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41-588: The Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston is a system of reservations, parks, parkways and roads under the control of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) in and around Boston that has been in existence for over a century. The title is used by the DCR to describe the areas collectively: "As a whole, the Metropolitan Park System is currently eligible for listing on

82-506: A Boston newspaper writer and city planning enthusiast. Eliot and Manning had apprenticed with Frederick Law Olmsted and Eliot later assumed leadership of Olmsted's design firm in 1893, with Manning leaving the firm in 1896. Olmsted had been responsible for the development of Central Park in Manhattan and with Eliot had worked to create Boston's Emerald Necklace , a string of connected parks and waterways. Eliot and Manning were instrumental in

123-707: A direct route from New York City to Harriman State Park . In New Jersey, the Garden State Parkway , connecting the northern part of the state with the Jersey Shore , is restricted to buses and non-commercial traffic north of the Route 18 interchange, but trucks are permitted south of this point. It is one of the busiest toll roads in the country. In the Pittsburgh region, two of the major Interstates are referred to informally as parkways. The Parkway East ( I-376 , formally

164-759: A four-lane freeway before funding for the road was cut. In Minneapolis , the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway system has 50 miles (80 km) of streets designated as parkways. These are not freeways; they have a slow 25-mile-per-hour (40 km/h) speed limit, pedestrian crossings, and stop signs. In Cincinnati , parkways are major roads which trucks are prohibited from using. Some Cincinnati parkways, such as Columbia Parkway, are high-speed, limited-access roads, while others, such as Central Parkway, are multi-lane urban roads without controlled access. Columbia Parkway carries US-50 traffic from downtown towards east-side suburbs of Mariemont, Anderson, and Milford, and

205-762: A pleasant, shaded route to the park and serve as mini-parks within the neighborhood. The Rhode Island Metropolitan Park Commission developed several parkways in the Providence area. Other parkways, such as Park Presidio Boulevard in San Francisco, California , were designed to serve larger volumes of traffic. During the early 20th century, the meaning of the word was expanded to include limited-access highways designed for recreational driving of automobiles, with landscaping . These parkways originally provided scenic routes without very slow or commercial vehicles , at grade intersections , or pedestrian traffic. Examples are

246-416: A project-labor agreement, and planning the citywide bulk purchase, financing, and installation of solar technology, (b) Work with local organizations to maximize Boston 's participation in state incentive programs and innovative financing initiatives (c) Create a successor non-profit organization to implement the long-term goals of the partnership, (d) Solar Boston partners include the U.S. Department of Energy,

287-631: A public instrument, a corporate separate and apart from the City of Boston. The Enabling Act empowered the BWSC to independently set rates and charges for the water distribution and wastewater collection services it provides and entrusted BWSC to improve and maintain the integrity of its systems. BWSC purchases water from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), a wholesale supplier of water and wastewater services. MWRA collect water in

328-523: A public transport shuttle (initially buses, now the Luton DART light railway). Parkways fitting the definition applied in this article also exist, as listed in this section. The city of Peterborough has roads branded as "parkways" which provide routes for much through traffic and local traffic. The majority are dual carriageways, with many of their junctions numbered. Five main parkways form an orbital outer ring road. Three parkways serve settlements. In

369-642: A system of parkways which serve to connect the urban public to the open spaces; among these are busy streets such as Jamaicaway in Boston as well as secluded park roadways in uninhabited areas such as the Blue Hills Reservation Parkways . The improvement of areas of undeveloped land, detrimental development, and polluted land in and around Boston for a system of interconnected parks was first conceived and promoted by landscape architects Charles Eliot and Warren H. Manning , as well as Sylvester Baxter ,

410-624: Is a landscaped thoroughfare . The term is particularly used for a roadway in a park or connecting to a park from which trucks and other heavy vehicles are excluded. Over the years, many different types of roads have been labeled parkways. The term may be used to describe city streets as narrow as two lanes with a landscaped median, wide landscaped setbacks, or both. The term has also been applied to scenic highways and to limited-access roads more generally. Many parkways originally intended for scenic, recreational driving have evolved into major urban and commuter routes. The first parkways in

451-524: Is a limited access road from downtown to the Village of Mariemont. In Boston , parkways are generally four to six lanes wide but are not usually controlled-access. They are highly trafficked in most cases, transporting people between neighborhoods quicker than a typical city street. Many of them serve as principal arterials and some (like Storrow Drive , Memorial Drive , the Alewife Brook Parkway and

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492-588: Is a surviving remnant of the Long Island Motor Parkway that became a surface street , no longer with controlled-access or non-commercial vehicle restrictions. The Palisades Interstate Parkway is a post-war parkway that starts at the George Washington Bridge , heads north through New Jersey, continuing through Rockland and Orange counties in New York. The Palisades Parkway was built to allow for

533-466: Is also applied to multi-use paths and greenways used by walkers and cyclists. In the United Kingdom, the term "parkway" more commonly refers to park and ride railway stations , where this is often indicated as part of the name, as with Bristol Parkway , the first such station, opened in 1972. Luton Airport Parkway is somewhat analogous - an interconnect railway station but with an airport via

574-622: Is currently the only expressway in Singapore that uses this terminology. In Russia, long, broad (multi-lane) and beautified thoroughfares are referred to as prospekts . Boston Water and Sewer Commission The largest retail water and wastewater utility in New England , BWSC owns and operates the drinking water distribution, wastewater collection and stormwater drainage systems; which utilise 1,015 miles (1,633 km) of water main and 1,435 miles (2,309 km) of sewer pipe and storm drain. It

615-735: The City of Plymouth , the A38 is called "The Parkway" and bisects a rural belt of the local authority area, which coincides with the geographical centre; it has two junctions to enter the downtown part of the city. The Australian Capital Territory uses the term "parkway" to refer to roadways of a standard approximately equivalent to what would be designated as an "expressway", "freeway", or "motorway" in other areas. Parkways generally have multiple lanes in each direction of travel, no intersections (crossroads are accessed by interchanges), high speed limits, and are of dual carriageway design (or have high crash barriers on

656-671: The Clara Barton Parkway , running along the Potomac River near Washington, D.C. , and Alexandria, Virginia , were also constructed during this era. In Kentucky the term "parkway" designates a freeway in the Kentucky Parkway system , with nine built in the 1960s and 1970s. They were toll roads until the construction bonds were repaid; the last of these roads to charge tolls became freeways in 2006. The Arroyo Seco Parkway from Pasadena to Los Angeles , built in 1940,

697-591: The Merritt Parkway in Connecticut and the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway in New York. But their success led to more development, expanding a city's boundaries, eventually limiting the parkway's recreational driving use. The Arroyo Seco Parkway between Downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena, California , is an example of lost pastoral aesthetics. It and others have become major commuting routes, while retaining

738-835: The National Park Service . An example is the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built Blue Ridge Parkway in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and Virginia . Others are: Skyline Drive in Virginia ; the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi , Alabama , and Tennessee ; and the Colonial Parkway in eastern Virginia's Historic Triangle area. The George Washington Memorial Parkway and

779-660: The Penn-Lincoln Parkway ) connects Downtown Pittsburgh to Monroeville, Pennsylvania . The Parkway West ( I-376 ) runs through the Fort Pitt Tunnel and links Downtown to Pittsburgh International Airport , southbound I-79 , Imperial, Pennsylvania , and westbound US 22/US 30. The Parkway North ( I-279 ) connects Downtown to Franklin Park, Pennsylvania and northbound I-79 . In the suburbs of Philadelphia , U.S. Route 202 follows an at-grade parkway alignment known as

820-552: The Quabbin Reservoir , connected by a 65 miles (105 km) tunnel to Boston, and enters BWSC distribution system at 27 metered sites. When full, the Quabbin Reservoir holds 412 billion US gallons (1.56 × 10  m ), making it one of the largest man-made public water supplies in the country. In the 40 years since its creation, BWSC has relaid or relined over 300 miles (480 km) of aging, and claims to have reduced

861-575: The United States were developed during the late 19th century by landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux as roads that separated pedestrians, bicyclists, equestrians, and horse carriages , such as the Eastern Parkway , which is credited as the world's first parkway, and Ocean Parkway in the New York City borough of Brooklyn . The term "parkway" to define this type of road

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902-616: The VFW Parkway ) have evolved into regional commuter routes. "Parkway" is used in the names of many Canadian roads, including major routes through national parks , scenic drives, major urban thoroughfares, and even regular freeways that carry commercial traffic. Parkways in the National Capital Region are administered by the National Capital Region (Canada) . However, some of them are named "drive" or "driveway". The term in Canada

943-462: The "U.S. Route 202 Parkway" between Montgomeryville and Doylestown . The parkway varies from two to four lanes in width, has 5-foot-wide (1.5 m) shoulders, a 12-foot-wide (3.7 m) walking path called the US 202 Parkway Trail on the side, and a 40 mph (64 km/h) speed limit. The parkway opened in 2012 as a bypass of a section of US 202 between the two towns; it had originally been proposed as

984-503: The City of Boston became one of thirteen inaugural Solar America Cities under the Solar American Initiative led by the U.S. Department of Energy and launched Solar Boston, a half-million-dollar program to encourage the widespread adoption of solar energy in Boston. Through Solar Boston, the City will: (a) Develop a strategy for the installation of solar technology throughout Boston including mapping feasible locations, preparing

1025-575: The DCR Bureau of Engineering. The park system consists of coastal reservations and beaches including Revere Beach , river reservations along the three major rivers in the area, such as the Charles River Reservation , and woodland reservations exemplified by Blue Hills Reservation south of the city. In addition, parks focusing on local history are located in Lynn and Roxbury . The DCR also manages

1066-580: The MDC and the separate Boston Water and Sewer Commission in 1982, charging unchecked systemic pollution of the city’s waterfront. That suit was followed by one by the Conservation Law Foundation and finally by the United States Government , resulting in a landmark court-ordered cleanup of Boston Harbor. The lawsuits forced then Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis to propose separating

1107-478: The National Register of Historic Places", as outlined on the department's website. The DCR maintains a separate Urban Parks and Recreation division to oversee the system, one of five such divisions within the department—DCR's Bureau of State Parks and Recreation manages the remainder of Massachusetts state parks . Direct design and maintenance functions for the parkways and roads within the system are provided by

1148-473: The amount of water being lost through system leaks by 50 million US gallons (190,000 m ) per day. It has also, in conjunction with the MWRA, eliminated 81 miles (130 km) of combined sewer overflows to Boston Harbor. In 2003, BWSC installed an automated reading device on every meter, that allows it to track daily consumption. The BWSC is home to the largest solar array in the City of Boston. In June 2007,

1189-663: The commission for the system in 1893 were the Beaver Brook , Blue Hills , Hemlock Gorge , Middlesex Fells and Stony Brook Reservations . By 1900, the system had expanded to include several constructed or planned parkways and added beach reservations at King's Beach in Lynn, Nantasket Beach in Hull , Quincy Shore , Revere Beach , and reservations along the Charles, Mystic and Neponset Rivers. Architect William D. Austin designed many buildings for

1230-548: The commission. In 1919, the commission was renamed the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) after merging with the Metropolitan Water and Sewer Commission. Through the next 80 years the MDC became increasingly politicized and known as a haven for political patronage . Following a series of failures within the commission resulting in the pollution of Boston Harbor in the 1970s, the City of Quincy sued

1271-481: The dismantlement of the MDC, which was realized when the MDC was dissolved by legislation in 2003. The Metropolitan Park System and other operations of the MDC were merged with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management to form the current Department of Conservation and Recreation. In 2009, a study concerning the transfer of DCR managed roadways to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation

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1312-529: The founding of The Trustees of Public Reservations (now The Trustees of Reservations) and the public Metropolitan Parks Commission in the 1890s and envisioned an expansion of the parks network to areas surrounding Boston. The Metropolitan Park Commission was established in 1892 and appointed by the legislature . It consisted of Charles Francis Adams, Jr. , Philip A. Chase and William B. de las Casas. The commission hired Baxter to serve as secretary and Eliot as landscape architect. The first five areas acquired by

1353-438: The median). Victoria uses the term "parkway" to sometimes refer to smaller local access roads that travel through parkland. Unlike other uses of the term, these parkways are not high-speed routes but may still have some degree of limited access. Singapore uses the term "parkway" as an alternative to " expressway ". As such, parkways are also dual carriageways with high speed limits and interchanges . The East Coast Parkway

1394-750: The name "parkway". In New York City, construction on the Long Island Motor Parkway (Vanderbilt Parkway) began in 1906 and planning for the Bronx River Parkway in 1907. In the 1920s, the New York City Metropolitan Area 's parkway system grew under the direction of Robert Moses , the president of the New York State Council of Parks and Long Island State Park Commission , who used parkways to provide access to newly created state parks, especially for city dwellers. As Commissioner of New York City Parks under Mayor LaGuardia, he extended

1435-485: The parkways to the heart of the city, creating and linking its parks to the greater metropolitan systems. Most of the New York metropolitan parkways were designed by Gilmore Clark. The famed "Gateway to New England" Merritt Parkway in Connecticut was designed in the 1930s as a pleasurable alternative for affluent locals to the congested Boston Post Road, running through forest with each bridge designed uniquely to enhance

1476-784: The scenery. Another example is the Sprain Brook Parkway from lower- Westchester to connect to the Taconic State Parkway to Chatham, New York . Landscape architect George Kessler designed extensive parkway systems for Kansas City, Missouri ; Memphis, Tennessee ; Indianapolis ; and other cities at the beginning of the 20th century. In the 1930s, as part of the New Deal the U.S. federal government constructed National Parkways designed for recreational driving and to commemorate historic trails and routes. These divided four-lane parkways have lower speed limits and are maintained by

1517-488: The water and sewer treatment divisions from the MDC, resulting in the creation of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority in 1985. Charges of political corruption and patronage continued to follow the MDC, while the loss of revenue from removal of the payments brought in by water and sewer services created a need for increased funding from the state legislature. The situation resulted in calls for

1558-515: Was begun, following the transfer of all DCR non-pedestrian bridges as part of a major transportation reform law enacted that year. The following table lists parks and reservations currently owned and maintained by the DCR Division of Urban Parks and Recreation, subdivided into sections based on environment as stated by the DCR, with year of formation, location within municipalities, site area and primary activities listed: Parkway A parkway

1599-564: Was coined by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted in their proposal to link city and suburban parks with "pleasure roads". In Buffalo, New York , Olmsted and Vaux used parkways with landscaped medians and setbacks to create the first interconnected park and parkway system in the United States. Bidwell Parkway and Chapin Parkway are 200 foot wide city streets with only one lane for cars in each direction and broad landscaped medians that provide

1640-475: Was created in 1977 taking control of the city operated sewer system and the state operated treatment facilities. The basic Boston water distribution system opened in 1848, and the wastewater collection system in 1883. In a response to the dangers posed to Boston by severely deteriorated water distribution and wastewater collection systems, BWSC was created in 1977 by an act of the Massachusetts legislature as

1681-712: Was the first segment of the vast Southern California freeway system. It became part of State Route 110 and was renamed the Pasadena Freeway. A 2010 restoration of the freeway brought the Arroyo Seco Parkway designation back. In the New York metropolitan area , contemporary parkways are predominantly limited-access highways or freeways restricted to non-commercial traffic, excluding trucks and tractor-trailers . Some have low overpasses that also exclude buses. The Vanderbilt Parkway, an exception in western Suffolk County ,

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