Don’t ‘park’ your car anymore

MAYOR DE BLASIO is kicking cars out of Central Park, several sources told the Daily News Thursday.

Hizzoner plans to ban cars from the handful of roads below 72nd St. where motorists are allowed to drive alongside pedestrians and cyclists during certain hours of the day.

The restriction, which will kick in by June, will not apply to the cross-town transverses that drivers and buses use to get across town. But it will end automobile traffic on the “loop drives” that run through the interior of the park below 72nd St.

Safety and transportation advocates have been urging the city for years to close the park to cars, and have won incremental victories with limits on the time of day traffic is allowed, restrictions on what kind of cars can use the road, and a ban on cars within the park above 72nd St.

This comes months after Prospect Park went car-free on Jan. 1. Members of the City Council previously introduced legislation to ban cars from the park's loop drives.

Current rules allow cars on Center Drive from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays; on West Drive from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays for high-occupancy vehicles only; and on 72nd Cross Street Drive from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on weekdays.

De Blasio’s office declined to comment.