Freeing the Park
New York Post
By Kit Hodge, Transportation Alternatives

[ Return to T.A. Quotes in the Media | Read the latest news on Car-Free Central Park | View this article on the New York Post Web site ]

On Sunday, Mayor Bloomberg and his administration took a stand for the hundreds of thousands of people in Harlem and the Upper West and East Sides who won't be skiing in Colorado this winter or swimming in the Hamptons this summer.

By closing five entrances and reducing the number of hours that people are allowed to drive on Central Park's loop drive to just seven hours a day during the week, the mayor took an historic step toward returning Central Park's loop drive to a safe and healthy place to play, exercise and escape — in other words, a park.

The reduced car hours and entrance closures are a response to the increasingly loud call from health experts, elected officials and park users for a trial closing of Central Park's loop drive to drivers. This call promises only to grow louder in the coming months.

For all New Yorkers, and especially those who lack access to weekend getaways, Central Park is a rare place to escape the city's noise, pollution and frantic pace. Indeed, when Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux built Central Park in 1857, they intended it to be an "urban oasis."

And never has the need for an urban oasis been greater. Obesity and asthma rates — particularly among children — are at epidemic levels in New York City. Health professionals are increasingly recognizing that walking, jumping rope, running, whizzing down a slide and bicycling are not just fun; they're some of the best medicines we have to prevent and fight obesity.

But allowing driving on the park's loop drive discourages untold thousands of children and adults from using the park for much needed exercise. And the park remains open to traffic at the same time children leave school and many adults get off work.

A totally car-free park drive would give children a safe place to play and exercise after school as well as a pollution-free and safe place for the city's many aspiring Olympians of all ages to train.

From the kids and parents of Harlem, who suffer from some of the highest obesity and asthma rates in the country, to the tourists from abroad whose carriage ride through the park during car hours is much less magical than they paid for, the cry for a car-free loop drive has never been louder.

In late October, 1,000 New Yorkers came together to rally for a car-free Central Park loop drive. The standing-room-only crowd celebrated the fact that councilmembers in the districts around the park, 75,000 park users and a long list of civic and health groups, including the American Lung Association of the City of New York, have all endorsed a trial closure of the park's loop road to drivers.

Mayor Bloomberg's wise decision to increase car-free hours in the park and close entrances reflects the recent surge in support for a car-free Central Park: More people are recreating while fewer people are driving in the park; more New Yorkers are fighting obesity and asthma, while fewer people have the resources to buy expensive gym memberships or ultrasonic nebulizers; more kids need a safe place to play after school, while fewer options are available.

The MetroCard Mayor also recognizes that the privileged few who can afford to drive through the park can also afford to do what the rest of New York does when it needs to get around: take the train, bus, ferry, walk or bicycle. (In 2000, less than one-half of 1 percent of drivers entering Midtown Manhattan entered via the park's loop drive.)

And for those who must drive, including taxi and livery car drivers, there's good news: A new study shows that closing the loop drive will actually lead to less traffic at key locations, including on Fifth Avenue and at Central Park West intersections.

Thank you, Mayor Bloomberg, for standing up for New Yorkers, who depend on Central Park as a safe and healthy place to escape, play, relax and exercise. The tens of thousands of New Yorkers on record in support of a car-free park look forward to standing with you when you cut the ribbon on a completely car-free Central Park loop drive.

Kit Hodge is campaign coordinator for Transportation Alternatives.

[ Return to T.A. Quotes in the Media | Read the latest news on Car-Free Central Park | View this article on the New York Post Web site ]