What is a Greenway?
The word "greenway" is a combination of the words "greenbelt" and "parkway."
Greenways are open space connectors linking parks, residential areas, nature reserves, commercial areas, civic amenities, cultural institutions, and historic sites to each other.
Greenways are linear spaces established along natural corridors, such as streams and rivers; or along developed corridors, such as railroad right-of-ways converted for recreational use or abandoned or minimum use roadways.
Greenways encourage recreation as well as interaction and provide social, economic and environmental benefits to residents and visitors alike.
What are the Benefits of an Interconnected System of Greenways, Parks and Trails? Initiatives in metropolitan areas across the nation, including Boston, Denver, Minneapolis and Portland, St. Louis and Kansas City demonstrate that the benefits of an interconnected system of greenways, parks and trails go far beyond recreational use: economic growth is stimulated; property values increase; tax bases stabilize; new businesses develop; citizens and neighborhoods connect; open space is preserved; and healthier lifestyles are encouraged.
How do Trails and Greenways Help Make Healthier Communities? Trails and Greenways create healthy recreation and transportation opportunities by providing people of all ages and stature with attractive, safe, accessible places to engage in physical activity.
Trails and Greenways provide natural, scenic areas that cause people to want and enjoy to be outside and physically active. By transforming undeveloped or unsightly rural and urban decay into inviting and popular trails and greenways, communities become more livable and walkable. Trails and Greenways attract visitors, businesses and residents.
Trails and greenways serve as a place where people can see and interact with other people exercising in an outdoor setting while experiencing natural habitats. Researchers have found that a lack of social interaction in outdoor settings is unhealthy. Trails and Greenways promote concrete efforts to make outdoor activities more accessible to those who otherwise would not be able to experience nature and the outdoors in ways many take for granted.
The "Whitehouse HealthierUS Initiative", launched in 2002, identifies four keys for a healthier America. The first of these is to "be physically active everyday". Toward this goal, the HealthierUS Initiative also highlights the Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program of the National Park Service, which works with community groups and local and state governments to develop trails and greenways.
