Orangetown is focused on enhancing the cycling experience for diverse users of Orangetown roads and paths. Our understanding is not only that cyclists, both long- and short-distance, already form an important constituency, but also that meeting their present and future needs is beneficial to Orangetown families and businesses. Bicycle infrastructure increases health, property values, tourism, local business opportunity, and economic development while decreasing air pollution and automobile traffic. Great strides are being made in street design to accommodate diverse ways of moving, and demographics are changing (i.e. Millennials drive less and value walkable/livable/bikeable communities). Orangetown needs to stay on top of these trends in order to continue to thrive as a community.
The advent of the Shared Use Path on the new Tappan Zee Bridge (TZB) and the visible presence of longdistance cycling groups alert us to the need to plan now more than ever, but most cycling
is short-distance and informal and is a longstanding priority for Orangetown families and local
government. That said, Orangetown should look to mitigate any possible negative impacts of the large
number of cyclists expected to be attracted to Orangetown by the new TZB Shared Use Path, and any foreseeable conflicts between cyclists, motorists, and pedestrians, using the tools at our disposal, anging from facilities/signs to education and enforcement.
The study area will include the unincorporated portions of Orangetown and the Villages of Piermont, South Nyack, and Upper Grandview/Grandview-on-Hudson. The Village of Nyack will conduct its own study.
