Why Getting Cars Out Of Central Park Is So Important
CARS OUT NOW!

If we can't escape from the noise and insult of automobile while visiting Central Park, where can we go? Center stage in the struggle to stop cars from completely overrunning New York City stands Central Park. Here, the absurdity of allowing cars to dominate our lives is most glaring. Packs of screeching taxis drown out conversations and rustling leaves, and careen past cyclists, joggers and parents pushing baby carriages.

For 25 years, citizens striving for a more humane city have been struggling to make Central Park car free. Their quest has seen steady progress, but has been stymied by pervasive misconceptions, and the resistance of a tiny group who cling to their motoring privilege.

The World Turned Upside Down
Cars are in the Park because we as a City and society have accepted the idea that motorists have the right to drive everywhere, no matter the cost to others. Motorists' "needs" are often cast in immutable terms - as if they need to be able to drive where they wish, like most of us need food, shelter, and air. Motorists are never really expected to take transit walk or bicycle. They "need!' to drive, and we must accommodate this "need."

Because of this ridiculous assumption, the walkers, joggers, cyclists, skaters, ball players, and ramblers the Park is intended to serve have had to prove that our needs outweigh those of intrusive and destructive motorists.

Cab Conduit
Though the Department of Transportation treats the Park as a traffic safety valve, allowing cars in the Park actually encourages driving and creates more traffic. Empty cabs prowl the Upper East and West sides precisely because the Park allows them a quick trip into the business district. Indeed, 70% of the cars using the Park are taxi or livery cabs, almost all of them carrying only one person. All of the motorists driving through the Park each morning would only fill half of one subway train.

The Safety Myth
Make no mistake: cars bring danger to Central Park. They crowd cyclists, skaters and joggers together. At night motorists drive at high speeds, spreading anxiety and occasionally harassing late night cyclists and joggers. A 1979 Parks Department Blue Ribbon panel actually cited extensive damage to the Park as a reason for keeping cars out during overnight hours. The Central Park Police Precinct agrees with Transportation Alternatives that cars do not make late night Park users safer.

The Time Is Now
In 1991 Transportation Alternatives staged the first Auto-Free Central Park rally. That and 20 subsequent actions, succeeded in recent extension of "summer hours" and the support of Ruth Messinger, the Manhattan Borough President On June 3 we are staging another mass rally. It will be a rally by citizens who no longer accept the idea that they must always bow to the automobile.

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