WINDSOR TERRACE -- Flying in the face of Transportation Alternatives' aggressive campaign for a "Car-Free Prospect Park," a group of Windsor Terrace residents, joined by leaders of Community Boards 7 and 14, plan a morning press conference on Thursday at Park Circle, the intersection of Prospect Park Southwest and Parkside Avenue.

The group, known as the Windsor Terrace Alliance, believes that closing the park drives, which currently are open northbound for two hours on weekday mornings and southbound for two hours on weekday evenings, would flood nearby streets with traffic.

"There are serious concerns," the group said in a prepared statement. "Residents living on Prospect Park Southwest and on many of the side streets off this road have been complaining for years about dangerous traffic conditions."

"Also, keep in mind that Prospect Park West, the likely first detour street if West Drive [within the park] is shut to cars, is three lanes wide. After circling Bartel Pritchard Square, these vehicles will then be squeezed into one eastbound lane of Prospect Park Southwest," said the statement.

The campaign to close Prospect Park to car traffic began in the 1960s, when cars were allowed to go through the park 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Little by little, auto use within the park has been scaled down. Car-free park proponents say that the drives, unlike those in Central Park, are built at the same level as the parkland itself, creating more of a hazard for recreational park users.

The Windsor Terrace Alliance also charges that "neither that group [Transportation Alternatives] nor the several elected officials who are supporting this proposal consulted with Windsor Terrace's representatives at the community board level or any local community groups that we're aware of."

Wiley Norvell, communications director of Transportation Alternatives, said, "We take issue with that claim." He said that during the summer, members of its youth campaign interacted with Community Boards 7 and 14, a social service group known as Project Reach Youth and the Prospect Park Youth Council.

These interactions may not have been directly related to the Car-Free Prospect Park Campaign, but, says Norvell, "Our stand on cars in the park has been well-known for many years. Our position on this issue is 20 years old."

Norvell criticized the theory that "the movement of traffic is like water, that if it doesn't go on one street, it will go onto the next street."

The reality, he said, is more flexible. In such a situation, he said, you will find a substantial number of drivers who will instead opt for public transportation or walking, or for driving at a different time of the day.

Transportation Alternatives, which has a large Brooklyn presence, describes itself as an organization whose mission it is "to reclaim New York City's streets from the automobile, and to advocate for bicycling, walking and public transit as the best transportation alternatives."

The Thursday press conference will take place at 8 a.m., when many people are going to work.

--Raanan Geberer