Make Parks Department the Greenway Sheriff

If this year is anything like the last, when warm weather arrives, NYC's busier greenway paths will be more than full with cyclists, pedestrians and skaters, making them chaotic, unpleasant and unsafe.

In its nationally recognized 1993 NYC Greenway Plan, the Department of City Planning laid out a 350-mile network of off-street paths for cyclists, pedestrians and skaters. When the plan was released, there were only 59 miles of greenways in NYC. Since 1993, 31 miles of new path have been built, including the enormously popular Hudson River Greenway south of 60th street. Though visionary, the Greenway Plan describes only the physical network of potential paths that the City should build. Experience has shown that building the paths is only one part of making the overall greenway network work. In a crowded city like New York, there is intense competition for space between fast and slow, wheeled and non-wheeled and stationary and moving path users. Refereeing this contest requires smart and consistent rules of conduct as well as effective education and enforcement.

Right now, proper oversight of greenways is debilitated by an inconsistent and complex authority structure. For example, 14 city and state agencies and public authorities have some power over what path users can do and how the path is designed and marked on just one five mile stretch of the Hudson River Greenway. To complicate matters further, these numerous agencies are often inconsistent in how they apply their own rules, especially when it comes to detouring path users during events and emergencies.

City Hall needs to do three things to straighten out this increasingly hazardous mess:

1. Have the Parks Department appoint a Greenway Director to develop a uniform set of guidelines, path user rules and enforcement and education practices. These guidelines should put an emphasis on clear policies regarding detours, path closings for events and signs and markings and have clear standards for removing debris and maintenance. (The City has ample CMAQ federal air quality funds to pay for this.)

2. Convene all of the city agencies with a hand in how greenways work and tell them to help the Greenway Director develop new rules. After the Director creates the guidelines, she or he should tell these agencies to follow the rules. These agencies include the Police, Office of Emergency Management, the DOT, City Planning, Economic Development Corporation, Sanitation and Parks.

3. Convene the Hudson River Park Trust, the State DOT and other non-city players and invite them to help formulate the new guidelines-and then twist their arms to follow it. The Trust controls the busiest stretch of greenway and needs new rules and guidelines.

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