Study of the Feasibility of a

Car-Free Central Park Loop Drive

October 2004

Transportation Alternatives Regional Plan Association

115 W. 30^th Street, #1207 4 Irving Place, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10001 New York, NY 10003

212-629-8080 212-253-2727

Study of the Feasibility of a Car-Free Central Park Loop Drive

October 2004

Overview: In the debate about whether to close Central Park’s loop drive to car use, one of the key issues is what will happen to the cars if drivers cannot use the park. Will they clog parallel streets? Our study shows that, even using worst case scenario assumptions, closing the loop drive to drivers would actually decrease the overall level of traffic around the park.

Transportation Alternatives and the Regional Plan Association examined how closing the loop drive to cars would impact surrounding streets using two different sets of assumptions.

First, we researched what has happened in other places when streets have been closed to traffic. An authoritative English study of 60 closings around the world shows clearly that much of the traffic will disappear; this means that we can expect anywhere from 20% to 60% of the traffic currently using the Central Park loop drive to disappear altogether. Just as drivers are attracted when new road capacity is added (build it and they will come) it is also true that remove it and they will go. Drivers have been shown to switch to public transportation, modify their routes, travel at another time of the day, stay home, carpool or otherwise modify their behavior in such a way as to create an overall decrease in the number of drivers on the streets. This well documented reality is often hard to reconcile with our city’s long held assumptions about traffic behavior, but 60 examples of this happening have been researched and documented—including the West Side Highway and Washington Square Park—and in no cases was there more traffic and more congestion, only less.

Second, Transportation Alternatives and the Regional Plan Association researched what would happen if all of the research above was wrong; we assumed that the drivers now using Central Park would not disappear but would divert to parallel streets. We looked at this for the morning peak hour and peak period from 7 am to 10 am. Assuming all the vehicles removed end up on parallel avenues, and making a variety of reasonable assumptions based on data from NYC Department of Transportation data on destinations of Central Park users (which suggests how they would distribute themselves across the island), we concluded that the impact would be small and would in fact lead to many fewer vehicles at key locations, including at Fifth Avenue and at Central Park West intersections.

Fifth Avenue would only have at most 4 vehicles per minute added to the 33 vehicles per minute using it today. Park Avenue would have only about 3 more vehicles per minute in the peak; Broadway less than 2 per minute; Lexington, Columbus and West End Avenues about 1 more per minute. And this assumes no disappearance of vehicles at all, contrary to the study mentioned early. If there was only the low end of disappearance of vehicles, 25% for example, Fifth Avenue would have only one added vehicle every 21 seconds, which is a long time between vehicles.

But these miniscule additions would be counterbalanced by the reductions at intersections and on avenue that would no longer be a conduit for vehicles entering and leaving the park. Consider that in the three hour morning peak period, over 4,000 vehicles would no longer be exiting the park at Central Park West and Seventh Avenue; that 2,000 vehicles would no longer be exiting the Park at 72nd Street and Fifth Avenue; that 2,500 vehicles would no longer be driving through Harlem to reach the Park; and that 2,500 vehicles would no longer be using the seven entry points along Central Park West to enter the Park. At each of these locations, traffic would be eased, not made worse.

New York Metropolitan Transportation Council

Hub-Bound 2000

People

Daily Entries

All modes - 3,841,990

All modes crossing 60^th Street – 1,482,768 or 38.6% of all directions

In motor vehicles other than buses (otb) – 1,319,876 or 36.4% of all modes

In motor vehicles otb across 60^th Street – 595,303

Using Central Park Drives – 16,814 or 0.44% of all people enter by Central Park Drives

Or 1.3% of all people in motor vehicles enter by Central Park Drives

Or 2.8% of all people in motor vehicles crossing 60^th Street use Central Park Drives

Entries in Peak Period (7 am to 10 am)

All modes – 1,508,065

All modes crossing 60^th Street – 380,142 or 25.2% of all directions

In motor vehicles otb – 336,204 or 22.3 5 of all modes

In motor vehicles otb across 60^th Street – 105,067

Using Central Park Drives – 7,592 or 0.50% of all people enter by Central Park Drives

Or 2.3% of all people in motor vehicles enter by Central Park Drives

Or 7.2% of all people in motor vehicles crossing 60^th Street use Central Park Drives

Entries in Peak Hour (8 am to 9 am)

All modes – 620,531

All modes crossing 60^th Street – 155,130 or 25.0% of all directions

In motor vehicles otb – 97,248 or 15.7 5 of all modes

In motor vehicles otb across 60^th Street – 36,157

Using Central Park Drives – 2,660 or 0.43 percent of all people enter by Central Park Drives

Or 2.7% of all people in motor vehicles enter by Central Park Drives

Or 7.4% of all people in motor vehicles crossing 60^th Street use Central Park Drives

Vehicles (otb)

Daily Entries

Total – 825,138

Crossing 60^th Street – 387,150 (46.9%)

Using Central Park Drives – 9,001 (1.1% of all directions and 2.3% of 60^th Street crossings)

Entries in Peak Period (7 am to 10 am)

Total – 162,482

Crossing 60^th Street – 70,309 (43.3%)

Using Central Park Drives – 4,011 (2.5% of all directions and 5.7% of 60^th Street crossings)

Entries in Peak Hour (8 am to 9 am)

Total – 55,178

Crossing 60^th Street – 24,545 (44.5%)

Using Central Park Drives – 1,457 (2.6% of all directions and 5.9% of 60^th Street crossings)