Prospect Park pedestrians will now have several more hours to exercise in an area where they had previously been forced away by automobiles. In a recent joint decision by the departments of Transportation and Parks and Recreation, the park's east loop will be closed to cars on weekdays from 5 to 7 p.m,

The decision comes shortly after a similar increase in car-free hours in Manhattan's Central Park. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe declared in a statement that as a result of the decision, "both parks will be cleaner and greener, and their users happier and healthier."

According to a press release from Transportation Alternatives (TA), an advocacy group that praised the decision, thousands of Brooklyn residents go to Prospect Park for exercise every afternoon. The new car-free hours give them more time to do so without fear of running afoul of cars, vans, and SUVS that would otherwise interrupt their jogging, biking, or walking experience."For an extra two hours each weekday, Brooklynites will breathe easier as they walk, jog, bicycle, and recreate in Prospect Park," said Paul Steely White, executive director of TA. "For nearby residents, particularly, parents and kids getting out of school, increased car-free time means a safer and healthier park.

TA also dismissed the counter-argument that cars need the loop to reach their destinations, claiming that drivers on the overpass consist of a "small number of motorists who use the recreational loop for a shortcut."

Currently, Brooklyn is last among the five boroughs for park space per resident. Surveys of Prospect Park visitors seem to indicate many of them would visit the park more often if the loop was closed to traffic all of the time.