Prospect Park’s car-free trial officially ends on Monday

Prospect Park’s eight-week long car-free trial is set to end of Monday, September 11, bringing traffic back to the eastern part of the park’s loop. The study was initiated by the Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Polly Trottenberg to see how traffic would be impacted if the park went car-free permanently, but already folks are calling for the the city to keep the park off-limits to private cars for good.

According to Streetsblog, “no one is clamoring to make the park a rush hour driving shortcut again” so why not just keep it as is? In fact, a petition calling for the park to remain car-free has garnered over 1,000 signatures while on the opposite end of the spectrum, there has been very little push to hurry up and reinstate vehicular traffic.

Ultimately, it’s up to the DOT to decide if Prospect Park will become a car-free haven in its near future. The agency is reviewing the findings of their eight-week trial and is expected to make a decision some time soon.

• There’s No Good Reason for DOT to Let Cars Back in Prospect Park on Monday [Streetsblog]