Oasis Greenways: a New Model of Urban Park and Bikeway Within Constrained Street Rights-of-Way

Parks and greenways can offer many benefits to urban communities in many areas including recreational , public health, and increased land value. However, there are often few opportunities to carry out a narrow, continuous green space in the built-up parts of our cities. One prospect involves using available land in rail or utility corridors; another involves radical road diets to create space along major roads. This paper examines another approach, using the right-of-way (ROW) of local streets to transform pavement into linear parks that the authors call Oasis Greenways. An Oasis Greenway has ultra-low motor vehicle speeds and volumes, allowing there to be a single, narrow paved area shared by motor traffic, pedestrians, and bicycles. The resulting reduction in road footprint creates space for vegetation bordering the paved area, turning the street into a path through greenway park. This paper describes the development of an Oasis Greenway concept and its application to the Fairmount Corridor in Dorchester, a neighborhood of Boston identified as a “Greenway Desert” (Furth et al, 2013).

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFB40 Landscape and Environmental Design. Alternate title: Oasis Greenways: New Model of Urban Park and Bikeway Within Constrained Street Rights-of-Way
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Bertulis, Tom
  • Furth, Peter
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 8p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bikeways; Case studies; Greenways; Parks; Right of way (Land); Urban areas
• Candidate Terms: Shared-use vehicle systems
• Geographic Terms: Boston (Massachusetts)
• Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01515232
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-1358
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 21 2014 3:18PM