Sunday Parkways: Success stories in Kentucky

One of our goals in the MoBikeFed Vision of Active Transportation in Missouri is to encourage many more Missouri communities to start "Sunday Parkways" or "Ciclovia" programs--where blocks of a street are closed to motorized traffic and a big bicycling, walking, skating, outdoors party takes place.

It really does work and it's a lot of fun!

Here is a report from Ralph Mitchell of the Kentucky Bicycle and Bikeways Commission about how it's working in small towns around Kentucky:

In Paducah, Kentucky--with population well under 200,000--Second Sunday events (originally called Bikes On Broadway) took place not just one Sunday but on Sundays August 10, September 7 and October 12, 2008.

The city closed 17 blocks of Broadway to motor vehicle traffic from 1pm to 6pm in August, and from 1pm till 4:30pm in September and October. One church on Broadway had 5 o'clock Sunday evening services so that change was to accommodate them.

The city maintenance workers loaded barricades and the organizers had volunteers that erected and staffed them at all the intersections.

By the October 12 Sunday, many of the intersections had "attractions" free balloons, bottled water, music, a working grill with free hotdogs, etc.

A powerpoint is available from one of the main organizers' websites.

The small town of London Kentucky took part in the Second Sunday as well with much the same results. The organizers in London closed part of the main street to motor vehicle traffic and had several events taking place.

Both towns plan to continue the October tradition; however, Paducah will make the event monthly at least August through October.

Events were also held in Lexington but I can't tell you much about them as I've not heard back from my contacts.

Based on reports of successful events in the rest of the state, local officials in Boone, Kenton and Campbell Counties are beginning to contact me and others to arrange something for next year.

Lois Moss of Cleveland, OH, adds:

I have participated in Walk+Roll Cleveland, Walk+Roll Lakewood, Sunday
Parkways in Portland, Summer Streets in NYC and Streetlife in Munich. I've
also seen lots of great videos of other cities and you get a good ideas from
videos. If you have 3 minutes, there is a video of Walk+Roll Lakewood.

Based on what I've seen, the population density is not nearly as important
as community buy-in and community involvement. It is very important to get
the municipal government on board early, especially if there is any chance
they will cover the cost of security and traffic officers. Once the
municipal government is on board, start getting involvement from block
clubs, hospitals, schools, senior centers, churches, local media, Kiwanis,
businesses on the route, health clubs, dance schools, etc, etc. We found
that once a few community groups started promoting the event, the buzz grew
on its own.

I'm thrilled to see this concept spreading across the US and Canada!
Looking forward to hearing the report from my neighboring state, Kentucky,
and trying to nudge things forward in Ohio using them as an example.