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Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway User Study

Brooklyn Greenway Initiative and its partners are pleased to release the final report from the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway User Study.

The User Study was started in 2019 and completed in spring 2024 through a partnership between Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, Regional Plan Association, Numina, and New York City Department of Transportation (the study team). BGI initiated this project and partnership to answer these key questions about the 29 mile greenway:

  • Who uses the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway and how and why do they use it?
  • How does the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway affect carbon emissions?
  • How can the results of the study support the advocacy of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, as well as other greenways?
  • How can this study serve as a model for future studies?

In brief, the intention of the project team is to increase understanding of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway to build both community and political support for its improved design, completion, and maintenance as well as foster support for other greenways across New York City.

As presented in this study, the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway will be 29 miles when completed and extends along the borough’s entire waterfront through city streets and parklands. As of this report’s release, seven miles of the Greenway remain incomplete.

Key findings

New and important findings in this report answer the following questions, in some cases for the first time:

How many people are using the Greenway?

  • Sensors counted an average high of 23,500 bicycles and 36,000 pedestrians per day during the peak month of July. The least active month (January 2024) included 7,400 cyclists and 16,500 pedestrians. Overall use was highest in Williamsburg/Greenpoint and lowest on Jamaica Bay Greenway among all sections.
  • Fewer cyclists were counted along sections of the Greenway that had not yet been completed.

How are people are using the Greenway?

  • Along every section of the greenway, most people are using it for recreation, exercise, and meeting people. Along Shore Parkway and Jamaica Bay Greenway sections, the share is over 90%.
  • More than 23% of Greenway bike trips and 12% of all trips were for commuting (3,000-7,000 per day in spring and summer), and the highest rates were in Williamsburg/Greenpoint, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and Red Hook.
  • Users rely on the Greenway year round and in all kinds of weather. Poor weather conditions such as extreme cold, heat, rain, snow and wildfire smoke only reduce greenway usage by about 30% for pedestrians and 42% for cyclists.

Who is using the Greenway?

  • Overall, Greenway users are equally likely to be (self-identifying) men or women. However, when broken down by mode of transportation women represent the largest percentage of walkers and runners and men the largest percentage of cyclists.
  • For each section of Greenway, racial and ethnic demographics of users tend to reflect the demographics of surrounding neighborhoods.
  • Of the greenway users who revealed their income to interviewers, greenway users were more likely to have incomes over $75,000 than surrounding communities.

What is the Greenways impact on carbon emissions?

  • Bike infrastructure like greenways encourages biking, and can facilitate long-term mode switches that include shifts away from car ownership, and one recent study estimates that bike trips in New York City between 2014-2017 saved 493 tons of CO2 citywide. That said, findings suggest that the carbon impact of day-to-day trip decisions is relatively low, as when asked how they would have made their trip if the Greenway didn’t exist, only 2% would have taken a car.

Are users connecting to transit?

  • About 21% of trips on the Greenway will connect to transit, but 88% of users report use the greenway to connect to transit in general. DUMBO has the highest percentage of users connecting to transit (specifically, subway and ferry).
  • The Greenway provides important connections to ferry services in multiple communities. In Sunset Park, almost 20% of users were connecting to the ferry.
  • A very low percentage (less than 2%) of Greenway users were connecting to buses, perhaps reflecting the lack of cycling amenities on many city buses.

Do people know what and where the Greenway is?

  • Awareness of the Greenway and its route could be significantly improved. Only about 60% of greenway users could identify they were using the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway.
  • In the online panel, 60% of respondents said they had not used the Greenway since they didn’t know where it was.

 

In addition to these questions and high level takeaways, we have broken the analysis down on a community level for 8 sections of the Greenway (both completed and proposed): Williamsburg/Greenpoint; Brooklyn Navy Yard/DUMBO; Brooklyn Bridge Park; Red Hook/Columbia Street; Sunset Park; Shore Parkway Greenway; Coney Island/Sheepshead Bay; Jamaica Bay Greenway.

Key recommendations

In response to the study findings and others, we have included high level recommendations to improve the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway including the following:

  • Complete the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway in the immediate short term
  • Follow through on the commitment to upgrade entry-level facilities
  • Prioritize the establishment of greenway-like alternatives around work zones
  • Improve design standards to meet tomorrow’s usage needs and prevent vehicle intrusion
  • Improve and standardize wayfinding for greenways
  • Consider increasing the number of access points
  • Maximize connections to public transportation