Overview:
Ocean Parkway, designed by Olmstead and Vaux and completed in the 1870s, was originally conceived to link Prospect Park with the Atlantic Ocean, and in doing so, make the journey to the park part of the park experience. The Ocean Parkway Greenway, running alongside the parkway and completed in 1895, is the nation’s first dedicated bicycle path and greenway. However, the completion of the Prospect Expressway in 1962 ruptured the greenway’s link with Prospect Park. Decades of haphazard bicycle and pedestrian access between the greenway and the park have followed.
The Prospect Park-Ocean Parkway Greenway Study seeks to improve this critical, 3,000-foot link between Ocean Parkway at Church Avenue and Prospect Park via Park Circle. Several elements inhibit direct and intuitive travel to and from the park such as the lack of clear guidance for pedestrians or cyclists at Church Avenue and Ocean Parkway, signage placement along the route, missing curb cuts, unaccommodating crosswalks, and a park entrance with little separation between cyclists and motorists. This study also addresses the needs of horseback riders who access the park via Park Circle. Restoring this link can promote safe, continuous bicycle access spanning large stretches of Brooklyn.
In addition, the eight lanes of roadway that enter and exit the western edge of Park Circle operate far below their carrying capacity. This excess roadway is an opportunity to improve the pedestrian, bicyclist and equestrian facilities and infrastructure west of Park Circle without inhibiting vehicular traffic.
This study contains short- and long-term recommendations and also includes a detailed description of the New York City Department of Transportation’s upcoming short-term improvements to Park Circle.
Report:
The report is available as one complete document ( 7.5 MB) or in parts:
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