CicLAvia

Please note this is for the 2010 CicLAvia. For information on riding to the 04/10/2011 CicLAvia event please go to http://www.bikerowave.org.

This morning, mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held a press conference to invite the city to participate in CicLAvia, L.A.'s first open streets festival, on October 10th 2010. The mayor spoke fondly of his trips to Copenhagen and Mexico City and contrasted their bike-populated streets to those of Los Angeles. The mayor related the story that he had returned from Mexico City, where he had seen their ciclovía event on the Via Reforma. He asked his staff "why don't we do this here?" and they connected him with the nascent CicLAvia efforts... and the result will play out on seven miles of Los Angeles streets next month.

(editor's note - If people enjoy the Streetfilms' on the Ciclovia's happening across the country and the world, you can find a gallery with all of them here.- DN)

When I woke up on Sunday Morning here in Mexico City and looked out my window down at the giant Reforma Blvd., it was full of hundreds of cyclists. Without knowing it, I had stumbled into one of Mexico City's weekly Ciclovia events where miles of major Boulevards are closed off to automobile traffic and instead taken over by cyclists, rollerskaters, walkers, soccer players, dogs, children and many more.

How long do you think it would take to bike from the Bicycle Kitchen in East Hollywood to Hollenback Park on the other side of the I-5 on East 4th Street?  What if the streets were closed to cars and open to bicyclists and pedestrians?

For about a month and a half, rumors have been circulating that September 12 would be the date of Los Angeles' "Ciclovia style" open street festival.  The CicLAvia team has been working hard to bring this sort of game changing event to Los Angeles, but the Mayor's office has asked that the date of the festival could be kept quiet until they could make an official announcement. 

There are two projects of the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition that haven't received as much attention on Streetsblog as they should, although CicLAvia did get a belated review last week after reviews in the Times and television.