The City of Portland’s Transportation Options division has taken a step forward in their quest to pull off a ciclovia-type event — which they call “Sunday Parkways” — in Portland by next summer.
The event is being modeled after a successful program in Bogota, Colombia which shuts down 113km of major roads to motorized vehicles and draws 1.5 million citizens into the streets every Sunday.
Yesterday, an options staffer sent an email sent to the Chairs of several neighborhood associations in North Portland to schedule a meeting to garner feedback about the idea.
The email — which went out to the Arbor Lodge, Piedmont, Humboldt, Boise, and Overlook neighborhoods — included a PDF of a potential route for the event and unveiled more about PDOT’s plans.
Here’s an excerpt from the email:
“Ideally The Portland Office of Transportation would like to schedule a Sunday Parkways event for Sunday, June 22, 2008, 8am- 2pm in conjunction with the International Carfree Conference to be held in Portland June 16-20.
…The draft plan we have submitted for a grant pilot project would start with a “circular” six mile, two-way route in North Portland that has many neighborhood parks but minimal space where families and neighbors can walk, bike and enjoy recreating in a car free environment. The idea is for “soft closures” allowing local access and using small barricades and volunteers at every intersection, with Police at the major/signalized intersections.”
So far, no major US city has implemented an event comparable to the ciclovias in Bogota and several other South American countries.
Although I was in Bogota about twenty years ago I don\’t know if they had the ciclovia going on or not but let\’s hope we can generate some interest here in Portland.
Phone the neighbors and wake the kids!! Actually, phone PDOT, City Hall, your Transportation Commissioner, and your neighborhood association. Help get the word out that the People want to try the Sunday Parkway.
I\’ll sign up for an intersection! Neighborhoods want less traffic, well here it is. Let\’s jump on it 🙂
i\’ll sit at an intersection and divert the polluters!
So …
Are there going to be any events being held in conjuntion with this? Music, food, dancing, etc. etc. I don\’t quite get the concept and how it would differ than having something similar in one of our beutiful parks.
my 2 cents
I\’d be more enthusiastic if the location chosen was closer to the downtown core.
London is doing it, too, this September:
http://www.londonfreewheel.com/
I would love Portland to try this.
yes, Yes, YES!!
As we learn more about what actually works in promoting clean transport, the building of cycling infrastructure simply isn\’t enough. Certainly not within increasingly critical time frames …
The realization settles in that we must ACTIVELY DETER CAR USE.
Such policies won\’t be easy to implement … but I suspect Peak Oil will come to the \’rescue\’.
Very exciting. I can\’t wait. Thanks for the update!
Please note that the country is COLOMBIA