For five precious hours yesterday, the City of Portland gave us a gift: They prohibited the use of cars on a loop of roads through downtown and the Central Eastside.
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Let your mind wander back to the halcyon days of the 1970s…

You’re sitting on your porch with a drink after work and you see the biggest sports star in town pedaling a bicycle up your street. “Good luck tonight Bill!” you call out as none other than Portland Trail Blazer star Bill Walton rides by with a huge smile on his face.
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Sunday Parkways is full of love.
(Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has fittingly used the day of love to unveil the 2019 Sunday Parkways season.

As per usual, there will be five events this year and the routes will touch every quadrant except the southwest hills.
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Sunday Parkways is such a powerful force for kids. Imagine: They can ride their own bikes in the street without fear. That’s no small thing.
(Photos: Jonathan Maus)

The City hosted the second of five Sunday Parkways events yesterday. The north Portland route stretched from Peninsula Park on the southern end to McCoy Park in the north.

As always, the event drew a wide and wonderful mix of people. All ages, all sizes, all colors, all abilities. And of course there were tons of kids — especially at the dirt track adjacent to the Community Cycling Center’s Bike Repair Hub in the New Columbia neighborhood.

We were treated to live performances, all types of fun activities, conversations with friends, food, and safe, carfree streets

Here’s a taste of what I saw…
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Event flyer.

Events like Sunday Parkways are known as “open streets” events. But for people who don’t feel comfortable riding in a crowd of people or who don’t have access to a bicycle due to their special needs, the event can feel closed.
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Just a few of the 25,900 people who attended Sunday’s event.
(Photos: Greg Raisman)

Sunday Parkways is one of the best Portland events for kids who like biking. It’s also great for kids who like playgrounds, bounce houses, food of any sort, dancing, art, music, etc. This week I’ll share a bit about Sunday’s first event of the season. And because there are four more to come, I’ll also share some tricks I’ve learned to get the most out of them.

Our Family Biking column is sponsored by Clever Cycles.

➤ Read past entries here.

Last weekend’s Southeast Portland Sunday Parkways was especially great for us as it was the first time my kids rode their own bikes at this event.

We attended last year’s “Sellwaukie” (Sellwood/Milwaukie) Sunday Parkways, but I carried both kids on my longtail cargo bike. And our very first Sunday Parkways was Southeast Portland Sunday Parkways 2016 with a bakfiets from the Clever Cycles rental fleet.
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(Image: Lompoc Brewing)

Just in time for Sunday Parkways season, a local brewer has released a beer in honor of the annual open street events.
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The first real-life test of the future Green Loop.

It’s official: For the first time since 2012 Portland’s Sunday Parkways event will happen on the west side of the Willamette River.
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Sunday Parkways will return to downtown this year — for the first time since 2011.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

I looked back at 2017 and decided it’s probably best to start looking ahead.

Not everything about last year was bad. We (and by “we” I mean BikePortland and our community in general) had some triumphs and we learned a great deal about important issues; but it was not our best year.

Looking ahead however, we see plenty of reasons for optimism.

The four things below are infrastructure-related. And yes, I’m fully aware that a city’s transportation culture is defined by much more than roads and bridges. I’m thinking about those other issues as well, but I’ll save those thoughts for a different day.

Here’s my list…
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Brand new route.

If you care about bicycling in Portland and want to see its benefits spread across the social, racial and economic divisions that exist in this city, you should consider taking part in Sunday Parkways this weekend.

That’s because the Portland Bureau of Transportation has put together a brand new route that will highlight neighborhoods, commercial districts and parks east of I-205 and just south of I-84. This is a place about eight miles northeast of city hall that looks and feels much different than the central city. The streets are wider and people drive faster (and more people get hurt and killed on them as a result), there isn’t a bike shop on every corner, and you won’t find nearly as much bike-specific infrastructure.

Yet.
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