Safety

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Finally, banning cars from Central Park would make the city safer. When the original Greens-ward plan was developed in the 19th century, Vaux and Olmsted created a series of pedestrian tunnels under the loop drive to ensure that pedestrians wouldn't have to encounter carriages on the drive above. In the late 20th century, the park's trees cast longer shadows, the shrubbery is thicker, and those tunnels are forbidding places. On the drive itself, more recreational users are vying for the limited space.

Fast bicycles and the 15 mph speed limit imposed on them since late 1991 have made headlines, but few have talked about the far greater danger posed by automobiles (which take up the majority of the recreational space and have no such speed limit imposed on them). Without cars, there would be room for cyclists, skaters, joggers and walkers to arrive at a voluntary lane system geared to varying speeds and styles.

A survey by the New York Road Runners Club shows how desperate park users are to have a more user-friendly place to work out: 22% of recreational users said that if cars were banned they would begin using the park during the morning rush hour and 44% during the evening rush hour. [5] With use concentrated during certain hours, limited off-hour times might be set aside for bicycle racers to train. Without the current confusion of changing auto-free hours, a set of permanent, clearly posted signs could be established to let all park users know what to expect, and when to expect it.

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