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Imagine tracing Manhattan’s edge without once being nudged into traffic or cruising the waterfront from Far Rockaway to College Point with nothing but river views and a smug sense of smugness between you and the skyline. That’s the dream baked into New York City’s newly unveiled “Greater Greenways” master plan, a 40-mile boost to the city’s pedestrian and bike path network, stitched across all five boroughs like a giant, very scenic zipper.
Released Wednesday by the city’s transportation and parks departments (with an assist from the Economic Development Corporation), the plan is the first formal roadmap for greenway growth in more than 30 years. It takes the city’s existing 500 miles of mixed-quality greenways and, in theory, turns them into a seamless web for walking, running and cycling—one where gaps vanish and detours through traffic are a distant memory.
The six “priority corridors” read like a cyclist’s bucket list. Southern Queens would get a 7-mile link from Spring Creek Park to Brookville Park near JFK, potentially letting some of the airport’s 35,000 employees ditch the shuttle bus for handlebars. Staten Island’s North Shore would see 10 miles of waterfront path between the Goethals and Verrazzano-Narrows bridges. Upper Manhattan’s existing greenway could be smoothed into a continuous ride. There’s even a long-term proposal to turn much of Broadway into a car-free greenway, because if Times Square can go pedestrian, why not the whole ribbon?
Construction on the new miles could start as soon as 2028, though the city has offered neither a total price tag nor a promise that every segment will get built. That’s in part because the plan exists thanks to a 2022 City Council law (championed by Councilmember Carlina Rivera) that Mayor Eric Adams allowed to become law without his signature—a political nudge that delayed the report’s debut by seven months.
Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez framed the greenway plan as a quality-of-life upgrade: “Our street is the backyard for many residents... all New Yorkers, regardless of their socioeconomic background, should be able to enjoy our waterfront and be able to bike and walk safe.”
Bike advocates like Jon Orcutt of Bike New York see it as a ready-made to-do list for the next mayor. In the meantime, projects like the Harlem River Greenway in the Bronx are proof that the city can close network gaps when it wants to. The question now is whether this big, beautiful vision makes it out of the binder and onto the pavement.