Green-Wood Cemetery Wants Protected Bike Lane, New Sunset Park Entrance

Green-Wood? Green-Way!

The folks behind Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery want the city to install a two-way bike path along a “no man’s land” strip of tractor-trailer parking and illegal dumping on the graveyard’s southern border — even as they continue to ban cycling within the park.

Coupled with a new cemetery entrance at Ninth Avenue, the proposal for protected bike lanes on Fort Hamilton Parkway, 36th Street and 37th Street would repurpose a desolate and dangerous stretch of roads for safe bike and foot access to the 478-acre, 188-year-old burial ground, according to Green-Wood President Meera Joshi, a one-time deputy mayor for operations under former Mayor Eric Adams.

“This strip has become a magnet for illegal dumping and illegal truck parking, the sidewalks are in deep disrepair and the roadway fails to provide safe passage for the hundreds of delivery workers for whom this is an important connector,” Joshi said in a statement.

The Green-Wood proposal, which Joshi and her team pitched to Brooklyn Community Board 7 in April, would swap an underused curbside parking lane on 36th Street and 37th Street for a two-way bikeway and expanded sidewalks. On Fort Hamilton Parkway, Joshi and company proposed splitting an existing sidewalk into a bike lane and pedestrian path with planters and benches to be maintained by cemetery staff.

At the same time, cemetery officials would also add a new entrance at Ninth Avenue and 37th Street to provide a first direct access point for Sunset Park residents, who currently have to go all the way around to either Fourth Avenue, Fifth Avenue, or the far end of Fort Hamilton Parkway to get past the fence.

“People have a lot of aversion to coming into a cemetery to begin with, but we’re a huge asset for the community,” Joshi told CB7 members. “With the Sunset Park community, I think we have had an even harder time engaging to get people to regularly come and take advantage of Green-Wood.”

The 36th Street-37th Street strip borders the MTA’s Jackie Gleason bus depot and 38th Street train yard, and transit workers currently park along the road. That could cause some “friction” if the city repurposes that space for cycle paths, Joshi acknowledged. But the former top city official argued that the parking demand isn’t actually high, since many of the spots are occupied by tractor-trailers and illegal dumping.

“I’ve even seen circus equipment parked over there, a small Ferris wheel,” she said. “A lot of that parking – and this is going to be a point of friction, probably, with the MTA – is people that work in the MTA bus depot do park their cars over there.” 

NYPD recorded 97 crashes over the past five years on Fort Hamilton Parkway, 36th Street and 37th Street — resulting in 128 injuries and three deaths. The fatalities included a 35-year-old cyclist struck by a dump truck driver at Ninth Avenue near 37th Street, a 46-year-old pedestrian hit by two motorists at the corner of 37th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway and a motorist who died in a collision at Fort Hamilton Parkway and Caton Avenue.

Ironically, given Green-Wood’s desire to create safe cycling routes to its facility, the cemetery has always prohibited cyclists and joggers inside its gates, along with other active transportation such as scooters and rollerblades — except if they’re part of a procession during funerals. Cars are allowed at 15 miles per hour.

Reps for Green-Wood did not respond to inquiries from Streetsblog about whether they plan to revisit the longstanding bike ban.

A New York Times report chalked the policy up to “a sense that bikes would be offensive to mourners and to people visiting the plots of deceased relatives.”

The potential mile-and-a-half addition of cycling infrastructure would fill in much of the perimeter of the park with protected bike lanes. Last year, the city Department of Transportation proposed to build a two-way bike lane along McDonald Avenue, between 10th Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway. There is already an existing two-way cycle path on a short stretch of the 20th Street side of the cemetery. But the Fifth Avenue side, leading to its iconic gothic archway entrance, does not have any dedicated bicycle-only lanes.

Joshi pegged the project’s cost at $15 million. Green-Wood wants the city to kick in $3.3 million this year to get design and community engagement off the ground.

Bikeways along the borders of parks and cemeteries are increasingly common because they allow cyclists to ride with fewer conflicts with cars as a result of what DOT called an “edge condition” in its presentation about the McDonald Avenue proposal. The agency under Mayor Mamdani recently proposed a similar two-way path on Ocean Avenue by Prospect Park, which already has two-way bike lanes along much of its border.

Locals at the April meeting welcomed Joshi’s proposal, saying it was a long time coming.

“I’ve been saying for years that we need a bike lane that circumnavigates Green-Wood Cemetery,” said Jamie Fried, a member of CB 7’s Transportation Committee. “Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace, in the same community board, are so hard to get between by bike, and this would solve that problem immediately.”

The city should make sure the paths are properly protected beyond just using plastic flex posts, said Katie Walsh, the committee’s chair.

“The plastic bollards don’t work to protect people,” said Walsh. “Plastic bollards as the thing that separates any of these cyclists from the MTA buses or those trucks that are illegally parking that are still going to try and do it.”

The community board voted in favor of exploring the idea further and funding design and outreach. In a statement, the area’s City Council rep said “the idea” of a bike lane “seems like a positive investement” — with the caveat DOT should conduct “robust” engagement.

“The idea of a greenway along the cemetery to make the street more accessible to pedestrians and bicyclists seems like a positive investment for our community, which is why I’ve supported the exploration process,” said Council Member Alexa Avilés. “That being said, I’d want to ensure that any process for a new greenway includes robust community engagement and support from nearby residents before moving forward.”

The MTA declined to comment. In a statement, DOT welcomed support to improve a “popular cycling corridor and major neighborhood asset.

“DOT looks forward to exploring safety upgrades and improving accessibility for all at this location,” agency spokeswoman Mona Bruno said.