With sigh of funding relief, PBOT releases dates for 2013 Sunday Parkways

Sunday Parkways North Portland 2012-14

A core service if there
ever was one.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

If you were concerned that budget cuts might jeopardize Sunday Parkways this year, you can now take a sigh of relief. With the announcement this morning of dates and routes for five Sunday Parkways events, it’s clear that the Bureau of Transportation feels confident they will enough funding to hold the events.

And Mayor Hales even sings the praises of the events in a statement released this morning:

“Sunday Parkways events are a great opportunity to get to know your neighborhood and your city. Nancy and I have attended them. As family-friendly events go, these can’t be beat,” said Portland Mayor Charlie Hales.

Here are the dates and routes:

May 12 in East Portland

June 23 in Northeast Portland

July 28 in North Portland

August 25 in Southeast Portland

September 29 in Southwest Portland (route is TBD)

The five Sunday Parkways events cost about $500,000 for PBOT to put on. The majority of funds is raised from donations and private sponsorships. Last year the City funded Sunday Parkways to the tune of $120,000. In years past, Council has threatened to cut funding for the program completely on the grounds that is is not a “core service.” PBOT argues that it is and they maintained the $120,000 budget request in their current budget that now sits on Mayor Hales’ desk.

According to sources at PBOT, Hales never hesitated when the request was in front of him. He promised to support Sunday Parkways during his campaign and it appears he has kept that promise.

Learn more about Sunday Parkways 2013 on PBOT’s website.

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car owner and driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, feel free to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.

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dmc
dmc
11 years ago

+1 Hales. Keep up the good work!

peejay
peejay
11 years ago

Sunday Parkways do provide photo-ops for certain opportunistic politicians to curry favor with the same interest groups that they belittle by talking about “back to basics”.

Not sure Hales earns a plus one here.

GlowBoy
GlowBoy
11 years ago

Glad to hear it! I’ve put these dates on my calendar. Sometimes I enjoy taking my kid on organized event rides, but honestly Sunday Parkways is more fun, doesn’t require a car to get the start line, and is FREE!

peejay
peejay
11 years ago

I’m assuming again that the SE Parkways will be the same day as Hawthorne Street Fair, the most disfunctional street fair in Portland. This is a golden opportunity for people on bikes (and foot, and skates, horses, whatever) to demonstrate to the good businesses of Hawthorne Boulevard how to conduct a proper street fair. A little impromptu detour during the middle of the day could show everybody how friendly a busy commercial street could be if it wasn’t clogged with cars for a little while just one day out of the whole year. Gosh, they might discover that it’s a nice environment to shop in! Or to have a store or a cafe on!

Not saying that I know if such an event was being organized, or if I’d endorse such a thing, but…

LoveDoctor
LoveDoctor
11 years ago

No Westside Parkways? Poo! The inaugural event last year was a surprising success, despite the hills. Disappointing that the gospel isn’t being spread West again. We could really use some more evangelism out here in the ‘burbs.

Linda Ginenthal
11 years ago
Reply to  LoveDoctor

We will have a southwest event again. We just have some work to do on the route. Stay tuned.

michelle
michelle
11 years ago

I’m really hoping this route is better planned than last year for the sake of the farmers and businesses in Hillsdale on Sunday. Last year was a total mess.

Tim Davis
Tim Davis
11 years ago

Speaking of the west side and the ‘burbs…They really should add a Sunday Parkways ride in Bethany! The area is beautiful, and such a ride could greatly increase the momentum to continue to build the critically important Westside Linear Trail that would stretch all the way from the Tualatin River through Beaverton and Bethany to Forest Park and finally reaching, after 16 glorious miles, the Willamette!

dan
dan
11 years ago

I am still holding out for Sunday Roadways, when pedestrian, transit, and bicycle traffic is restricted, and car owners are free to drive their cars without having to worry about other road users and their lawless shenanigans.

oliver
oliver
11 years ago
Reply to  dan

There are a number of totally bad-ass sanctioned road-racing events around the country, and several here in our own backyard. Better have some skills and a big checkbook though.

http://www.targanewfoundland.com/

http://www.targacalifornia.com/about/

http://mthoodrally.com/Competitors?doing_wp_cron=1349132885.2971799373626708984375

http://oregontrailrally.com/

http://www.100aw.org/

Chris I
Chris I
11 years ago
Reply to  oliver

The Oregon Trail Rally is awesome.

Tom
Tom
11 years ago
Reply to  dan

I hope you post is a joke ….if not, there are such places ..EVERYDAY , I-5 , I-205, I-84 etc,etc.

Tim Davis
Tim Davis
11 years ago

I wish we could catch up to Seattle, which has TWELVE “Bicycle Sundays” every summer along the beautiful west shore of Lake Washington; it’s absolutely phenomenal: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/bikesatsun.htm

dan
dan
11 years ago

I wish we could catch up to Tokyo, where major avenues are blocked to car traffic every Sunday…or NYC, with their car-free areas in Times Square. Pretty sad that the largest, densest cities in Japan and the US respectively are that far ahead of Portland, the alleged cyclists’ paradise. By comparison, the Parkways come across pretty feeble.

Tim Davis
Tim Davis
11 years ago

Agreed, Dan!! We can’t EVER commit to truly paradigm-shifting projects that would benefit ALL road users in Portland. Sunday Parkways are wonderful, but what about the OTHER 361 days of the year?!? Minneapolis and even DC are blowing us away with their off-street trail networks. Quebec’s Route Verte is over 3000 MILES of bike trails! http://www.routeverte.com/rv/index.php?page=home

And we can’t even get ONE mile of Sullivan’s Gulch completed? I’m writing letters all the time to our elected leaders about this; I hope that everyone is getting involved to help get Portland back on “track” with 21st-century cycling facilities that benefit the 98% of metro-area people who would NEVER bike regularly to work alongside mere painted stripes on roads!

Remember, WE are the other 2%; we need to design bike facilities in such a way that the OTHER 98% will join us and finally start biking!! I remind our elected officials of this every single week, but we need thousands of people to write and to dig trails by hand if that’s what it will take to get this done! 🙂