Brooklyn-Queens Greenway

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The Brooklyn-Queens Greenway is a partially-completed path connecting parks and roads in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, connecting Coney Island in the south to Fort Totten in the north, on Long Island Sound. The route connects major sites in the two boroughs, such as the New York Aquarium, Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the New York Hall of Science and Shea Stadium.[1]

The Greenway is being developed under the joint auspices of the New York City Department of Transportation and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. As of 2007, the majority of the route is in parks or otherwise segregated from motor traffic. The remainder is implemented as painted lanes or signed routes in streets.

The 40-mile (64 km) route includes portions of existing bike routes in Prospect Park, and along Eastern Parkway and Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, and in Alley Pond Park, Cunningham Park, Forest Park, Kissena Park and Ridgewood Reservoir in Queens.[2]

[edit] North to south

The north end of the Greenway is in Little Bay Park, in the shadow of the Throgs Neck Bridge and near the north end of the Utopia Parkway bike lane. It goes southeast a mile to the entrance of Fort Totten, and a few miles south as the "Joe Miller Mile" in the wide margin between the Belt Parkway and Little Neck Bay. After crossing the busy Northern Boulevard it becomes a painted bike lane in quiet side streets, climbing gently to the Long Island Motor Parkway bikeway. There, a branch goes east to the tennis courts and locker rooms at the southeast corner of Alley Pond Park and the marked bike lane in Winchester Boulevard, while the main line goes west through parks to Queens Botanical Garden and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

Passing Willow Lake, the route exits the park, crosses Jewel Avenue, and climbs on paint lanes in lightly used streets to use Main Street to cross Grand Central Parkway. The usually quiet Hoover and Coolidge Avenues have bike route signs rather than painted lanes in the roadway. After crossing Queens Boulevard the Greenway enters Forest Park, passing its golf course. Exiting the park, the route uses small parts of Cooper Avenue and other streets to reach Ridgewood Reservoir.

Crossing into Brooklyn, the route uses various local streets to the Eastern Parkway bikeway, Prospect Park, and Ocean Parkway to Coney Island.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The New York City Bike Master Plan: The Greenway System, New York City. p. 24. Accessed September 8, 2007.
  2. ^ Brooklyn-Queens Greenway guide, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed September 8, 2007.