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Parkway
A parkway is a type of road that leads into or around a park. Popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they were designed to be pleasant greenways for slow moving traffic — pedestrians, bicyclists, and horse-drawn carriages. Cities created “park and parkway” networks to serve urban recreation needs. Wide swaths of green space were set aside for parkways that linked urban parks to one another.
Renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted drafted park and parkway systems for several U.S. cities. His plans for Buffalo, NY included seven miles of sculpted, tree-lined
roads known as The Park Approaches, which connected three large new parks. Carefully landscaped circles, some of which remain today [1], marked junctions between parkways and city avenues.
In Brooklyn, NY, similar “pleasure roads” led to Prospect Park, another Olmsted project. Eastern Parkway terminated at the monumental park entrance known as Grand Army Plaza. Ocean Parkway, completed in 1880, connected Prospect Park to Coney Island and Brighton Beach. The tree-lined boulevard boasted a pedestrian path as well as the first bike path in the country [2].
Scenic drives
In the 1920’s and 30's, parkways were constructed for recreational drives outside of the city, winding through scenic and historic areas [3]. Though they were considered limited-access roads (heavy trucks were not allowed) they were no longer meant for bikes or pedestrians. For example, the Blue Ridge Parkway was planned as a scenic drive to connect Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. It was a rural public works project begun in 1935 and finally completed in 1987.
What happened to the original parkways?
Most of the original urban parkways were transformed into high-traffic boulevards, as automobile use increased throughout the twentieth century.
For example, the northern half of Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn was converted to the Prospect Expressway in 1950 [2]. The southern half retains the bike path and pedestrian path, on opposite sides of the street, both of which are separated from traffic by planted medians.
Modern day parkways
Most parkways today are synonymous with highways and expressways. Some have replaced the old pleasure roads and simply retained the name ‘parkway’. Some were built as limited access roads for cars and light trucks. Though the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey was planned to have a “natural feel” [4] — large planted medians, wooden guardrails and limited signage — it was always an expressway. Now it is the most heavily used highway in the country. New York City has several parkways that were built in the 1930's, primarily for automobiles but with some provisions for shoulder walkways and parks. Today most are dangerous, high-traffic roads. In Pittsburgh, PA, high-speed surface roads known as the Parkway East and the Parkway West were built in 1950 to funnel traffic through tunnels and into the city. In 2002, the Parkway East was slated for a bit of a makeover – flower gardens were to be planted alongside the expressway so that it would “live up to its name” [5].
In short, most modern parkways are anything but scenic routes through parkland. Freeway opponents claim the term parkway is misleading and should not be used for industrial, mult-lane roads [3].
ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK
REFERENCES
Each source is referred to by the same number every time it is cited. Please keep citation style consistent.
[1] Proposal for the Historic Restoration of Soldier Circle (Word document). Buffalo Architecture and History. September 2007.
[2] Ocean Parkway Bike Path. NYC Bike Paths
[3] Parkway. Wikipedia.
[4] Garden State Parkway. Wikipedia.
[5] Conservancy, PennDOT plant garden for Garden Parkway. Pittsburgh Business Times. December 10, 2002.
PICTURE REFERENCES
Pictures are cited in the order they appear above. Please keep citation style consistent.
[1] Lincoln Parkway. The Park Approaches. Olmsted in Buffalo.
[2] Symphony Circle. Buffalo Olmsted Parks – Parkways and Circles.
