Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Playground
  • Surfacing
  • Parks
  • Athletics
  • Aquatics
  • Play
Home
  • Playground
  • Surfacing
  • Parks
  • Athletics
  • Aquatics
  • Play
  • Playgrounds Make a Great Place for a Play Day
  • Critical Lightning Detection
  • Rules of the Red Rubber Ball Book Review
  • 3 Overlooked Benefits to Building a Playground in Your Community
  • Play Spaces for All Abilities

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Parks
  3. Urban Parks’ Emerging Role as Transportation Infrastructure

Urban Parks’ Emerging Role as Transportation Infrastructure

Parks
December 07, 2017
Profile picture for user PGP
By PGP on
  • facebook-f
  • twitter
  • envelope
  • print
1871
Aerial view of the 606

Photo from the606.org

In recent decades, once-struggling cities have been reimagining themselves by evolving from 20th-century-style manufacturing centers to 21st-century hubs of commerce and culture. While each city realizes its own evolution in its own way, one important ingredient of these transformations is consistent among them all: city parks. Like the cities that house them, urban parks take on different forms, from signature downtown parks to reclaimed industrial railways and corridors. Now these corridors, or linear parks, are coming to be recognized as an important part of modernized transportation systems, connecting neighborhoods and residents to new opportunities.

In New Orleans, for instance, residents use over 100 miles of walkable, bike-able pathways every day. Before Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, New Orleans had just 10 miles of trail. In 2009, the city received $9.1 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Disaster Community Development Block Grant program, making the transformation of the Lafitte industrial corridor into the Lafitte Greenway possible with help from the Friends of Lafitte Greenway.

In 2015, its first full year of use, 272,000 people walked or bicycled the Greenway. That's an impressive number, but it contained a surprise: A study by the Georgia Institute of Technology showed that 80 percent of the weekday morning and afternoon cyclists use the Greenway not for recreation but for transportation to and from work, school, and shopping.

Linear parks like the Lafitte Greenway demonstrate what is possible when we fully consider the role of parks as transportation infrastructure. The Greenway concept is a roadmap to a more sustainable future for New Orleans, supporting public health, recreation, stormwater management, neighborhood investment and job opportunities through connections to low-cost public transportation.

Best of all, the Lafitte Greenway is but one example among many. In Chicago, the 606 line of the Chicago & Pacific Railroad once ferried freight atop an elevated track running along Bloomingdale Avenue on Chicago's northwest side. Back then, it was a symbol of American industrial might and engineering prowess. Today, it is a symbol of the strength of public-private partnerships needed to revitalize aging infrastructure to improve quality of living for city-dwellers.

About a decade ago, with help from the Trust for Public Land and the Chicago Park District, the 606's long-dormant tracks were transformed into a park, and its rumbling, rusting cars were replaced by people on bikes and on foot. This 2.7-mile-long linear park, which once bisected communities, now connects them, linking bikeshare and transit stations with nearby residences, restaurants, schools, and businesses. Each day, more people than ever walk, bicycle, run, scooter or skateboard to work and the surrounding neighborhoods. Traffic averages 3,531 trips every day, most of it during commuting hours, and according to Georgia Tech, 60 percent of the weekday morning and afternoon cyclists are using the 606 for transit, not recreation.

Credit for the 606's success can be spread equally among sectors. Public agencies oversaw its design and construction, public and private donations gave it a financial footing, the federal government contributed nearly half of the $95 million cost through the Federal Highway Administration's Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Program, and volunteers and local stewardship groups enliven it with community activities.

There are similar successes in cities across the country. The City Parks Alliance and Georgia Tech have collected stories and images of these vibrant parks in a new video, City Parks: America's New Infrastructure -- Traffic & Transportation, that features elected officials, designers, researchers and planners talking about transportation as just one of many benefits of city parks that stretch from public health and fitness to environmental management to economic stimulation and job creation.

The substantial and growing returns that parks provide are not always accounted for in balance sheets but are critically important to urban livelihoods and the future of our cities. As leaders at the federal, state and local levels look ahead to allocating scarce resources among infrastructure investments, parks must be a part of the solution.

Profile picture for user PGP
PGP
Published 5 years ago
Last updated 3 months ago
1871
2
min read
A- A+
  • facebook-f
  • twitter
  • envelope
  • print

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter

More About

Apr 14, 2014
Parks

Park Classification Plans: The Critical Role of Playgrounds

Butch-Defillippo
Aug 01, 2005
Parks

Brice Park

Playground Magazine
Nov 06, 2018
Parks

Press Release: Pease Park Conservancy Releases Renderings of Initial Plans for Kingsbury Commons

Peasepark Cons…
Nov 12, 2018
Parks

Building Safe & Inclusive Parks in Philadelphia

Tony Benson
Nov 21, 2016
Parks

Park West Reengaged to Provide Landscape Management Services for the Four-Diamond Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa Resort

Rachel Reenders
Mar 19, 2018
Parks

National Park and Recreation Association's Julie Boland

Julie Boland
Jun 01, 2015
Parks

Parks + Real Estate = Increasing Value

Playworld
Mar 27, 2017
Parks

Sixteen Cities Nationwide to Receive Park Improvement Funding as Part of National 'Meet Me at the Park' Campaign

Heather Williams
Jun 04, 2019
Parks

How To Plan For A Road Trip

Chris Weatherall
Oct 26, 2020
Parks

How to Create an Amazing Park and Rec Area for Kids

Lewis Robinson
Oct 04, 2016
Parks

Americans Support Increased Local Funding for Parks and Recreation

Heather Williams
Feb 05, 2018
Parks

Public Spaces are America’s New Front Porches

PGP

Parks Professionals

Pennsylvania Recreation & Park Society
Pennsylvania Recreation & Park Society
Organization
More
Michigan Recreation and Park Association
Michigan Recreation and Park Association
Organization
More
The Trust for Public Lands
The Trust for Public Lands
Organization
More
Protecting Our Parks (POP)
Protecting Our Parks (POP)
Organization
More
The Parks and Recreation Summit
The Parks and Recreation Summit
Organization
More
Pease Park Conservancy
Pease Park Conservancy
Organization
More
Home

Follow Us

Play and playground news and information since 2001

  • instagram
  • facebook-f
  • twitter
  • pinterest
  • linkedin

Company

  • Playground Magazine
  • Contributors
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Copyright © 2001 - 2023 Playground Professionals, LLC

Footer menu

  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions