close Willamette Blvd to auto traffic.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)
Mayor Sam Adams used his State of the City address to announce that he remains committed to five Sunday Parkways events this year. He also announced that, for the first time ever, the popular event will be held in Southwest Portland.
In addition to maps and route details for each of the five events, PBOT also shared today that local bike shop Universal Cycles has stepped up as a major sponsor. Universal does a large online business and back in May they moved to a new retail store adjacent to the SE Ankeny bike boulevard.
The addition of a major new sponsor is welcome news for the Sunday Parkways program. In past years, the City has supported about one-half the cost of the events (which run about $100,000 a piece to put on). This year, Council has directed just $170,000 toward the total budget of nearly $500,000. Universal Cycles joins longtime event sponsors Kaiser Permanente as well as other supporters including Bike Gallery, and Metro.
Another bit of good Sunday Parkways news is that the North edition will feature a complete closure of N. Willamette Blvd. Last year, PBOT kept a lane of Willamette open for cars, which made the walking and riding environment much less pleasant than it should have been.
So, get out your calendars! Scroll down for route maps and dates for all five events (download the PDFs for more detailed maps):
May 13th – Northeast Portland (PDF)
June 24th – North Portland (PDF)
July 22nd – Southwest Portland (PDF)
August 26th – Southeast Portland (PDF)
September 30th – East Portland (PDF)
Stay tuned for more Sunday Parkways coverage and learn more at PortlandSundayParkways.org.
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Great news. But just wait till the Oregonian gets its mitts on this announcement. “$$ Five bike rides $$… just think how many potholes could have been filled.”
Events I look forward to every year,
Sunday Parkways & Bridge Pedal!
Looking forward to all of them.
Happy to see a route in SW – Gabriel Park is a gem!
Mt. Tabor is part of the SE route again!
Universal cycles rocks. Free coffee for am commuters and 30 second internet price matches with free local delivery. (Not an employee…just a very happy customer.)
Universal charged me ten bucks to change a tube when I was in a jam and made me sign a liability waiver on top of it. They’re lucky City Bikes was closed.
Would you like a tissue?
The weekend of June 22nd-24th is also the annual reunion weekend at the University of Portland. With over 1,500 alumni (and family members) attending the activities, traffic into, and out of, the campus, via N. Portsmouth and N. Lombard, could be a bit interesting Sunday.
U of P should take advantage of Sunday Parkways and tell the Alumni to bring their bikes!
Universal cycles is getting more of my business thats for sure!!!!!
Yay, looking forward to 5 more magical weekends in 2012.
These are great times to bring friends in from out of town to see how Portland gets people out on bikes.
& to get your bike-lite or nonbikey Portland friends on bikes.
Ted Buehler
Great idea, Ted. I try and steer my family and friends to visit on Sunday Parkways weekends if they can’t make Pedalpalooza.
Great that Parkways is coming to SW, but wow, that route includes at least one uber-hill, 52nd south of Vermont in Maplewood. I guess it would be hard to do a SW Parkways without some major hillage.
Yup, there should be an ambulance sitting at the bottom of that hill. This is not kid/ noob safe.
I’ll be on a bicycle tour in Michigan that weekend and I’ll miss that one. I hope the city will try and caution riders on the downhill portion.
I’m not only happy to see a SW route (finally!) but also happy to see them mix it up a bit with the other routes, especially the N and NE loops.
Have they given up on the NW/downtown loop or they going to alternate it with a SW loop depending on year?
Curious about the NE loop skipping the wonderful Wilshire Park for yet another year. The first year it was there, I wonder why they’re skipping it. Is it because they’re trying to keep the Parkways traffic on the Going Greenway? Or is it the Beumont-Wilshire Neighborhood Association putting the kibosh on it? I live in the neighborhood and haven’t heard any stink of keeping the Parkways away from Wilshire.
Still, YAY! Excited to see another route added.
that’s awesome news!
the East Portland ride bypasses the acclaimed Holgate bike full lane ?
Your help is needed to continue to make these a success. Volunteering as a superhero *and* riding is ten times the fun of just riding.
Yay hills!
so excited to the expanded route through University Park Neighborhood in North!!! All the way along the bluff AND in front of the University of Portland! This is a huge opportunity for UP that their alumni will be here on that weekend also! Definitely tell them ahead of time to bring their bikes or enjoy a nice walk along the top of the bluff with Willamette Blvd opened up to people walking and biking!
Don’t forget to volunteer! Intersection superheroes and other positions are available now for the NE route.