There were plenty of great firsts taking place last Saturday at Long Beach's second iteration of its excellent Beach Streets open streets festival.
It was not Long Beach's first ciclovía; that took place nearly a year ago, in June 2015.
It was the first time the city of Long Beach has held an open streets event in its downtown area - actually extending along Broadway from Downtown to Belmont Heights. The route showed off Long Beach's new rainbow crosswalks.
It was the first L.A. County open streets event to have a significant bike-share presence, with hundreds of riders taking advantage of the newly-opened Long Beach Bike Share.
It was also the first L.A. County open streets event to extend across an at-grade rail line, crossing the Metro Blue Line at Long Beach Boulevard and Broadway. A few years ago, crossing rail was a non-starter when it was initially proposed to extend L.A.'s CicLAvia into South Los Angeles.
And, on a personal note, it was the first ciclovía that saw my two and a half year-old daughter travel under her own wheeled power. She has been on open streets in a stroller, on foot, and in a bike seat. This time she toured a block or two on her own tricycle.
How was your Beach Streets experience? Any firsts for you? How does your Long Beach open streets compare to other ciclovías or CicLAvias?
