• Elected Officials and Organizations
• Testimony of Support from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer
• American Lung Association Statement of Support
• Health Professional Letter of Support

Elected Officials The following elected officials support at least a three-month trial closing of Central Park's loop drive to cars: Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President John C. Liu, City Council Transportation Committee Chair Gale Brewer, City Council Member, Upper West Side Robert Jackson, City Councilmember, Harlem Melissa Mark-Viverito, City Councilmember, Harlem Jessica Lappin, City Councilmember, Upper East Side Daniel R. Garodnick, City Councilmember, Upper East Side Betsy Gotbaum, Public Advocate

Organizations: American Lung Association of New York City Auto-Free New York Central Park Track Club City Club of New York Environmental Defense Fund Environmental Justice Alliance Fast & Fabulous Five Borough Bicycle Club Kissena Cycling Club Green Guerillas Moving Comfort Municipal Art Society Natural Resources Defense Council New York Cycle Club New York Flyers New York League of Conservation Voters New York Public Interest Research Group Regional Plan Association Sierra Club Straphangers Campaign Time's Up Transportation Alternatives Tri-State Transportation Campaign The Weekday Cyclists in NYC West Harlem Environmental Action

Statement of the American Lung Association of the City of New York in Support of a Car-Free Central Park

October 2002

Each day, thousands of New Yorkers exercise along Central Park's Loop Drive.

Unfortunately, vehicles are still permitted on the Loop Drive during the workweek, forcing park users to exercise within dangerous proximity to cars emitting harmful pollutants that include ozone, carbon monoxide, fine particles, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

These pollutants are particularly dangerous when people are exercising, because more air is being breathed and the air is drawn deeper into the lungs. Furthermore, during heavy exercise, people breathe more through their mouths and therefore bypass the body's first line of defense against pollution -- the nose. As a result of these increased dangers, the American Lung Association has long recommended that people avoid congested streets and rush hour traffic when exercising, as pollution levels can be elevated a significant distance from the roadway.

For these reasons, the American Lung Association of the City of New York supports Transportation Alternatives in their effort to eliminate car traffic from the Central Park Loop Drive. Doing so will return the drive to its original purpose: a healthier, cleaner place where New Yorkers can exercise and enjoy the city.

Testimony of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer Before the NYC Committee on Transportation In Support of Intro 276 for a Car-Free Central Park, May 2006

Good morning, Chairman Liu and members of the committee. I am Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. I want to thank Chairman Liu for the opportunity to testify in support of Intro 276, which would create a trial period this summer for a car-free Central Park. Closure of the loop drive in Central Park would drastically improve the park experience for New York's residents and visitors.

Summer in Central Park is a chance for hundreds of thousands of people to enjoy the outdoors – whether it's by strolling, sitting, walking, biking, skating or visiting the park's several attractions. Ideally, visitors could do these things without the safety hazards and noise that come with traffic. With fewer residents in the city and fewer cars on the streets during the summer, it is a timely opportunity to close the loop drive. A three-month trial period would allow for effective measurement of the traffic impacts. For these reasons, I strongly support passage of Intro. 276, sponsored by Councilmember Gale Brewer.

In addition to improving the park experience for thousands of visitors, this trial-run would be a step toward restoring the park designers' original intent. Olmsted and Vaux. designed Central Park as a refuge from the noise and congestion of the city. For thirty years after it opened, the park was indeed car-free. The transverse drives were intentionally sunk below grade to mitigate the burden of cars on park goers. Over time, however, the use of the loop drives as a through route for motor vehicles became common. This practice detracts from the overall park atmosphere and should be reversed.

According to studies of traffic flow, closing the loop would have little to no effect on traffic in the surrounding avenues and streets. If we move forward on this proposal, Department of Transportation (DOT) will have the opportunity to monitor surrounding traffic conditions in a real world application. Should the trial period yield unanticipated and undesirable traffic impacts, closure of the loop drive can be reconsidered. But it is necessary to move ahead with a trial period to determine the full effect.

The Mayor's recent proposal to extend the car free hours in Central Park starting next month is a step forward. However, only a full loop drive closure this summer will give us valuable and necessary information about the true impact of vehicles in Central Park.

Currently, when walkers, joggers, runners, bikers and skaters crowd the park's two narrow lanes, they must fear for their safety and breathe auto exhaust as they attempt exercise and enjoy the park. They will thank you for moving forward with this golden opportunity.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I hope to see you all this summer in Car Free Central Park.

Health Professional Letter of Support

Michael Bloomberg
Mayor of New York City
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
November 21, 2004

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

We are writing today to urge you to close the Central Park loop drive to driving in order to protect and improve the health of the hundreds of thousands of people who live, work and play near or in the park. (We are not asking you to close the four transverse drives.)

As you are probably already aware, obesity has become an epidemic around the country and here in New York City. Allowing driving on the park's loop drive discourages untold thousands of children and adults from using the park for much needed exercise. Congratulations to you for investing $25 million in building new school playgrounds to help increase opportunities to play and exercise. Closing Central Park's loop drive to driving would be a free and immediate way to provide acres of safe play space for thousands of children.

Currently, the park is open to driving at the same time children leave school. A car-free park loop drive would give children a safe place to play and exercise after school as well as a healthy and safe place for the city's many aspiring Olympians to train.

We would also like to draw your attention to the American Lung Association's recent endorsement of a car-free Central Park loop drive. The well-respected ALA observed that, when the park is open to driving, park users are forced to exercise within dangerous proximity to cars emitting harmful pollutants that include ozone, carbon monoxide, fine particles, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. Inhaling these pollutants can trigger asthma and other serious health problems. During the period that Atlanta made parts of the city off-limits to private cars during the 1996 Summer Olympics, hospitalizations for asthma fell by almost 20%.

For these reasons, we urge you to continue to champion improving the health of millions of New Yorkers by permanently closing the Central Park loop to driving. The health of our city is far more important than the minimal benefit to an increasingly tiny number of drivers.

We look forward to the day when New York City doctors, runners, bicyclists, and park lovers of every stripe can stand with you to cut the ribbon on a car-free Central Park loop drive.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Delphine Taylor, M.D. Columbia University Medical Center Aaron Spital, M.D. Medical Director New York Organ Donor Network Dianne Pulte, M.D. VA New York Harbor Healthcare System, New York Campus and the Weill Cornell Medical Center Aaron Spital, M.D. NYODN Phil Noyes, MPH, MA Research Scientist Brooklyn District Public Health Office NYC DOHMH

Carol Jellett, M.D. St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center Joseph Asbury, M.D. Internist David Alfandre M.D. Andrea Truncali, MD Chief Resident, Section of Primary Care Department of Internal Medicine NYU School of Medicine Deborah Dowell, M.D. Abigail Wolfson, BSN, RN Pediatric Nurse Practitioner

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Statements on the Health Benefits of Closing the
Central Park Loop Drive to Driving

Barbara A. Barlow, M.D. Department of Surgery, Director of Injury, Speaking for the Free Coalition for Kids
We use the parks in Harlem and Central Park very broadly in our youth activities and it is very important for us that the Park be a safe place for children to play, to bike, to skate, to walk—for children and their families to enjoy a peaceful piece of greenery in the midst of all this concrete. We know that nationally there is a problem with obesity in children and this is a true problem in NYC, but it is hard for parents to let their child recreate with cars in Central Park. So it is a real needed thing for our community—for our Harlem community—and for the city that there is a safe place away from cars to bike, walk, exercise and run."

Dr. Vincent Hutchinson, Assistant Director of Pediatrics at Harlem Hospital
Simply closing Central Park's Loop Drive would reduce the risk for Harlem kids, a whopping 25% of whom suffer from asthma. "It would have a tremendous impact. It is well established that car fumes and exhaust do get into the lungs, and we know that asthma attacks are triggered by exposure to car exhaust so I think it would be a tremendous benefit to our children."

Erik A. Cliette, Director of the Harlem Hospital Injury Prevention Program
"I think one of the possibilities we think about as we [look forward to a car-free Central Park] is that children would have a lot more access to riding in the Park. It would give children a real opportunity to ride around—probably less supervised, probably eliminate some of the fear parents have of some vehicle, some motorist not paying attention and side-swiping a cyclist. And in that regard I think many parents would feel a lot more secure about being in an environment where there were fewer or less cars riding around Central Park. It is also a really, really beautiful area, children have an opportunity to see lots of trees and grass and certainly in Manhattan that is a novelty."

Environmental Defense's "The Dangerous Days of Summer"
During 22 of the 101 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day, New York City air is so bad that New York City's 188,596 asthmatic kids put themselves at serious risk just by venturing outdoors. The report places 80% of the blame on New York City's mobile source” (car and truck) emissions. During the period that Atlanta made parts of the city off-limits to private cars during the 1996 Summer Olympics, hospitalizations for asthma fell by almost 20%.

Natural Resources Defense Council
"New Yorkers walk, ride bikes, and use transit more than anybody else in the country and it just seems a city like this—that has so many people living and working together—should have one place where we play together. And we have that in Central Park. But it doesn't make any sense to mix cars with kids and people who are running as hard they can—and yet having to breathe car fumes. People who are on bikes who should have one place in the city they don't have to be worried about being hit by a car. People who are on playgrounds who don't have to worry about the taxis going by are going to trigger an asthma attack.

Central Park is a place that people should be able to come to play as hard as they want and not have to worry about accidents and car fumes."