 Original plans had called for the entirety of 78th Street next to the park to be turned into a car-free zone, but a 200-foot section remained to provide access to Koeppel Mazda, which opened in 2018.Across 78th Street from Travers Park is the .57-acre Rory Staunton Field, a former school yard of The Garden School that was transferred to the city's Parks Department in 2013.Rory Staunton (1999-2012) was a resident of Sunnyside Gardens and a student at The Garden School in Jackson Heights who was active in a variety of civic causes until his sudden diagnosis of infection that led to his untimely death from septic shock.