1
Fort Taber Park
Park
35 acres1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · New Bedford
New Bedford, MA parks, trails & bike paths
About 16% of New Bedford is conserved land, roughly 2,405 acres. There are about 9.6 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Fort Taber Park (1 mi), Riverside Park (0.8 mi), and Buttonwood Park (0.5 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in New Bedford, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
New Bedford outdoors
Conserved land
16%
2,405 of 15,351 acres
Trails
9.6 mi
0.4 mi per sq mi · 6 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
26
24 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
18.8 mi
11.4 mi lanes · 6.3 mi off-road paths
Conserved land is a share of the whole town area. Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Map
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number or a place below to zoom in© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk
Parks & preserves with trails
Ranked by mapped trail miles. Directions go to the nearest marked trailhead or public parking.
2
Riverside Park
Park
15 acres0.8 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
3
Buttonwood Park
Park
103 acres0.5 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
4
Brooklawn Park
Park
82 acres0.4 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
All 26 parks & preserves
- New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park30 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Dias Field9 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Marine Park8 ac · 0.1 mi trail · Directions
- Flora Pierce Nature T80 ac · Directions
- New Bedford Cr478 ac
- Hazelwood Park22 ac · Directions
- Victory Park19 ac · Directions
- Pine Hill Park18 ac · Directions
- Clegg Field9 ac · Directions
- Clasky/Common Park7 ac
- Ashley Park4 ac
- Gomes Park4 ac
- Ben Rose Field3 ac · Directions
- Rivers End Park2 ac
- Pulaski Park2 ac
- Magnat Park2 ac
- Camara Field2 ac
- Edward James Park1 ac · Directions
- Montes Park1 ac · Directions
- Belleville Ave Playground1 ac · Directions
- Custom House Square Park1 ac · Directions
- Peter Francisco Square1 ac · Directions
Who protects the land
2,405 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 84 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 8 of 78 parcels. The places listed above are parks and preserves people visit.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes11.4 mi
- Off-road bike paths6.3 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes1.1 mi
Courts & fields
- Baseball25
- Basketball22
- Tennis16
- Soccer9
- Football3
- Lacrosse1
- Multi-sport1
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Next door
New Bedford and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about New Bedford's trails yet. Muddy, icy, a bridge out, where to park: a quick post helps the next person.
Sources: trails, parks, preserves, courts and bike lanes © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), map data as of 2026-09-28. Conserved land: USGS Gap Analysis Project, Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US). Measured against the Census town boundary.
How we measure
"Trails" are OpenStreetMap paths, bridleways, public tracks and unpaved footways, plus footways inside a park or preserve or on a named trail route. Sidewalks are left out. Areas are counted on a 24.3-meter grid, so overlapping parcels count once. "Conserved" includes conservation easements, which protect land from development but are usually private property. Trailheads are the nearest marked trailhead, public parking lot or information board within about 150 meters of a preserve. Dog rules come from OpenStreetMap when someone has tagged them; otherwise we show what's typical for the land manager, or say the rules aren't recorded.