Prospect Park To Go Car-Free Permanently

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Prospect Park will soon be car free permanently, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday morning. Private vehicles will not be allowed on any park roads starting Jan. 2, 2018.

The announcement follows a car-free summer which let the Department of Transportation study the impact the ban would have on traffic outside of the park.

"The park was built before the automobile existed," de Blasio said Monday, standing in Grand Army Plaza. "The park was not built with cars in mind. They didn’t exist.

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"The park was built for people. It was built to be an oasis. It was built to be a place of peace and safety."

Currently, cars are allowed to use the East Drive — which runs from Machate Circle on the southwest corner of the park around the east side to Grand Army Plaza — between 7 to 9 a.m.

During those hours, the mayor's office said, people outnumber cars more than 3 to 1. And when Prospect Park was totally car free this summer, from July 17 through Sept. 11, other roads in the area saw no more than a "minimal delay" because of the extra traffic.

The West Drive has been permanently closed to cars for two years.

Other automobiles such as police cars, garbage trucks and Parks Department vehicles will still run through the park. Sue Donoghue, president of the Prospect Park Alliance, the nonprofit that works with the city to manage the park, noted that those vehicles must travel at slow speeds and use flashers to announce their presence.

DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg told reporters after Monday's event that the department is waiting until the new year to implement the ban so it can do some further testing on the alternative car routes.

"We took some time in the past month and a half to study all the data, and we want to take this time between now and the new year to do some signal timing and some other things, particularly in the southeastern neighborhood outside the park, so we minimize any traffic impact that those communities experience," Trottenberg said.

City Councilman Brad Lander, who represents Park Slope and Windsor Terrace, noted that there would be a lot of people happy about the announcement, including seniors who walk in the park, cyclists and joggers. Dogs and squirrels should be pleased too, he said.

"And I guess the cows as well," Lander said to laughs. "The Brooklyn Cow, it's true, did not make it across to Park Drive."

Lander also said the gradual phase out was a positive and helped lead to the current lack of cars there now.

"I would love to have seen (the ban) long ago, but I do feel like the step-by-step way of getting here was a good one. Had this been done in 2002 or 2005 it would have led to a big backlash and a whole new fight," Lander said.

Monday's announcement marked the beginning of de Blasio's "City Hall in Your Borough" week in Brooklyn, when the mayor will host a series of events in the area and set up a satellite office at Borough Hall in Downtown Brooklyn.

Photos by Marc Torrence, Patch