A parkway is a landscaped thoroughfare. [1] The term is particularly used for a roadway in a park or connecting to a park from which trucks and other heavy vehicles are excluded. [1]
Over the years, many different types of roads have been labeled parkways. The term may be used to describe city streets as narrow as two lanes with a landscaped median, wide landscaped setbacks, or both.
The term has also been applied to scenic highways and to limited-access roads more generally. Many parkways originally intended for scenic, recreational driving have evolved into major urban and commuter routes.
The first parkways in the United States were developed during the late 19th century by landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux as roads that separated pedestrians, bicyclists, equestrians, and horse carriages, such as the Eastern Parkway, which is credited as the world's first parkway, [2] and Ocean Parkway in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The term "parkway" to define this type of road was coined by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted in their proposal to link city and suburban parks with "pleasure roads".
In Buffalo, New York, Olmsted and Vaux used parkways with landscaped medians and setbacks to create the first interconnected park and parkway system in the United States. [3] Bidwell Parkway and Chapin Parkway are 200 foot wide city streets with only one lane for cars in each direction and broad landscaped medians that provide a pleasant, shaded route to the park and serve as mini-parks within the neighborhood. [4] The Rhode Island Metropolitan Park Commission developed several parkways in the Providence area. [5]
Other parkways, such as Park Presidio Boulevard in San Francisco, California, [6] were designed to serve larger volumes of traffic.
During the early 20th century, the meaning of the word was expanded to include limited-access highways designed for recreational driving of automobiles, with landscaping. These parkways originally provided scenic routes without very slow or commercial vehicles, at grade intersections, or pedestrian traffic. Examples are the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut and the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway in New York. But their success led to more development, expanding a city's boundaries, eventually limiting the parkway's recreational driving use. The Arroyo Seco Parkway between Downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena, California, is an example of lost pastoral aesthetics. It and others have become major commuting routes, while retaining the name "parkway".
In New York City, construction on the Long Island Motor Parkway (Vanderbilt Parkway) began in 1906 and planning for the Bronx River Parkway in 1907. In the 1920s, the New York City Metropolitan Area's parkway system grew under the direction of Robert Moses, the president of the New York State Council of Parks and Long Island State Park Commission, who used parkways to provide access to newly created state parks, especially for city dwellers. As Commissioner of New York City Parks under Mayor LaGuardia, he extended the parkways to the heart of the city, creating and linking its parks to the greater metropolitan systems.
Most of the New York metropolitan parkways were designed by Gilmore Clark. The famed "Gateway to New England" Merritt Parkway in Connecticut was designed in the 1930s as a pleasurable alternative for affluent locals to the congested Boston Post Road, running through forest with each bridge designed uniquely to enhance the scenery. Another example is the Sprain Brook Parkway from lower-Westchester to connect to the Taconic State Parkway to Chatham, New York. Landscape architect George Kessler designed extensive parkway systems for Kansas City, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; Indianapolis; and other cities at the beginning of the 20th century.
In the 1930s, as part of the New Deal the U.S. federal government constructed National Parkways designed for recreational driving and to commemorate historic trails and routes. These divided four-lane parkways have lower speed limits and are maintained by the National Park Service. An example is the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built Blue Ridge Parkway in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and Virginia.
Others are: Skyline Drive in Virginia; the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee; and the Colonial Parkway in eastern Virginia's Historic Triangle area. [7] The George Washington Memorial Parkway and the Clara Barton Parkway, running along the Potomac River near Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, Virginia, were also constructed during this era.
In Kentucky the term "parkway" designates a freeway in the Kentucky Parkway system, with nine built in the 1960s and 1970s. They were toll roads until the construction bonds were repaid; the last of these roads to charge tolls became freeways in 2006.
The Arroyo Seco Parkway from Pasadena to Los Angeles, built in 1940, was the first segment of the vast Southern California freeway system. It became part of State Route 110 and was renamed the Pasadena Freeway. A 2010 restoration of the freeway brought the Arroyo Seco Parkway designation back.
In the New York metropolitan area, contemporary parkways are predominantly limited-access highways or freeways restricted to non-commercial traffic, excluding trucks and tractor-trailers. Some have low overpasses that also exclude buses. The Vanderbilt Parkway, an exception in western Suffolk County, is a surviving remnant of the Long Island Motor Parkway that became a surface street, no longer with controlled-access or non-commercial vehicle restrictions. The Palisades Interstate Parkway is a post-war parkway that starts at the George Washington Bridge, heads north through New Jersey, continuing through Rockland and Orange counties in New York. The Palisades Parkway was built to allow for a direct route from New York City to Harriman State Park.
In New Jersey, the Garden State Parkway, connecting the northern part of the state with the Jersey Shore, is restricted to buses and non-commercial traffic north of the Route 18 interchange, but trucks are permitted south of this point. It is one of the busiest toll roads in the country. [8]
In the Pittsburgh region, two of the major Interstates are referred to informally as parkways. The Parkway East (I-376, formally the Penn-Lincoln Parkway) connects Downtown Pittsburgh to Monroeville, Pennsylvania. The Parkway West (I-376) runs through the Fort Pitt Tunnel and links Downtown to Pittsburgh International Airport, southbound I-79, Imperial, Pennsylvania, and westbound US 22/US 30. The Parkway North (I-279) connects Downtown to Franklin Park, Pennsylvania and northbound I-79.
In the suburbs of Philadelphia, U.S. Route 202 follows an at-grade parkway alignment known as the "U.S. Route 202 Parkway" between Montgomeryville and Doylestown. The parkway varies from two to four lanes in width, has 5-foot-wide (1.5 m) shoulders, a 12-foot-wide (3.7 m) walking path called the US 202 Parkway Trail on the side, and a 40 mph (64 km/h) speed limit. The parkway opened in 2012 as a bypass of a section of US 202 between the two towns; it had originally been proposed as a four-lane freeway before funding for the road was cut. [9] [10] [11]
In Minneapolis, the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway system has 50 miles (80 km) of streets designated as parkways. These are not freeways; they have a slow 25-mile-per-hour (40 km/h) speed limit, pedestrian crossings, and stop signs. [12] [13]
In Cincinnati, parkways are major roads which trucks are prohibited from using. Some Cincinnati parkways, such as Columbia Parkway, are high-speed, limited-access roads, while others, such as Central Parkway, are multi-lane urban roads without controlled access. Columbia Parkway carries US-50 traffic from downtown towards east-side suburbs of Mariemont, Anderson, and Milford, and is a limited access road from downtown to the Village of Mariemont.
In Boston, parkways are generally four to six lanes wide but are not usually controlled-access. They are highly trafficked in most cases, transporting people between neighborhoods quicker than a typical city street. Many of them serve as principal arterials and some (like Storrow Drive, Memorial Drive, the Alewife Brook Parkway and the VFW Parkway) have evolved into regional commuter routes.
"Parkway" is used in the names of many Canadian roads, including major routes through national parks, scenic drives, major urban thoroughfares, and even regular freeways that carry commercial traffic.
Parkways in the National Capital Region are administered by the National Capital Region (Canada). However, some of them are named "drive" or "driveway".
The term in Canada is also applied to multi-use paths and greenways used by walkers and cyclists. [14] [15]
In the United Kingdom, the term "parkway" more commonly refers to park and ride railway stations, where this is often indicated as part of the name, as with Bristol Parkway, the first such station, opened in 1972.
Luton Airport Parkway is somewhat analogous - an interconnect railway station but with an airport via a public transport shuttle (initially buses, now the Luton DART light railway).
Parkways fitting the definition applied in this article also exist, as listed in this section.
The city of Peterborough has roads branded as "parkways" which provide routes for much through traffic and local traffic. The majority are dual carriageways, with many of their junctions numbered. Five main parkways form an orbital outer ring road. Three parkways serve settlements.
In the City of Plymouth, the A38 is called "The Parkway" and bisects a rural belt of the local authority area, which coincides with the geographical centre; it has two junctions to enter the downtown part of the city.
The Australian Capital Territory uses the term "parkway" to refer to roadways of a standard approximately equivalent to what would be designated as an "expressway", "freeway", or "motorway" in other areas. Parkways generally have multiple lanes in each direction of travel, no intersections (crossroads are accessed by interchanges), high speed limits, and are of dual carriageway design (or have high crash barriers on the median). [16]
Victoria uses the term "parkway" to sometimes refer to smaller local access roads that travel through parkland. Unlike other uses of the term, these parkways are not high-speed routes but may still have some degree of limited access.
Singapore uses the term "parkway" as an alternative to "expressway". As such, parkways are also dual carriageways with high speed limits and interchanges. The East Coast Parkway is currently[ when? ] the only expressway in Singapore that uses this terminology.
In Russia, long, broad (multi-lane) and beautified thoroughfares are referred to as prospekts.
The Trans-Canada Highway is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast. The main route spans 7,476 km (4,645 mi) across the country, one of the longest routes of its type in the world. The highway system is recognizable by its distinctive white-on-green maple leaf route markers, although there are small variations in the markers in some provinces.
Route 29 is a state highway in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Signed north-south, it runs 34.76 mi (55.94 km) from an interchange with Interstate 295 (I-295) in Hamilton Township in Mercer County, where the road continues east as I-195, northwest to Route 12 in Frenchtown, Hunterdon County. Between the southern terminus and I-295 in Ewing Township, the route is a mix of expressway and boulevard that runs along the Delaware River through Trenton. This section includes a truck-restricted tunnel that was built along the river near historic houses and Riverview Cemetery. North of I-295, Route 29 turns into a scenic and mostly two-lane highway. North of the South Trenton Tunnel, it is designated the Delaware River Scenic Byway, a New Jersey Scenic Byway and National Scenic Byway, that follows the Delaware River in mostly rural sections of Mercer County and Hunterdon County. The obsolete Delaware & Raritan Canal usually stands between the river and the highway. Most sections of this portion of Route 29 are completely shaded due to the tree canopy. Route 29 also has a spur, Route 129, which connects Route 29 to U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Trenton.
King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. It stretches 828 kilometres (514 mi) from Windsor in the west to the Ontario–Quebec border in the east. The part of Highway 401 that passes through Toronto is North America's busiest highway, and one of the widest. Together with Quebec Autoroute 20, it forms the road transportation backbone of the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor, along which over half of Canada's population resides. It is also a Core Route in the National Highway System of Canada. The route is maintained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) and patrolled by the Ontario Provincial Police. The speed limit is 100 km/h (62 mph) throughout the majority of its length, with the remaining exceptions being the posted 80 km/h (50 mph) limit westbound in Windsor, in most construction zones, and the 110 km/h (68 mph) speed limit on the 40 km (25 mi) stretch between Windsor and Tilbury that was raised on April 22, 2022, the 7 km (4.3 mi) extension east of the aforementioned, the 35 km (22 mi) stretch between Highway 35 / 115 and Cobourg, the 44 km (27 mi) stretch between Colborne and Belleville, the 66 km (41 mi) stretch between Belleville and Kingston, and the 107 km (66 mi) stretch between Highway 16 and the east end of the highway that were raised on July 12, 2024.
A National Parkway is a designation for a protected area in the United States given to scenic roadways with a protected corridor of surrounding parkland. National Parkways often connect cultural or historic sites. The U.S. National Park Service manages the parkways.
The Arroyo Seco Parkway, also known as the Pasadena Freeway, is one of the oldest freeways in the United States. It connects Los Angeles with Pasadena alongside the Arroyo Seco seasonal river. Mostly opened in 1940, it represents the transitional phase between early parkways and later freeways. It conformed to modern standards when it was built, but is now regarded as a narrow, outdated roadway. A 1953 extension brought the south end to the Four Level Interchange in downtown Los Angeles and a connection with the rest of the freeway system.
King's Highway 7, commonly referred to as Highway 7 and historically as the Northern Highway, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. At its peak, Highway 7 measured 716 km (445 mi) in length, stretching from Highway 40 east of Sarnia in Southwestern Ontario to Highway 17 west of Ottawa in Eastern Ontario. However, due in part to the construction of Highways 402 and 407, the province transferred the sections of Highway 7 west of London and through the Greater Toronto Area to county and regional jurisdiction. The highway is now 535.7 km (332.9 mi) long; the western segment begins at Highway 4 north of London and extends 154.1 km (95.8 mi) to Georgetown, while the eastern segment begins at Donald Cousens Parkway in Markham and extends 381.6 km (237.1 mi) to Highway 417 in Ottawa.
King's Highway 417, commonly referred to as Highway 417 and as the Queensway through Ottawa, is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. It connects Ottawa with Montreal via A-40, and is the backbone of the highway system in the National Capital Region. Within Ottawa, it forms part of the Queensway west from Highway 7 to Ottawa Road 174. Highway 417 extends from the Quebec border, near Hawkesbury, to Arnprior, where it continues westward as Highway 17. Aside from the urban section through Ottawa, Highway 417 passes through farmland that dominates much of the fertile Ottawa Valley.
A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, dual-carriageway, expressway, and partial controlled-access highway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which has many or most characteristics of a controlled-access highway, including limited or no access to adjacent property, some degree of separation of opposing traffic flow, use of grade separated interchanges to some extent, prohibition of slow modes of transport, such as bicycles, horse-drawn vehicles or ridden horses, or self-propelled agricultural machines; and very few or no intersecting cross-streets or level crossings. The degree of isolation from local traffic allowed varies between countries and regions. The precise definition of these terms varies by jurisdiction.
Interstate 190 is a north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in the United States that connects I-90 in Buffalo, New York, with the Canada–United States border at Lewiston, New York, near Niagara Falls. Officially, I-190 from I-90 north to New York State Route 384 (NY 384) is named the Niagara Thruway and is part of the New York State Thruway system. The remainder, from NY 384 to Lewiston, is known as the Niagara Expressway and is maintained by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT).
The Kichi Zībī Mīkan, formerly the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, and previously the Ottawa River Parkway, is a four-lane scenic parkway along the Ottawa River in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It runs from Carling Avenue near Connaught Avenue, to Booth Street at the Canadian War Museum and National Holocaust Monument. It is maintained by the National Capital Commission. The speed limit is 60 km/h (37 mph). Bicycles are allowed on the road and on a parallel recreational path along the parkway.
State Route 178 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that exists in two constructed segments. The gap in between segments is connected by various local roads and State Route 190 through Death Valley National Park. The western segment runs from State Route 99 in Bakersfield and over the Walker Pass in the Sierra Nevada to the turnoff for the Trona Pinnacles National Natural Landmark. The eastern segment runs from the southeasterly part of Death Valley to Nevada State Route 372 at the Nevada state line.
The Niagara Scenic Parkway is a 16.4-mile (26.39 km) state parkway in western Niagara County, New York, in the United States. Its southern terminus is at the LaSalle Expressway on the east bank of the Niagara River in Niagara Falls. The northern terminus is at New York State Route 18 (NY 18) at Four Mile Creek State Park in Porter near Lake Ontario. Originally, the parkway was one continuous road; however, due to low usage, a portion of the parkway near Niagara Falls was removed, separating the parkway into two sections. The length of the parkway is designated as New York State Route 957A by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). A 1.16-mile (1.87 km) long spur connecting the Niagara Scenic Parkway to Fort Niagara State Park near Youngstown is designated as New York State Route 958A. Both reference route designations are unsigned.
The Lake Ontario State Parkway is a 35.05-mile (56.41 km) limited-access parkway along the southern shore of Lake Ontario in Western New York in the United States. The western end of the highway is at a partial interchange within Lakeside Beach State Park in Carlton, Orleans County. Its eastern terminus is at an intersection with Lake Avenue in the Charlotte neighborhood of the Monroe County city of Rochester. The parkway is internally designated by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) as New York State Route 947A (NY 947A), an unsigned reference route. A short, 0.55-mile (0.89 km) connector between the west end of the parkway and NY 18 is unsigned New York State Route 948A.
The Bronx and Pelham Parkway, also known formally as the Bronx–Pelham Parkway but called Pelham Parkway in everyday use, is a 2.25-mile-long (3.62 km) parkway in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. The road begins in Bronx Park at the Bronx River Parkway and U.S. Route 1 and ends at Interstate 95 (I-95), the New England Thruway, in Pelham Bay Park, hence the roadway's name. The parkway is designated as New York State Route 907F (NY 907F), an unsigned reference route, by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT).
The Thousand Islands Parkway (often written as 1000 Islands Parkway) is a scenic parkway in the Canadian province of Ontario. It extends easterly from an interchange with Highway 401 in Gananoque for approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) to rejoin Highway 401 near the community of Butternut Bay, west of Brockville. The parkway follows the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, and was formerly designated Highway 2S (S for Scenic) until 1970. It passes through the communities of Gray's Beach, Halsteads Bay, Ivy Lea, Darlingside, Rockport, Narrows, La Rue Mills and Mallorytown Landing, as well as providing access to the three inland properties of the Thousand Islands National Park. Highway 137, which meets the parkway near its midpoint, provides access to the Interstate 81 in New York via the Thousand Islands Bridge.
A two-lane expressway or two-lane freeway is an expressway or freeway with only one lane in each direction, and usually no median barrier. It may be built that way because of constraints, or may be intended for expansion once traffic volumes rise. The term super two is often used by roadgeeks for this type of road, but traffic engineers use that term for a high-quality surface road. Most of these roads are not tolled.
The majority of parkways in the US state of New York are part of a statewide parkway system owned by several public and private agencies but mostly maintained by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). A handful of other roads in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island are also known as parkways but are not part of the state system. The roads of the state parkway system were among the first expressways to be constructed. These highways were not divided and allowed no driveway cuts, but did have intersections for some of the streets they crossed. A small section of the privately financed Long Island Motor Parkway was the first expressway to begin operation as a toll road and the first highway to use bridges and overpasses to eliminate intersections.
U.S. Route 202 is a US Highway running from New Castle, Delaware, northeast to Bangor, Maine. In the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the route runs for 59 miles (95 km), from the Delaware state line in Bethel Township, Delaware County, to the New Hope–Lambertville Toll Bridge over the Delaware River in Solebury Township, where the route crosses into New Jersey. The highway runs through the western and northern suburbs of Philadelphia in the Delaware Valley metropolitan area, and serves as a toll-free bypass around the city, avoiding the busy traffic and congestion on Interstate 95 (I-95). It is signed north–south and follows a general southwest–northeast direction through the state.
Park Drive is a mostly one-way, two-lane parkway in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston that runs along the northern and western edges of the Back Bay Fens before ending at Mountfort Street. As part of the Emerald Necklace park system mainly designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 19th century, Park Drive, along with the Back Bay Fens and the Fenway, connects the Commonwealth Avenue Mall and Boylston Street to Beacon Street and the Riverway. For a portion of its length, the parkway runs along the Muddy River and is part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston's Muddy River Reservation. Like others in the park system, it is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.