Sunday Parkways in Chicago: I think it's a hit!

I had some fun riding boulevards closed to car traffic today as part of Chicago's first ever Sunday Parkways in Chicago.   Today, boulevards were closed to everything but human powered traffic in Logan Square, Humboldt Park,  and Garfield Park area.  Hundreds of neighborhood folks came out to just ride their bikes, walk, rollerblade and even ride their razor scooters. When you think about it, this is really a public health intervention. In one sense, neighborhood park space was increased several fold and on a day when people have free time to use it; calories burned, heart rates up and stress reduced.


Sunday Parkways is patterned after similar ones in Bogota, Columbia, and Guadalajara, Mexico where the events are called Ciclovias. Here in North America, Ottawa, Ontario, Portland, Oregon and Cleveland, Ohio all have events like Sunday Parkways.

I loved seeing so many families out today with little kids on tiny two wheelers. Without traffic and with traffic minders at every intersection, it's much safer than the annual Boulevard Ride.

While on the road today, I heard rhythms at the Humboldt Park Boat House and checked out the art work happening at the Garfield Park Conservatory.   But mostly it was some cool relatively fresh Sunday morning air that made it all worth while.

I'm looking forward to the next Sunday Parkway event on October 26, 2008.

While on the ride I met the founder of an online social community for Chicago cyclists.  Check out the chainlink.