I showed up at 10:30 and did two laps around the circuit before leaving around noon. I thought there was a good sized crowd out there, but I didn't think it was too crowded at all. Did it grow appreciably after noon?

Considering how overcrowded the first event last year was, I was very surprised they didn't choose to make the route much longer this year in an attempt to space people out. It seems obvious that you're only going to get MORE people after the first event.

I think the peak time was noon-3pm.

I didn't find it too crowded, neither during my shift (intersection volunteer from 11am-2pm) nor riding around after my shift was over. I do think they could've done with some more volunteers, though, and I wonder if holding three events in one summer will prove more than Portland has the resources to handle. I had a hard time controlling traffic when a church service one block off the route let out. When you have a bunch of people who want to cross the route on two streets at the same time, you really need one volunteer per street.

Somehow Bogota, Colombia manages to do it every Sunday including major street closures. Portland needs to reach a bit to achieve "world class" in the motorized vehicle free department.

similar to what freddy says above.. i have thought from the start that it was a mistake to move the route around. They should keep it in the same place and then expand the route each time, eventually covering a wide expanse.

of course, I also agree with Chris that this should be a much more frequent event.

I think every week might be overdoing it at this point, but six events from Memorial Day to Labor Day might be a good next step.

It was certainly congested, I had trouble crossing the street at my intersection on many occasions. But it was great to see so many people on bikes, especially all the beginners. The event is catered towards beginner cyclists, and if beginners have a good experience then they'll ride more often and develop skills and confidence.

Programming can be modified to better accommodate the numbers of people that want to be out in car-free streets and make it a pedestrian-friendly experience.

Some ideas:
* lengthen the duration of the event, from 10am - 4pm to 9 - 5, for instance.
* lengthen the route, from 6.6 miles to, say, 9 miles.
* add more loops in the route, and on boulevards like Ainsworth have bikes on one side, pedestrians & beginner bikes on the other.
* ask residents to move their cars to a side street for the day, if it would be convenient for them. Moving 2/3 of the cars would have been a big improvement.

Overall a fabulous event. It's events like these that will introduce even more Portlanders to the pleasures and advantages of getting around by bike.

Pasture Ted

I have been to all 3 parkways events, cycled all of them and ran a loop on the N. Portland one. When I was running, I didn't have any conflict issues with cyclists--in fact, I thought people were very respectful. I like that little kids and beginning adults get the opportunity to learn to be safe bike riders in such an friendly and forgiving environment.

As I volunteered this Sunday, I had one child ride into me (I'll chalk that up to inexperience) and one adult cyclist get huffy with me for standing in the street (wrong side of the bed, maybe). Since I saw hundreds (thousands?) of people during my 3+ hour shift, I'd say things went very well and that we Portlanders can figure out how to get along without being physically separated by mode of transport.

As much as I'd love to see Sunday Parkways be a weekly event, the sheer number of volunteers, PBOT and PPB staff needed to make this works seems to be a major obstacle. All these ideas about longer, farther, more often, etc. are great, but don't seem feasible.