One of the best ways to experience life in the Hudson Valley is on foot. Whether you’re walking on a street, a sidewalk, a rail trail, or through a meadow, there’s so much you can learn and enjoy outside of the confines of a car. We used Google and social media data to rank some of the most popular places for walking in the Hudson Valley.
After the list, we’ll share some of our tips for walking safely. As personal injury attorneys, we’ve represented many pedestrian personal injury clients who have been injured and suffered losses as the result of being hit by a car, truck or bicycle, or slipping and falling on a sidewalk.
If you were walking and injured because of the negligence of another party, come to us for a free legal consultation: give us a call at 845-600-0000. We have practice locations in both Kingston, NY and Poughkeepsie.
Onto the list:
1. Walkway Over the Hudson
8,200 Google searches a month
36,700 Instagram posts
The Walkway Over the Hudson is the longest elevated pedestrian bridge in the entire world, and goes between Highland in Ulster County and Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County. Since it connects to rail trails on both sides, it’s one of the safest places you can possibly go for a walk; you can walk for well over a mile without having to cross a street or come into contact with a car. There are also great accessibility features; no stairs are needed to get onto the trail, there’s an elevator that connects the Walkway to the Poughkeepsie Metro-North station, and there is a chest-high safety railing on both sides of the bridge.
2. Wallkill Valley Rail Trail
1,000 Google searches a month
4,596 Instagram posts
The WVRT is a 21 mile rail trail that goes all the way from the Town of Ulster to Gardiner, with an additional four mile segment of trail than runs from Shawangunk to Walden. There are several points along the trail that require crossing streets while using crosswalks, but otherwise, rail trails are very safe for pedestrians since the road isn’t be shared with cars.
3. Newburgh Waterfront
800 Google searches a month
2,433 Instagram Posts
In the fall of 2016, the City of Newburgh opened up a new waterfront trail that runs from the City of Newburgh boat launch to south of the Newburgh Rowing Club. According to a map from that time, there’s close to a mile stretch along the water where there are no intersections with traffic.
4. Harlem Valley Rail Trail
700 Google searches a month
1,050 Instagram Posts
Since the Penn Central Corporation stopped running trains north of Wassaic in 1980, a rail trail that stretches 46 miles north to Chatham has been in the works, thanks to the Harlem Valley Rail Trail Association based in Millerton. According to this map from 2017, a good amount of the trail is already paved, making it great for biking and hiking. As with the other rail trails on this list, be careful when using crosswalks to cross streets that intersect with the trail.
5. Dutchess Rail Trail
700 Google searches a month
383 Instagram posts
The Dutchess Rail Trail connects to the Poughkeepsie end of the Walkway Over the Hudson, and stretches for 13 miles from Poughkeepsie to just north of Hopewell Junction. The trail was completed in 2013.
6. Hudson Valley Rail Trail
600 Google searches a month
1,836 Instagram posts
The HVRT connects the outer village of New Paltz to the Walkway Over the Hudson, and soon, it will connect all the way to the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail and River to Ridge Trail. We made a bike map focused on the HVRT, the Walkway Over the Hudson and Poughkeepsie late last year.
7. Kingston Waterfront
250 Google searches a month
311 Instagram posts
TR Gallo Waterfront Park was created by the Urban Cultural Parks System in 1984, and in 2010, a waterfront promenade along the Rondout Creek was added. The promenade provides a safe, picturesque place for walking.
8. Poet’s Walk
200 Google searches a month
6,600 Instagram posts
Poet’s Walk is an 120-acre estate of rolling meadows and almost two miles of trails. It’s said that many famous literary figures of the 1800s liked walking here, so you know it’s good.
9. Beacon Main Street
150 Google searches a month
200 Instagram posts
Beacon’s Main Street is one of two bona fide streets in the Hudson Valley that made the list. The street has been written up in the NY Times as being “picturesque, eclectic and lengthy.” Although Beacon has sidewalks on both sides of Main Street, always be careful with crosswalks and walk signals.
10. Hudson Warren Street
60 Google searches a month
30 Instagram posts
Hudson’s Warren Street is the other street that made the list; last fall, Newsday described it as a “mile of 19th-century row houses and Victorians, many painted delicious hues like saffron and dusty rose. The strip has made its reputation on antique stores since at least the 1990s.”
11. Kingston Stockade District
? Google searches a month
2,240 Instagram posts
We can’t really pin down how many people search for the Kingston Stockade District every month, because there’s so much overlap with Stockade FC, a local soccer team that is pretty popular in its own right. But the Stockade District (right by our personal injury law office in Kingston) is a very popular place for walking, featuring a canopy system that keeps pedestrians dry during bad weather or in the shade during hot weather, and large planter boxes and cut outs to keep pedestrians protected from cars.
If you’re looking to take a stroll in one of these places, or anywhere, here are some tips of things you can do to protect yourself from an accident. If you are injured as a pedestrian as the result of another party’s negligence, please give us a call at 845-600-0000 and schedule a free consultation.
Don’t trust cars
Just because a car is not supposed to do something, doesn’t mean that an individual driver won’t do that thing. The driver could be driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, distracted by their phone or passengers in the car, or not familiar with the road, especially in touristy areas of the Hudson Valley.
Use the crosswalk
If you have to cross the street, find a crosswalk if possible. If there is no traffic control signal, and a pedestrian is in the crosswalk, drivers must yield the right-of-way to you.
Don’t trust red lights or walk signals
Similar to the credo of “don’t trust cars,” just because there’s a red light or a walk signal doesn’t mean that a car, truck, bicycle or motorcycle won’t be trying to squeeze through the intersection. If you’re crossing the street on a red light or walk signal, make sure to check both ways and stay alert.
Use the sidewalk or walk against traffic
If you’re walking on a street that has a sidewalk, you should use the sidewalk. If the street you’re on has no sidewalk, walk against on the shoulder, against traffic if possible. This is opposite to the law for bicycles, which are supposed to ride with traffic.