Car-Free Parks

The very first Streetfilm was released 10 years ago, for a campaign that's on the verge of a major milestone today.

Two separate crashes in which cyclists struck and killed pedestrians on the Central Park loop have garnered more media attention than any other traffic safety issue in the past two months. In addition to the inevitable reemergence of a few bikelash trolls, the collisions have led to a round of less spiteful stories that still miss the mark, framing the whole issue in terms of adherence to traffic lights. Collisions on the loop roads in both Central Park and Prospect Park are preventable, but trying to compel pedestrians and cyclists to obey signals won't get the job done.

Six years ago, when Summer Streets was introduced, the New York Times asked: Will it work? This year, the question is: Why isn't the city doing more of it?

Last year, the city announced that much of Central Park's loop drives would go car-free all summer long. With temperatures warming, the park is again filling with people walking, jogging, and biking -- all sharing space with car commuters looking for a rush-hour shortcut. Will it happen again -- or expand -- this year? Negotiations are underway to bring a car-free summer back to Central Park, and meanwhile it's still an open question whether Prospect Park users will get similar summer traffic relief for the first time.

After news broke that the east and west drives of Central Park will be car-free for two months this summer, this seemed like a fitting installment from the vault of Clarence Eckerson this week: The Transportation Alternatives 1997 Earth Day ride, which held up the goal of a car-free park Central Park as a symbol of environmentally-friendly transportation policies.

New York City's parks are supposed to be a respite from the noise and stress of the city. It seems a few people haven't got the message -- and are using the Hudson River Greenway bicycle and pedestrian path as their personal driveway to the Upper Manhattan waterfront.

Last month, Streetsblog reported that the Central Park loop would be getting a new lane configuration to clarify where pedestrians and cyclists belong, similar to changes recently implemented in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Less than 30 days after the announcement, walkers, joggers, and bike riders are all getting some extra room in the park, while the space for cars has been narrowed to one lane, calming vehicular traffic. Reader Rod Huntress sent in these photos from a ride this morning.

When New York City played host to the 1939 World's Fair, the most influential attraction in Flushing Meadows was General Motors' Futurama, a miniature vision of a future with highways crisscrossing through cities and mass ownership of the personal automobile. A science fiction vision at the time, it wasn't far off from what ultimately happened.

The two-way, buffered bike lane across Central Park on 72nd Street is rounding into form, with most but not all of the markings in place, readers tell us. The path is rideable in both directions, adding a critical piece of east-west connectivity to the bike network.