Hudson River Greenway

If you biked down the Hudson River Greenway from the upper parts of Manhattan this morning, we've got some good news for your ride home. Here you see the freshly opened stretch between 83rd and 91st Street, which debuted today, giving cyclists a straight route without having to detour up through the middle of Riverside Park. The grand opening was also something of a symbolic occasion. Up until today this was the last missing piece in the greenway below the George Washington Bridge.

A meeting of Manhattan Community Board 7's Parks and Environment committee Monday night touched on several items of interest to the thousands of cyclists who use the Hudson River bike path, including the last remaining gap below the George Washington Bridge and the dangerous lack of lighting on some stretches of the greenway.

In the fall of 2007, 2008, and again this year, Streetsblog readers have alerted us to hazardous conditions on the "Cherry Walk" segment of the Hudson River Greenway. According to the city, no major improvements are in the offing.

Spurred by comments following yesterday's post on Greenway access in Washington Heights, a reader put together this map [download the full size version] of how to get from the Greenway to the George Washington Bridge. It's no straight shot by any means. If the arrows are a little hard to follow, here are the directions:

Last Friday afternoon my wife and I walked the Hudson River Greenway from Morningside Heights north toward home in Inwood. It was nice and warm out, and after a while we wanted water, so just south of the George Washington Bridge we decided to head over to Broadway, where we could stop for a beverage before catching a train the rest of the way. We exited the Greenway at 165th Street in Washington Heights, a route neither of us had taken before. After crossing the pedestrian bridge over the train tracks and taking a trail under the Henry Hudson Parkway and through the woods, this is what we found.

May's Bike Month Critical Mass reportedly drew more participants than usual, and NYPD responded by handing out a passel of trumped-up summonses. No surprise there, but as this video (from glassbeadian via Gothamist) shows, officers on scooters went so far as to follow riders down the Hudson River Greenway.

It took four months longer than expected, but here's good news from the Port Authority, care of The Manhattan Times, regarding the greenway detour between W. 158th and 181st Streets:

A temporary detour along the Hudson River Greenway in Washington Heights went into effect Thursday.

Last December, Washington Heights resident Lars Klove alerted us to night-time conditions on a segment of the Hudson River Greenway known as Cherry Walk, which lies roughly between W. 102 and W. 125 Streets. Wrote Lars: