From GW Bridge south walkway, what street do you use to enter green way, is it 158th?
If it is, you are in city traffic for 20 blocks,when you use to north walkway you will be on the greenway faster, saves some lost time from the stairs of the North walk way.
But my original debate was the opening up the both walkways, for most runners stairs doesn't posses any problem.

181st. It's a 3-minute jaunt.

Well, if you are coming from south walkway. You are going backwards, and it is not a 3 minute jaunt.

Three minutes.

The entrance to the greenway on 181st is not far from the south walkway, certainly closer than riding to 158th.

will be, are you saying you don't want to backtrack? You can also take the ramp at Haven Ave. between 176th and 177th and follow it down and around until it connects with the greenway at roughly the same location as the 181st route does. There are a few stairs, a short, smelly tunnel, and a transient population, so 181st is my choice, but the alternative does exist.

Shouting idiots abound.
Do what you think is right, but sometimes it's best to go with the flow. If you've got only one path, what works best here in North America is for all non-cars to stay right and pass left. Icons and signs that say otherwise could be too much for some people.

Mr.noteon
Thanks for the input, I did not know the entrance on Heaven and 177th , is it next to parking lot?
and "Hillrat" we are not shouting , this is a discussion about a a entrance to greenway and I'm grateful to Mr. Noteon for his information.

The ramp entrance is on Haven, right at 177th:

This is the entrance. Zoom out and you'll see it on the map.

a_runner, I fully understand your frustration. You're following the rules and getting attitude for it. I found the same thing when I rode through Queens a couple of weeks ago - I got a few dirty looks for riding where I was supposed to be riding.

Actually it was a discussion about riding etiquette on the bridge path that went on some other tangents. I don't think Hilrat was referring to you.

Impossible. No one's supposed to be riding in Queens.

I wish I had known that then! I wouldn't have had such a good time!

I also appreciate your reaching out and recognizing that not all cyclists are aggressive hotheads, BUT are you sure running on steel bridge is the best thing for your knees? That sounds like a recipe for putting an orthopedic surgeon's kids through school. Ivy league schools.

steel is actually softer than concrete, which is the material of the pedestrian paths. steel does get nasty when wet though, even when you are walking

It's all hopeless. On the Queensboro bridge, the bike/ped path has clearly marked sides for bike and ped. Mostly the peds do stick to their side, but most of the bikes also ride in the ped side. I'm not sure why but I think we're trying to keep as far away from the car exhaust as possible. Still, for some reason that I just don't understand, some peds insist on walking in the bike side, which is right next to all the cars.

On the Williamsburg Bridge, biking towards Brooklyn in the afternoon is tough because of all the kids on skateboards on the bike side. I guess that's only fair, at least they're on wheels. But like some sort of swarm, they fill up the whole lane. Luckily I have an air horn.

South path eastbound approaching the guardhouse on the NY side, everything seems fine.
Port Authority is trying to seperate the bikers from the peds/runners:

EASTBOUND..jpg

Here's the problem, westbound the PA is saying the cyclists and peds use the SAME lane
for approaching traffic. So bikers hit other bikers headon and runners the same thing:

WESTBOUND..jpg

My suggestion is approach with caution, use the mirrors and stay right pass left.
Cyclists AND runners/peds/rollerbladers.

MIRROR..jpg