PBOT’s carfree extravaganza, Sunday Parkways, made its fourth of five stops this month and Southeast Portland welcomed it with open arms. Thousands pedaled and walked along the six-mile route that stretched from SE 52nd in the shadows of Mt. Tabor to SE 16th near Colonel Summers Park in inner southeast.
Here are a few highlights from my trip around the loop.
Bike Temple continues to outdo themselves. They set up a pop-up bike church at SE 16th and Ankeny, complete with an upright organ, a pulpit, and a blessing wall. Buddha Bill, Pasture Ted, Deacon Amos, and other believers held two full sermons where people stopped, had their bikes blessed and listened to selected readings from the 2030 Bike Plan.
Down the road, Citybikes had a very popular diversion; a misting arch to keep people cool. Above their shop a DJ mixed great music and they had bike stands out for making repairs.
Laurelhurst Park was beyond crowded. There was so much congestion, people had to walk their bikes for a good stretch through it. One of the attractions was a bike-sharing station compliments of Montreal-based Bixi and Alta Bicycle Share. Alta Bicycle Share, a division of Alta Planning and Design, brought out the bikes in hopes of keeping the bike-share dream alive in Portland.
One of the best street parties/rest stops I’ve ever come across at Sunday Parkways was going in front of Mia Birk’s house on SE Lincoln near 37th. Birk, a former PBOT bike coordinator, used Sunday Parkways to throw a launch party for her new book, Joyride. A live bluegrass/folk band played all day, there were free hot dogs, free bike repair (by Bike Gallery owner Jay Graves no less), lots of smiling people and plenty of shade.
As always, along the route there were many inspiring sights to see. There were tons of kids on bikes, families, and older people out today, and they came in all sizes and colors. Riding around, it becomes so clear that if we can just create this type of riding environment in more parts of the city more often, we’d hit our 25% ridership goal way before 2030.
I also came across many excellent and interesting bicycles. I ran into a fleet of Mitch Pryor randonneuring bikes, new creations from DIY cargo-bike man Tom Labonty, and more. For shots of those and other images from today, view my photo gallery or watch the slideshow below:
What did you see out there? Share the highlights of your day in the comments below!