Last Friday, Streetsblog Los Angeles "hung out," to use Google's term, with CicLAvia's executive director Aaron Paley to talk about the new route for the April 21 "CicLAvia to the Sea" and other issues to L.A.'s biggest and best street party. Since watching a 25 minute video can be daunting, here is what we talked about as we talked about it.
2:00 to 12:50 - Discussion of the new route, including "start" and "stop points," where there will be dismount zones (as one enters Venice Blvd. from Alvarado on the east end of the event), and where there will be children's bicycle lessons and fairs at McArthur Park and the Venice Beach.
We also discuss the parts of Venice east of the Mid-City Hub where eastbound traffic will be allowed on Venice Boulevard on the south side of the street. The traffic plan is similar to the one utilized for the L.A. Marathon, and is one that has been used before, with a few tweeks for the larger CicLAvia crowd. Paley assured me that access to the hubs, especially the highly anticipated Culver City hub, will be seemless and safe.
12:50 to 13:13 - Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel are just planning to have fun at CicLAvia this year.
13:23 to 15:40 - We discuss the road conditions and the pothole situation on Venice Boulevard. Venice Boulevard between the 10 and Lincoln is actually a state highway. Many of the worst potholes are the responsibility of Caltrans and the state. CicLAvia usually works with L.A.'s Bureau of Street Services for fixes, but this time it was Caltrans. The north side of the street should be fixed in both the city controlled and state controlled areas by the time CicLAvia rolls around, but Paley was uncertain whether or not both sides of the street would see fixes.
15:40 to 18:44 - Aaron answers a reader question about the future of CicLAvia. Aaron talks about the new routes that are up this year and states that the goal remains to have one CicLAvia every month. The goal is to have "12 distinct routes that would rotate every year on "their month." We also discussed whether either Garcetti or Greuel talk to CicLAvia staff or volunteers before making statements guaranteeing future expansion of the program. Neither has.
Paley did go on to say that both candidates have been extremely supportive of CicLAvia, and he looks forward to working with "either G" to expand the program.
18:45 to 22:35 - I give a short promotion for Robin Adams' video that we are trying to place on MTA buses for the June CicLAvia and Aaron and I have a small chat where he debuts the new CicLAvia TAP card (for anyone reading this far without video, we have a screen grab on Streetsblog LITE.) It's even cooler than the LADOT TAP card (no offense LADOT). You can get the CicLAvia TAP Card by making a $20 contribution to CicLAvia.
We also discuss the "magic wand" question and Aaron pines for a fully built out transit system. It's beautiful.
22:35 - 23:08 - Our next broadcast is on Live Stream live from MyFigueroa! at 6:30 pm tomorrow night.
23:12 - The debut of our new video mentioned above. We're hoping it runs on Metro buses in June as part of Freewaves PSA/Arts project with Transit TV.
