There are roller bladers, swaying back and forth to music playing on headphones. There are dog-walkers, stroller-pushers, and frequent choruses of "On your left!" screamed by cyclists as they whiz by pedestrians.

On weekdays, some subway commuters take the trail to Alewife Station in Cambridge. Pedestrians can be seen reading books as they walk, and a few cyclists chat on cellphones, one hand on the phone and another gripping the handlebars.

This type of "modal conflict" is familiar to users of the West Side bike path and the Central Park loop. And as the New York Times reports in an article this weekend about clashes between dog owners and cyclists, there can be conflict between species as well:

The city Parks Department does not keep statistics on collisions between bikes and dogs. But almost every cyclist and every dog owner seems to have a story about a collision, and there is no lack of finger-pointing as to who is to blame.

"It's the owner's fault," said Alex Rodriguez, race director for the Road Club Association, which has been holding races in the park since the 1920s.

Nancy Kramer, a 59-year-old interior designer who lives on the Upper East Side, says most of the people she sees on her park walks are collegial. "Except for the bikers."

Dear Parks Patron,

Thank you for your letter regarding bicycling in Central Park.

I understand your frustration with a system that seems to make travel through the park more difficult for cyclists. I'm sure you've noticed our parks - especially large parks like Central Park - are more heavily used than ever, with a marked increase in the number of people engaging in active recreation activities. Activity often takes place simultaneously on park roadways and pathways, and park space is shared by many user groups.

Central Park was intentionally designed to accommodate various modes of travel. However, modern automobiles and even bicycles travel at much greater speeds than their counterparts of almost a century ago, and can present a danger to the great numbers of children, the disabled, the elderly, and leashed pets on pedestrian pathways and crosswalks. To help achieve our goal of increasing safety for all park users, we have increased our efforts to enforce vehicular traffic laws on park drives. Motorists are receiving greater numbers of summonses than ever. Bicyclists are also subject to New York State's vehicular traffic laws, and their cooperation results in a safer park environment for pedestrians, motorists, and cyclists alike. Stopping at red lights is part of the vehicular traffic law of New York State, and applies to all road traffic inside and outside city parks.

Many pedestrians, especially those accompanied by children, are often apprehensive about crossing Central Park's roadways because of bicyclists who fail to yield to pedestrians. Issuing summonses to bicyclists who ignore red lights is one legal tool that effectively curbs reckless cyclists, and raises awareness among cyclists about the very real dangers of failing to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks. Ideally, this will result in the same type of self-policing among responsible cyclists that has been adopted by dog owners in our parks.
We do not want to change the state's traffic laws, however, I appreciate, as do law enforcement personnel, that effective self-policing would reduce the need for stringent enforcement measures.

Parks has been - and remains - a staunch ally of bicycling as both an environmentally sound means of transportation, and an effective way to maintain physical fitness. Our advocacy is supported by the current city administration, which is actively planning for New York City's future as a "greener" environment. Improving and expanding bicycling opportunities is an important part of this planning.

At Parks, we continue to work with the New York City Department of Health, the Department of Transportation, and advocate organizations such as Bike New York and Transportation Alternatives to support and promote bicycling in New York City.

Our purpose in enforcing vehicular traffic laws is not to discourage bicycling on parkland, but rather to increase safety for cyclists and other park patrons. More and more, bicycles are being recognized and advocated for as practical means of daily transportation for city dwellers. Along with motorists' acceptance of bicycles as vehicles with equal rights to the road, comes greater responsibility for cyclists to observe vehicular traffic laws.

We appreciate your taking the time to write about this issue, and we welcome this opportunity to clarify our concerns and our actions. Should you have any other questions, please feel free to call our Chief of Urban Park Service, Mike Dockett, at 212-360-2778.

Sincerely,

Kevin Jeffrey

Channel 7 has the story of a woman hit by a car in Central Park last night. (By the way, buy a Toyota!)

1. Streetsblog contributor Seve's video, "Cars Ruin Central Park." There are lots of good arguments against allowing automobiles to dominate Central Park's Loop Drives but this silent one-and-a-half minute video is one the most compelling I've seen put forward. Seriously. Check it out (and if you want to submit video, upload it to YouTube and tag it "streetsblog"):

2. Steve has also been video taping what he calls "Bike Lane Counseling Sessions" in which he rolls up on his bicycle and urges motorists who are double-parked on bike lanes to move somewhere else. Steve is also responsible for the Upper West Side cluster on MyBikeLane.com. I love Steve's work and I very much fear for his safety.

3. While we're on the theme of bike lane blocking and Central Park, Streetsblog reader Alex Kahl writes to say that he's been noticing a lot of horse excrement in the Central Park bike path lately.

Dear Streetsblog,

On my ride home this evening I was forced to ride into to traffic to due a horse drawn carriage in the bike lane. Every time I ride by a carriage blocking the bike lane, I point out that they are in fact blocking the bike lane and the car lane. A reasonable assessment of the situation would seem to be that horse buggies must drive in the normal lane of traffic, especially because they are too wide for merely the bike lane. As a result, not only do they impede bicycle use but their width still reduces the number of traffic lanes on CPW from two to one.

This evening, one of the buggy drivers (busy talking on his hand-free wireless phone mind you) replied that because he was not driving a motor vehicle, he is able to drive his carriage in the bike lane. It took about 15 seconds for this to sink in. I stopped my bike and waited for the carriage to arrive. Oddly, as the carriage approached me, the horse began to gallop. Add to the dangerous situation is the fact that another cyclist -- at this very moment -- decided to try to pass the carriage on the left by entering traffic.

The other cyclist, upon seeing me stopped in the bike lane, slowed down just in time to get hit by the galloping horse buggy. The cyclist managed to avoid injury but the buggy ran over and semi-taco'ed his rear wheel. As the accident occured, I began screaming like a maniac for the driver to stop. In my fit of screaming, I even reached up and tried to grab his arm to let him know he was running over someone on the other side of his buggy.

Of course, the passengers of the buggy are now yelling at me (not realizing that I am raising hell because a cyclist nearly got squished between thier carriage and speeding taxis). As the horse and buggy turned down the park entrance in front of Tavern on the Green, I checked on the other cyclist -- he was fine but his bike was not. As the other cyclist used his phone to report the accident, I rode after the buggy to get his license plate.

Unfortunately, I was still a bit angry and yelled at him for driving in the bike lane and running over a cyclist. He and his passengers began yelling back. at this point my rational side came to the fore, and I realized how stupid the whole situation was. Leaving them yelling, I returned to the other cyclist. In hindsight, I feel bad about yelling at the buggy driver. But, when human life appears to be in danger, reasoned speech is difficult to muster.

Because the whole situation escalated from me talking to him yelling and then everyone yelling, I feel especially culpable. Yet, when I consider my blame in light of the hazard posed to my and others safety, I would do it all over again. In the end, I am still curious: Where should horsedrawn carriages drive when a city street has a bike lane?

--Alex

Recent reports have drawn attention to city officials abusing their parking privileges around municipal buildings in crowded commercial districts. Images of portly desk-sitting bureaucrats and suburban police officers come to mind. 

But surely not all city employees suffer from this behind-the-windshield mentality. You'd think that more environmentally aware, active employees, such as those who work in Central Park, "the lungs of New York City," would be the exception to this. 

Sadly, you'd be wrong. 

As the following images show, city employees are turning Central Park into a parking lot. While the parking violations are not as thoroughly egregious as in other parts of town, it is nonetheless discouraging to see the city's precious parkland used as a parking lot. And it is unfortunate that Parks Department employees aren't encouraged to find a less destructive way to get to their jobs. Making matters worse, in getting to their free parking spaces these employees must drive on what are supposed to be car-free roads and pathways, compromising the park experience for hundreds if not thousands of human-powered users. Certainly Olmsted and Vaux, the designers of Central Park, never intended for their creation to be used as a parking lot.  

Approaching the Park from the south the photo above shows the non-public but still much-used roadway entering at Fifth Avenue. It is more than a quarter mile long and it is entirely packed with the private automobiles of city employees. It is interesting that this area hasn't been renovated like so many other portions of the park.

Sure there is a parking lot nearby, in the park, behind the Arsenal and zoo, but it is way too small to fit every single car with a city parking permit on its dashboard.

On the other side of the park at Columbus Circle, where cyclists have been fighting for an extension of the Eighth Avenue bike lane to provide them with safer access into Central Park, the no-stopping-zone curb is packed solid with permit-bedecked cars, often two deep.

Particularly offensive are those who block the sidewalk curb-cut at the Columbus Circle entrance to the Park.

Traveling north, we find an array of conveniently placed parking lots to accommodate numerous Parks employees. You may think the cars filling the parking lot at the Boat House just north of 72nd Street along the East Drive belong to tourists pumping money into our economy. Think again. You'll find parking permits aplenty in the windshields.

Travel a little further north and there is a lovely parking lot by the Rambles shed across the road from the Met. This must be just as Olmsted and Vaux planned it. Why, thank you Parks Department for preserving their rustic vision!

At 86th Street it is a veritable parking bonanza along the bridle path at the south end of the Reservoir. Best of all you can get here from East Drive or West Drive and also from the 86th Street Transverse. Sure, there is also a parking lot on the Transverse by the police station, but it fills up so quickly. Hey, I don't see any "No Parking" signs here, do you?

If by now you still haven't found a parking spot in Central Park then try the 96th Street Recreation Center. Don't worry about blocking the basketball hoops. I mean, what do you think this is Central Park or Central Park(ing)? 

Along the west side, there are still more parking accommodations, such as at the sanitation plant near Delacorte Theater. And if the parking lot is full, the old bridle path is right there to handle the overflow. I guess those horses didn't bargain hard enough at contract time. They ought to get some new union reps.

About the only lot that isn't overflowing is the one at Tavern on the Green. Hmm... I wonder why. Oh, hey, it's valet parking only. If you wanted to park here, you would actually have to pay money.  What sort of sucker would do that?

Might this be the real reason our park isn't car free?