The Journal News: East Coast greenway bike path takes two routes through Westchester

Cyclists wheeling along Boston Post Road and the Long Island Sound shore on their way down the East Coast share the pavement with heavy streams of traffic, but they get to pedal by local downtowns along the way. A trip down the Bronx River pathways gets cyclists away from cars and into wooded areas, but does not connect as directly to the clusters of shops in various communities. Now communities along both corridors have won the bragging rights to call themselves part of a 3,000-mile bike and pedestrian trail stretching down the entire Atlantic seaboard.

The East Coast Greenway Alliance has accepted both into the vast system of trails it is assembling from Calais, Maine, to Key West, Fla. “We have two routes that both really have tremendous prospects for us,” Karen Votava, executive director of the Rhode Island-based alliance, said at a recent meeting in the headquarters of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation in Central Park.

The group passed a resolution at the meeting accepting the routes, with their connections in New York City, saying that they “offer quite different travel experiences and show off different aspects of Westchester, the Bronx and Manhattan.” James Sutton, a Yonkers resident who heads the Bronx River Parkway Reservation Conservancy, attended the meeting and said the greenway designation added a great benefit to Bronx River trails where Westchester residents cycle and walk. “We would love to see a bicycle path from the Kensico Dam to the East River,” he said. Already paths for cycling and walking line about 10 of the river’s 13 miles in Westchester.

Another mile of trail, from Harney Road in Eastchester to Garth Woods in Scarsdale, will open in the spring, said Dave DeLucia, director of park facilities for the Westchester County Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation. The route chosen matters because out-of-town cyclists would be guided through it when they plan trips with the Greenway’s printed maps or Web site, www.greenway.org. Communities traversed by the trail would benefit, organizers say, by having passing cyclists using local businesses such as inns, bike shops and delis.

Envisioned as an “urban sister” to the hikers’ Appalachian Trail, the East Coast Greenway is designed to link downtowns and encourage local cycling as much as offering a challenge for adventurous pedalers who brave the entire route. For several years, the greenway has included an interim Westchester route that mostly follows Boston Post Road from Port Chester south, hopping off to Palmer Avenue in New Rochelle, then over to Pelham Road. There it crossed through the tip of Pelham Manor and into the Bronx, where it follows Shore Road. That will remain as one route.

The other, given equal weight in the alliance’s eyes, will follow Interstate 287, cut through White Plains and then follow the Bronx River into the Bronx. Patrick Natarelli, chief planner with the Westchester County Planning Department, said his county agency, working with other offices, will put together a package of ideas for specific greenway routes and will bring them to local communities in public meetings to gather input. They hope to make the presentations this year, with representatives from the East Coast Greenway Alliance, he said.

While the alliance’s goal is to place as much of the route as possible off-road, some cyclists who travel at higher speeds would rather dart along streets and avenues than share more leisurely paths with people walking, often pushing children in strollers. Bruce Wells, for instance, prefers the streets to the Bronx River trail when he rides four miles from his Scarsdale home to his computer programming job on Hamilton Avenue in White Plains.

He said, however, that he uses the bike paths when he takes his daughter riding on a tandem. He said more bike trails for commuters were a good idea, to cut down on the use of cars. “We try to keep our carbon footprint smaller. That helps a lot,” he said. “I definitely see that people are doing more cycling than they have been in the past.” In New Rochelle, the trail coincides with a set of routes that the city already has designated as bicycle trails – which is causing some controversy.

City Council members that represent the south end of the city are worried about safety on Echo Avenue and Pelham Road. Councilman Michael Boyle, for one, said encouraging cyclists to use congested Pelham Road, with its nursing homes, schools and multistory residential buildings, creates problems. He said that including them in the greenway makes it worse. “It’s just going to add to or heighten the concerns in terms of congestion and safety,” he said.

Supporters of the city’s plan, the brainchild of Mayor Noam Bramson, say that many cyclists already use the route and that posting signs would make it safer by alerting motorists. Having chosen the routes does not mean that the paths and roads have been officially designated as final portions of the greenway.

To do that, the trails have to be checked to be sure that cyclists, pedestrians and wheelchair users can travel them easily, said John Piazza, trail program coordinator with the alliance. Eventually, they will be denoted with signs featuring the East Coast Greenway logo showing a pine tree with its reflection.

Still, the alliance’s Web site and other materials already offer pathways to make the entire trip, using interim routes. In the Bronx and through the rest of New York City, the trail spreads into several branches. Piazza said the metropolis was too broad and varied for a single thread running through it. As an example, he said, “if you’re hugging just the Hudson River, you’re missing so much more in the eastern section of the city.”