Cars Return To Prospect Park — For Now

PROSPECT PARK, BROOKLYN — Car traffic returned to Prospect Park during Monday's morning rush-hour after a motor vehicle-free summer in Brooklyn's backyard.

Cars had been banned from the park's East Drive during a two-month pilot that expired on Monday, Sept. 11. Now, cars are free to once again cut through the park on the road from 7 a.m. until 9 a.m. on weekday mornings.

But the city's Department of Transportation says that following the "well-received summer pilot," the future of traffic in the park is being considered.

"We are analyzing data collected from the pilot during those low-volume months, and we will collect additional data with the Drive reopened in order to make future determinations about vehicles on the East Drive," a DOT spokesperson told Patch in an emailed statement.

"We will continue to consult with local elected officials and stakeholders and look forward to sharing our findings."

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Some people in Brooklyn want to see cars banished forever from the park. The West Drive was closed to them two years ago.

"They're parks. They're not meant for driving. They're not meant to be shortcuts," said Doug Gordon, a Park Slope resident who advocates for safer streets.

"They’re meant to be respites from the city. They're meant to be places where you can enjoy exercising or just sitting quietly, and cars are antithetical to the mission of what parks are about."

A petition by the organization Transportation Alternatives, calling for a permanently car-free Prospect Park, has more than 1,000 signatures.

The Prospect Park Alliance, the nonprofit that works with the city to manage the park, said it will review the DOT data as well.

"Prospect Park Alliance was excited to partner with the NYC DOT and NYC Parks on this pilot summer program, as part of our mission to engage the community and enhance the Park experience," Lucy Gardner, a spokeswoman for the alliance, told Patch in a statement.

"NYC DOT is now analyzing the data they collected during this pilot and we look forward to reviewing this data with them."

Car-free advocates point to the West Drive shutdown as proof that a similar move on the East Drive — which snakes its way from Machate Circle on the south west corner of the park, around the east side to Grand Army Plaza — would work. According to DOT data, after that closure travel time along an alternate route increased by less than a minute.

And in the summer, according to the city, about 300 cars pass through the East Drive compared to about 1,000 walkers, runners and cyclists. During the fall, the number of drivers on East Drive is more than 400 per hour, according to DOT.

"When you're running in the park or you're just relaxing in the park, when there are cars allowed in, they feel like invaders," Gordon told Patch.

"You can be sitting there or running or walking or biking and just enjoying the peace and quiet in the park. And then every few minutes you hear this roar, this rumble of cars coming. And it's usually only one or two or three cars at at time, but it's just this intermittent disturbance that feels unnecessary for the number of cars we're accommodating."

Gordon said people were "predicting doom and gloom and traffic backups for years" when the West Drive shutdown was proposed. "And then when that eventually materialized, none of that happened. The east side will probably play out the same way."

He hopes the DOT can wrap up its study quickly.

"The majority of people who are on foot or on bikes or running or walking or sitting around just don't want the cars there," he said. "They should get this study sone as quickly as possible and then make what we all know is the inevitable decision.

"It's a park. Cars don't belong."

AP Photo/Kathy Willens