Good morning. My name is Elizabeth Ernish, and I represent Transportation Alternatives, a 4,000 New York City citizens' group working for better walking, cycling and mass transit. City Council legislation requiring flashing lights on top of public vehicles as means of increasing public safety in City parks is an altruistic effort, but it's a little like attempting to put out a five-alarm fire with an eyedropper.

City parks, especially Central Park and Prospect Park, allow millions of New Yorkers to escape from the noise, tumult and hectic pace of city streets. They are ideal for jogging, walking, cycling and playing. But when parks are open to automobile traffic, the roadways become hostile and dangerous places, like a city street. Cars speed by walkers, cyclists, joggers, and skaters who are crammed into a single inadequate 10-foot lane. Thousands of children going to play after school must cross treacherous loop roads on weekday afternoons. Last July, in Prospect Park, Dr. Rachel Fruchter was killed by a speeding van while she cycled in the park on a Saturday morning - during car-free hours.

While lights on public vehicles will increase visibility during car-free hours, lights will do nothing curb speeding and reckless driving in the park- both of which create a sense of menace and result in injuries and regretfully, death. Moverover, there is a complete lack of enforcement of car-free hours. Just this past Saturday, I witnessed 7 cars driving illegally in Prospect Park. These cars put hundreds of runners competing in the Prospect Park's Track Club's Annual Ten-Miler at risk.

A ban on all but emergency vehicles from both Central Park and Prospect Park is the most logical means to improving public safety and will result in numerous benefits:

1. Restores the parks to their intended and desired role as a true refuge from the danger and noise of city streets. It will save lives, and increase the quality of life for the thousands of New York residents who live near and use either park.

2. Reduces the threat from reckless, lawless motorists who create an atmosphere of fear and rudeness in the park. Police report that it is not possible to use radar to enforce speed laws in either park. This makes both parks magnets that attracts speeders and reckless drivers to our neighborhoods.

3. Eliminates the confusion caused by the complex schedule of closings and openings and the varying lane designations for joggers, walkers, cyclists and skaters. By removing motor vehicle traffic, adequate space can be clearly designated for these uses.

4. Addresses a significant safety problem which will otherwise get worse. Current trends mean that more and more people of all ages require more space for bicycling, rollerblading, and other leisure pursuits. If we don't act now, other injuries and deaths in the park are inevitable.

5. Unlike retrofitting hundreds of city vehicles with lights, costs nothing, but returns rich and tangible rewards to millions of park users.