Linking two rivers, three cities and six bridges! Home of the Derby Hall of FameThe Derby Greenway was officially opened with a dedication on Derby Day - June 25, 2006. At that point in time, the 1.7 mile trail was completely open from Main and Bridge Street to Division Street. Click here for photos from the Grand Opening. The Derby Greenway has been the most used trail in CT as measured by the Connecticut Trail Census project (see more below) since the project started. The trail is open from sunrise to sunset year round and the City of Derby plows it during the winter. The entrance to the Derby Greenway at Division Street is also the home of the historic National Humane Alliance Fountain which stands at the center of the Hall of Fame Plaza.
Did you know that the Derby Greenway has been the most used of all the trails being measured as part of the Connecticut Trail Census since the Census was started in 2018? Check out the CT Trail Census interactive website data by clicking here. 2021 Data Problems The final report and data from the 2021 CT Trail Census
is about to be released. However, trail counter technical issues at We will provide updates as they develop. Older story before the technical problems were discovered : The latest statistics from 2021 showed that even though most of the data from the first quarter of the year was not recovered except for the first seven days of the year, Derby continues to be the most used of the trails being measured in the study. Even with all the missing data, Derby has had 217,163 uses through the end of September. The grand total for all 26 trails being counted was 1,843,230. The "uses" as measured by the infrared sensor that does the counting. Assuming that users were likely to pass the sensor twice each time they were on the trail, the actual number of users would be roughly half of that total. Manual counts are also done at least 10 times a year and the results are correlated with the electronic counts to get a more accurate picture. Derby's total year-to-date is actually undercounted because of the missing data. However, Derby's daily average of 1,174 uses compared to the 272 average for all the trails in almost certainly inflated because of the missing data from some of the coldest days of the year when usage is traditionally lower. You can compare Derby usage patterns to the rest of the state with the following chars: Uses by Month
Uses by day of the week
Hourly Usage
The Derby Greenway was the first trail completed in what eventually will become the 42 mile long Naugatuck River Greenway. Here is a video prepared by the National Park Service about the Naugatuck River Greenway:
Earlier stories: Phase III Construction was completed spring, 2013
Phase III is open -
Click here to read the DPH
fact sheet
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Greenway Resources |
Map showing the Greenway (red) ringing the old Borough of Birmingham!
Click on picture for larger image!