Drive Is Building to Ban Automobiles from Oasis of Central Park

The campaign to prohibit drivers from Central Park has been waged for more than 33 years, but never has there been such wide political support for at least a test of a traffic ban on the park's loop drive, organizers said yesterday.

Armed with 100,000 signatures, the support of every City Council member whose district touches the park, and a resolution about to be put forward by Council Member Gale Brewer, the president of Transportation Alternatives, Paul Steely White, said he is confident a three-month test of such a ban can be implemented during the summer months.

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, the president of Manhattan, Scott Stringer, and the chairman of the council's Transportation Committee, John Liu, came out strongly in favor of the proposal at a press conference yesterday. Mr. Liu, a supporter of alternative transportation, arrived wearing inline skates.

"Central Park is an oasis where people go to get away from traffic," Mr. Stringer said to the crowd of more than 100 supporters on the steps of City Hall.

The park's designers, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, sought to build a tree-laden escape from the city's never-ending pavement and frenzied pace. Of the salutary effect of walking through a park, Olmsted said, "The enjoyment of scenery employs the mind without fatigue and yet exercises it; tranquilizes it and yet enlivens it; and thus, through the influence of the mind over the body gives the effect of refreshing rest and reinvigoration to the whole system."

The steady stream of traffic on the six mile roadway loop around the park not only poses a risk to people going out for recreation or exercise, but it also demeans the haven-like experience of the park, campaign organizers said.

Transportation Alternatives is not lobbying to stop traffic through the four East-West transverses, which were part of the original design of the park. City vehicles, including ambulances and parks vehicles, would still be allowed to use the loop under the proposal.

The president of the New York Taxi Workers' Alliance, Bhairavi Desai, said her organization hasn't yet taken a position on the campaign, but she said she feared taxi drivers would be affected by increased congestion. Citing a 2004 study by the Regional Plan Association, Mr. White said the increase in congestion would be minimal: about four more cars per minute on Fifth Avenue, three more on Park Avenue, two more on Broadway, and one more on Lexington, Columbus, and West End avenues.

Over the years, traffic through the park has steadily decreased. Mayor John Lindsey in 1966 closed the loop drive to cars on summer weekends, and in 2005 the Department of Transportation and Parks Department enacted rules to keep the park car-free for most of the day. The loop is now open to cars only during the periods between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., and 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays. The departments said the changes have made the park car-free 79% of the time. The departments said in a statement that they are working with the New York Police Department to assess the proposed car ban.

If a council resolution isn't enacted, Mr. White said a number of campaign supporters would likely engage in an act of civil disobedience - possibly a sit-in - on the loop drive.

Ms. Brewer said she plans to introduce the resolution this week. As someone who lives near the park, she admitted that the full-out traffic ban on the loop drive could adversely affect her commute when she heads downtown by cab, but she said the benefits of a ban outweigh the costs.

"Considering the health benefits and the families, it's worth it," she said.