Aparkway is alandscapedthoroughfare.[1] The term is particularly used for a roadway in apark or connecting to a park from which trucks and otherheavy 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 tolimited-access roads more generally. Many parkways originally intended for scenic,recreational driving have evolved into major urban and commuter routes.
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The first parkways in theUnited States were developed during the late 19th century by landscape architectsFrederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux as roads that separated pedestrians, bicyclists, equestrians, andhorse carriages, such asEastern Parkway, which is credited as the world's first parkway,[2] andOcean Parkway in theNew York Cityborough ofBrooklyn. The term "parkway" to define this type of road was coined byCalvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted in their proposal to link city and suburban parks with "pleasure roads".
InBuffalo, 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] TheRhode Island Metropolitan Park Commission developed several parkways in the Providence area.[5]
Other parkways, such as Park Presidio Boulevard inSan Francisco, California,[6] were designed to serve larger volumes of traffic.
During the early 20th century, the meaning of the word was expanded to includelimited-access highways designed for recreational driving of automobiles, withlandscaping. These parkways originally providedscenic routes without very slow orcommercial vehicles, atgrade intersections, or pedestrian traffic. Examples are theMerritt Parkway in Connecticut and theVanderbilt 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. TheArroyo Seco Parkway betweenDowntown Los Angeles andPasadena, California, is an example of lostpastoral aesthetics. It and others have become major commuting routes, while retaining the name "parkway".
In New York City, construction on theLong Island Motor Parkway (Vanderbilt Parkway) began in 1906 and planning for theBronx River Parkway in 1907. In the 1920s, theNew York City Metropolitan Area's parkway system grew under the direction ofRobert Moses, the president of the New York State Council of Parks andLong 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 inConnecticut 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 theSprain Brook Parkway from lower-Westchester to connect to theTaconic State Parkway toChatham, New York.Landscape architectGeorge Kessler designed extensive parkway systems forKansas City, Missouri;Memphis, Tennessee;Indianapolis; and other cities at the beginning of the 20th century.
In the 1930s, as part of theNew Deal, the U.S. federal government constructedNational Parkways designed for recreational driving and to commemorate historic trails and routes. These divided four-lane parkways have lowerspeed limits and are maintained by theNational Park Service. An example is theCivilian Conservation Corps (CCC) builtBlue Ridge Parkway in theAppalachian Mountains ofNorth Carolina andVirginia.
Others areSkyline Drive inVirginia; theNatchez Trace Parkway inMississippi,Alabama, andTennessee; and theColonial Parkway in eastern Virginia'sHistoric Triangle area.[7] TheGeorge Washington Memorial Parkway and theClara Barton Parkway, running along thePotomac River nearWashington, D.C., andAlexandria, Virginia, were also constructed during this era.
InKentucky the term "parkway" designates afreeway in theKentucky Parkway system, with nine built in the 1960s and 1970s. They weretoll roads until theconstruction bonds were repaid; the last of these roads to charge tolls becamefreeways in 2006.
TheArroyo Seco Parkway fromPasadena toLos Angeles, built in 1940, was the first segment of the vastSouthern California freeway system. It became part ofState Route 110 and was renamed the Pasadena Freeway. A 2010 restoration of the freeway brought the Arroyo Seco Parkway designation back.
In theNew York metropolitan area, contemporary parkways are predominantly limited-access highways or freeways restricted to non-commercial traffic, excludingtrucks andtractor-trailers. Some have low overpasses that also exclude buses. The Vanderbilt Parkway, an exception in westernSuffolk County, is a surviving remnant of theLong Island Motor Parkway that became asurface street, no longer with controlled-access or non-commercial vehicle restrictions. ThePalisades Interstate Parkway is a post-war parkway that starts at theGeorge 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 toHarriman State Park.
In New Jersey, theGarden State Parkway, connecting the northern part of the state with theJersey Shore, is restricted to buses and non-commercial traffic north of theRoute 18 interchange, but trucks are permitted south of this point. It is one of the busiest toll roads in the country.[8]
In thePittsburgh region, two of the major Interstates are referred to informally as parkways. The Parkway East (I-376, formally thePenn-Lincoln Parkway) connects Downtown Pittsburgh toMonroeville, Pennsylvania. The Parkway West (I-376) runs through theFort Pitt Tunnel and links Downtown toPittsburgh International Airport, southboundI-79,Imperial, Pennsylvania, and westbound US 22/US 30. The Parkway North (I-279) connects Downtown toFranklin Park, Pennsylvania and northboundI-79.
In the suburbs ofPhiladelphia,U.S. Route 202 follows an at-grade parkway alignment known as the "U.S. Route 202 Parkway" betweenMontgomeryville andDoylestown. 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 theUS 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]
InMinneapolis, theGrand 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]
InCincinnati, 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.
InBoston, 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 (likeStorrow Drive,Memorial Drive, theAlewife Brook Parkway and theVFW Parkway) have evolved into regional commuter routes.
"Parkway" is used in the names of manyCanadian roads, including major routes throughnational parks, scenic drives, major urban thoroughfares, and even regular freeways that carry commercial traffic.
Parkways in theNational Capital Region are administered by theNational Capital Region (Canada). However, some of them are named "drive" or "driveway".
The term in Canada is also applied to multi-use paths andgreenways used by walkers and cyclists.[14][15]
In the United Kingdom, the term "parkway" more commonly refers topark and ride railway stations, where this is often indicated as part of the name, as withBristol Parkway, the first such station, opened in 1972.
Luton Airport Parkway is somewhat analogous - an interconnect railway station with an airport via a public transport shuttle (initially buses, now theLuton DART light railway).
Parkways fitting the definition applied in this article also exist, as listed in this section.
The city ofPeterborough 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 theCity of Plymouth, theA38 is called "The Parkway" and bisects a rural belt of thelocal authority area, which coincides with the geographical centre; it has two junctions to enter the downtown part of the city.
TheAustralian 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 andinterchanges. TheEast 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 asprospekts.
