Cars banned from Prospect Park

Prospect Park in Brooklyn was created 150 years ago, obviously long before automobiles. Now with up to 10 million visitors a year and people outnumbering cars 3 to 1 in the morning hours, New York City has decided to announce that cars are out.

As of January 2, 2018, cars will be banned on the entire loop drive, east and west. The decision to ban cars came on the heels of a car-free summer test run that ended in September. The experiment found that traffic went up minimally on surrounding streets and did not go up at all in some areas.

The city said that once cars are fully banned the Department of Transportation will keep close watch of surrounding streets to see if any changes are needed, including changing the timing of traffic lights to ease commute times.