Based on a weighted version of the bijection between Dyck paths and 2-Motzkin paths, we find combinatorial interpretations of two identities related to the Narayana polynomials and the Catalan numbers. These interpretations answer two questions posed recently by Coker.

We present a simple combinatorial proof of Postnikov's hook length formula for binary trees.

We study the generating function for the number of involutions on n letters containing exactly r ≥ 0 occurrences of 3412. It is shown that finding this function for a given r amounts to a routine check of all involutions on 2r + 1 letters.

We obtain a characterization of $(321, 3\bar{1}42)$-avoiding permutations in terms of their canonical reduced decompositions. This characterization is used to construct a bijection for a recent result that the number of $(321,3\bar{1}42)$-avoiding permutations of length $n$ equals the $n$-th Motzkin number, due to Gire, and further studied by Barcucci, Del Lungo, Pergola, Pinzani and Guibert. Similarly, we obtain a characterization of $(231,4\bar{1}32)$-avoiding permutations. For these two classes, we show that the number of descents of a permutation equals the number of up steps on the corresponding Motzkin path. Moreover, we find a relationship between the inversion number of a permutation and the area of the corresponding Motzkin path.

Riordan paths are Motzkin paths without horizontal steps on the x-axis. We establish a correspondence between Riordan paths and (321, 3142)-avoiding derangements. We also present a combinatorial proof of a recurrence relation for the Riordan numbers in the spirit of the Foata-Zeilberger proof of a recurrence relation on the Schröder numbers.