It’s A Walk In The Park

It's a Walk in the Park Year-round with Celebrate Summer Streets

Locations, Days and Hours for 2009
This program to open parks roads to pedestrians and bicyclists is part of Mayor Greg Nickels' campaign Seattle Climate Action Now to combat global warming by encouraging residents to drive their cars 1,000 fewer miles a year. The roads closed to cars also provide a fun fitness opportunity.

Year-round, It's a Walk in the Park features roads permanently available for pedestrians and bicyclists to enjoy without cars. They are open every day of the week, in all seasons, at four existing sites and two new sites.

• Discovery Park, 3801 W Government Way - the Parade Ground and roads off the north parking lot
  
• New! Volunteer Park, 1247 15th Ave. E - the western loop below the reservoir
  
• Seward Park, 5902 Lake Washington Blvd. S - the lower loop around the peninsula
  
• Magnuson Park, 7400 Sand Point Way NE - the Lakeshore Promenade
  
• Interlaken Park, 2451 Delmar Dr. E - between 19th and 21st Aves. E
  
• New! Washington Park Arboretum, E Madison St. and Lake Washington Blvd. - Arboretum Drive

There are three parts to the Celebrate Summer Streets program:

Bicycle Sundays - Now every Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., May through September, except July 5, July 26 and August 2, along Lake Washington Blvd from Mt. Baker Beach to Seward Park. For more information, please go to www.seattle.gov/parks/bicyclesunday/

Walking Wednesdays - Continuing and expanding the weekday opportunity introduced last summer. Now every Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., May through September, at Carkeek Park and Seward Park upper loop.

Summer Streets in Parks - We are also celebrating at four parks on Sundays in June from noon to 3 p.m. Please see the calendar at www.seattle.gov/parks for information.

• Discovery Park - June 7 at the Parade Grounds off W Emerson
  
• Volunteer Park - June 14 along the Western Loop
  
• Seward Park - June 21 on the south lawn and Lower Loop
  
• Magnuson Park - June 28 at Magnuson Community Center

An Expanded Opportunity for Your Health and Recreation
As part of our focus on supporting health in our communities and fighting global warming by reducing car usage, we are expanding opportunities for walking, bicycling, and other forms of human-driven motion. Streets near these parks are also going car-free, linking recreational activities to neighborhood business centers.

During road closures, people can enjoy the space in our larger parks without cars. It's our hope that this will encourage people to use alternate transport to get to these parks and will increase physical activity, creating the opportunity for potentially significant health benefits to many Seattleites. This program supports Parks and Recreation's Healthy Parks, Healthy You initiative, with more information at www.seattle.gov/parks/healthyparks/.

Benefits for citizens and communities from "It's a Walk in the Park.

• Rising obesity rates in both children and adults, coupled with increasing awareness of our direct impact on the climate and the environment, mean that residents are seeking out safe, accessible, and affordable ways to address these concerns. A car-free activity in a park provides exactly this kind of opportunity.
• Because sections of these parks are uninterrupted by intersections, closing streets to cars allows for the vigorous and sustained exercise that people need to keep heart rates up and muscles moving for a long enough time to be truly beneficial.
• Providing this opportunity on a simple, easy to understand schedule will encourage people to engage in this kind of exercise regularly.
• It provides a healthy outdoor activity for families to do together, and provides opportunities for neighbors to meet and socialize, as formerly occurred with promenades in an earlier day.
• The program encourages people to use alternative forms of transportation, expands their awareness of the impact of their actions, and reduces the participants' collective carbon footprint.

A Growing Movement...
Regular "car-free days" are becoming increasingly common throughout the nation and the world. According to the international World Carfree Network, more than 1,500 cities worldwide now have regular car-free days. Here are some examples:

• For years, Paris and other European cities have shut down streets to cars on Sundays and public holidays throughout the year.
• In Florence and Siena, Italy, cars have not been allowed downtown for many years.
• Since 2000, when citizens in Bogota, Columbia voted to approve an annual Dia Sin Carro, Car Free Day, private cars have been banned entirely from the city annually on February 1. There is now a weekly Sunday Cyclovia program that dedicates 75 miles of roadway to pedestrians and bicyclists.
• On November 14, 2007, legislation passed in San Francisco to make permanent "Healthy Saturdays in Golden Gate Park," closing the roadways to cars from April through September. A 2007 report commissioned by Mayor Gavin Newsom found that on car-free Sundays on John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park, in place since the 1960s, twice as many people visit the park with little impact on the surrounding neighborhoods. Saturdays have been added. In 2008, San Francisco's Sunday Streets opened six miles of waterfront streets to the public on two days at the end of the summer.
• In Chicago, since 2002, the annual "Bike the Drive" clears 30 miles of Lake Shore Drive for a one-day bicycles-only event.
• In Phoenix, "Silent Sundays" at South Mountain Park and Preserve ban autos from the road to the mountaintop once a month, and the e-mail is running 80 percent in support of the program.
• Portland continues its Sunday Parkways on three dates at different locations this summer.
• On three Saturdays in August last summer from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., New York City closed almost seven miles of streets in Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge to midway up the length of Central Park. New York City also regularly closes to traffic park roads in Central Park in Manhattan, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Silver Lake in Staten Island, and three parks in Queens. There are also a number of shopping districts that have car-free days throughout the city.
• Seattle and these other U.S. cities also operate successful temporary road closure programs that attract thousands: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Madison, WI, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans, Philadelphia, San Antonio, and Washington, D.C.

Environmental Sustainability, Too
By encouraging people to recreate without cars and supporting their efforts, "Its a Walk in the Park" will help you save money on gas and reduce greenhouse gas output.

Learn more about car-free events and other programs that provide discounts or incentives for driving less by visiting www.seattlecan.org.

Pedestrians and Bicyclists Sharing the Roadway
Even without cars, it is important that all who are using a road observe common courtesy, know safety tips and be aware of their obligations in using public space. To become more informed, you can go to these websites:

Bicyclists
http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/biketrail.htm http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/bikecode.htm

Pedestrians
http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/ped_masterplan.htm
http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/PedestrianLaw.htm

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