Open Thread: CicLAvia VIII, Heart of Los Angeles

The last CicLAvia of 2013 has come and gone, with the next one planned for “March probably April” per the CicLAvia Twitter account. So what did you think? Did you love it? Did you take our advice and just have fun? Did you wonder how in the world the person inside that cow costume didn’t cook herself to death? And how about the Spring Street Green-In-Places Occasionally Buffered Sometimes Unmarked Bike Lane?

As always, I’ll put my thoughts in the comments a little later. But if you need some inspiration, I used Storify to pull a couple of fun pictures from the event. BTW, we haven’t had one entry in our scavenger hunt yet…let’s get those pictures going people!

  • Sirinya Matute

    Oy vey! It was HOT. But we still saw a lot of people out, not just on the route but in the adjacent areas. We did commit some cultural tourism and made our way to Guisados, on Cesar Chavez, where we were amongst other yuppies who mostly arrived by bike, to check out the place placed on the map thanks to Jonathan Gold and LA Weekly. The bikes make it very easy to patronize businesses not directly on the route. Also, I enjoyed walking along Cesar Chavez and exploring the retail mix, as it was very reminiscent for me of walking along 3rd street in Koreatown pre-riots when I was a kid.

    We were impressed by how Metro was running trains on peak-hour weekday headways – thank you to all who made that happen, including the staff who had to work overtime to drive trains and supervise. The sheriffs did patrol the trains and check our tap cards, however, and we saw two people who got cited, a teenager with a skateboard and a mariachi musician at Mariachi Plaza. I felt bad, since they probably just didn’t know better and the fines for not having a ticket are pretty steep. It was kind of tough to watch because we know there were a lot of infrequent riders on the system that day, and the gates aren’t locked everywhere.

  • Daniel Jewell

    It was great! The number and variety of events for kids and adults was fantastic. MetroLink disappointed, though, by not changing to a Saturday or Weekday schedule. Also, they did not increase the number of bicycle cars. More coordination would improve the event in the future.

  • Joe B

    I feel like this one was less crowded than the last, which was sort of nice from my perspective — I wonder if the heat kept people away? The elimination of the pinch points at intersections was FANTASTIC — I always made it through the intersection on the first green. I spent the day moseying around with some cruiser-mounted friends with a child in tow; it was nice and mellow.

    I always try to patronize restaurants along the route; it surprises me that so many are STILL not serving street food. “Chaat Cafe” (translation, “Street Food Cafe”) was still closed. Yum Cha didn’t have any sort of special signage and was practically deserted. A brown paper sign advertised stuffed tofu balls or something and pointed into Chinatownland, but I couldn’t find the place. Mama’s Tamales were, as always, excellent; they had a reduced menu and didn’t sell out of anything, so I hope they made some cash.

    I rode in on Expo line, which worked out well. It’d be really nice to have some MAX-style bike racks on the trains though.

  • Bike lane photo tour?

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