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Introduction
This
report presents the city's vision for the nation's
most ambitious urban greenway system -- 350 miles
of landscaped bicycle and pedestrian paths crisscrossing
New York City. It signals the start of a multi-year
effort to create new public recreational opportunities,
increase the mobility of cyclists, walkers, and
joggers, and enrich the lives of all New Yorkers.
New
York City may seem the least likely large American
city for a comprehensive system of transportation
and recreation paths, 80 percent of which would
be traffic-free routes separated from roadways.
Yet, the physical rights-of-way for much of this
system exist, virtually all are in public ownership,
and many routes are developed and in use. Over
the past 18 months, a preliminary planning framework
for an integrated greenway system has been developed,
thanks to the cooperative efforts of city, state
and federal agencies, borough presidents' offices,
and open space, pedestrian and bicycle constituency
groups. Priority routes have been identified and
funding has been secured to advance some of them.
Now, the Department of City Planning and the New
York City Department of Transportation are about
to launch a comprehensive program to refine the
preliminary plan, examine the feasibility of some
of its components, and begin its implementation.
The
plan builds on New York's substantial legacy of
greenways, which were part of every era of open
space development in the city. Frederick Law Olmsted,
architect of Central and Prospect parks, was the
first to design a "park way" for scenic
carriage drives and bicycles in the late 19th
century pre-automotive era. Olmsted planned Eastern
and Ocean parkways as boulevards linking the great
new urban greenspace of Brooklyn's Prospect Park
with its surrounding communities and the beaches
and regional open spaces beyond.
In
the 1930s, Robert Moses vastly expanded the park
system, particularly along the waterfront where
miles of pedestrian paths and esplanades were
built in new parks, notably Riverside Park and
East River Park. Moses also built bicycle paths
along many roadways, such as Shore Parkway, to
satisfy the "groups, organizations and individuals...clamoring
and petitioning for bicycle tracks...exclusive
lanes...and use of roadways during hours when
automobile traffic is very light, all for the
accommodation of this revived sport." An
alternative transportation option was an extra
dividend during the war years when gasoline was
rationed.
In
the 1980s, the Neighborhood Open Space Coalition
saw an opportunity to develop a 40-mile Brooklyn-Queens
Greenway for walkers and cyclists. Their detailed
plan would connect Brooklyn's Coney Island with
Fort Totten in Queens, using Ocean and Eastern
parkways and a series of 12 parks along the way.
Most
recently, the city's Comprehensive Waterfront
Plan proposes to expand public use and enjoyment
of the waterfront with a series of interconnected
pathways in all five boroughs. The plan capitalizes
on the city's vast system of public parkland that
covers more than 40 percent of its shoreline;
it also recommends zoning changes that would mandate
publicly accessible waterfront paths and upland
connections in most new residential and commercial
developments on the waterfront.
In
New York City today, the time is once again ripe
for a new surge of greenway development to form
an integrated system reaching into all corners
of the city. Greenways answer the growing public
demand for safe and pleasant ways to travel about
the city -- to get to work or school, to shop
or do errands, or to reach the waterfront, parks,
beaches and museums. New federal transportation
policy and funding programs recognize their role
in helping to alleviate traffic congestion and
air pollution and, at the same time, accommodate
burgeoning recreational interests. A first-class
system of greenway trails can bring a new dimension
to life outdoors in New York City.
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