Sunday Streets Houston – Midtown (Smith-West Gray to Elgin & West Gray-Smith to Valentine)

Go Healthy Houston presents Sunday Streets Houston – Midtown (Smith-West Gray to Elgin & West Gray-Smith to Valentine).

Play in the streets of Houston!

Sunday Streets Houston provides a family-friendly opportunity to be physically active. For four hours one Sunday a month, selected Houston streets are closed to motorized traffic allowing Houstonians to cycle, walk, run, dance, and socialize in the street.

2015 Fall Cigna Sunday Streets Routes:

• October 4th, 12noon-4pm – Washington (Heights Blvd to Westcott)
• November 1st, 12noon-4pm – Museum Park (Binz – Chenevert to Caroline & Caroline – Binz to Wentworth)
• December 13th, 12noon-4pm – Midtown (Smith-West Gray to Elgin & West Gray-Smith to Valentine)

Fun facts about Sunday Streets:

• An average of 20,000 Houstonians attend each event
• The majority of participants are introduced to businesses that they didn’t know existed
• After attending Sunday Streets, roughly half of participants say they are more likely to walk or bike to destinations in the neighborhood
• On average, participants got 2/3 of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended guidelines for physical activity (150 minutes per week)

It started as a pilot program. One Sunday a month, some of Houston’s busiest streets were closed to traffic for four hours. It gave people a chance to bike, skate, walk and run through the neighborhoods they typically drive through.

After thousands attended last year, the city has signed on with a sponsor to make Sunday Streets permanent. Laura Spanjian is Houston’s director of sustainability. She says they tried to diversify the locations this year.

“Some were in crowded business districts and some were a little bit more leisurely and in residential areas, and some combined both of them and those were very successful,” says Spanjian.

She says the event is designed to make exercise fun. It’s held in a different neighborhood each weekend, so there’s always something new to see. Residents organize activities along the routes, like concerts, yoga classes and rock climbing walls.

“Each one is different, so we encourage people to go to all of them because they’re going to get a different experience and a different perspective on that street,” Spanjian says.

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