The Ballard Greenway showed a sustained spike after the grand opening celebration on Sept. 7, according to Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.

The day before the event, Sept. 6, had 101 users. The day of saw a predictable explosion in greenway users, with 220 users. But the day after also saw a lot of users, 163, which is nothing to scoff at.

The previous average before the greenway was installed, measured from late March to early April, hovered around 65 users.

Tom Fucoloro of Seattle Bike Blog sums it up neatly: "Clearly, more data is needed to know how long such growth in use is sustained, but it’s certainly promising. Growth like this after a release celebration suggests two things: A: Neighborhood greenways work and people like to use them and B: Public events and celebrations are effective at teaching people about using new ways to get around."

Fucoloro also uses the moment to reflect again on the Sunday Parkway idea, a successful event in Portland which closes a loop of residential streets to motorists and opens them up to bicyclists and community events. He thinks the event could be successful in Ballard.

He writes: "This, of course, brings us back to the Sunday Parkways idea. Getting a ton of people out biking and walking existing and future neighborhood greenways routes is not only a super fun community activity, it also teaches people where the routes are."

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