New York City Mayor Plans To Ban Cars On Central Park

According to a Daily News report on Friday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is planning to ban cars in Central Park from June.

According the plan, cars will not be allowed on a handful of roads below 72nd St. in Central Park, where motorists are currently allowed to drive alongside pedestrians and cyclists during certain hours of the day. Safety and transportation advocates have been urging the city administration for years to close the park to cars, a source close to city administration told the Daily News.

The move comes months after Prospect Park, a public park in New York City borough of Brooklyn, went car free from Jan 1. Members from the city council previously introduced a legislation to ban cars from the park’s loop drives. Currently, cars are allowed on Centre Drive from 7 a.m. to7 p.m on weekdays and on 72nd cross street drive from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on weekdays. Similarly, only high-occupancy vehicles are allowed on West Drive from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on weekdays.

Also horse-drawn carriages will be moved to inside the park and off Central Park South, where they currently gather. Carriage drivers have been fighting for this change for years.

About 1,000 people walk, jog, or bike through the park on weekday mornings, and about 300 vehicles use it during the same period, according to the city’s transportation department. The New York City administration officials said they received several petitions supporting a ban.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the Mayor said he and others had worked to prohibit cars in Prospect Park since his days as a New York City councilman. He noted that he and his wife, Chirlane McCray, were married in the park and their two children played there.

Mitchell Moss, director of the Rudin Centre for Transportation Policy and Management at New York University and a former adviser to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said the ban was “long overdue.”

This summer, the city ran a car-free trial, shutting down West Drive even during rush hours and found it didn’t increase traffic much on the surrounding roads. Though authorities are yet to get the final report regarding the efficacy of the project, preliminary results showed that traffic no alternative routes witnessed congestions due to the move, according to a report from the Prospect Park Alliance.