Major road closures, traffic alerts for CicLAvia event in Los Angeles

Road closures for the CicLAvia event will affect L.A. traffic on Sunday.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., portions of a dozen streets will be closed to car traffic on a zigzagging route that extends from East Hollywood through Westlake and into downtown Los Angeles and Boyle Heights.

In this car-centric metropolis, where drivers spend an average of 72 hours stuck in traffic annually and jaywalkers are heavily fined, CicLAvia, as the event is known, is something of a marvel.

It is designed to challenge the idea — so ingrained in the city's psyche — that automobiles rule the road.

It's a free-form event. There's no official schedule to tell you what's happening where. But organizers say they have heard of people planning to use that space for soccer matches, yoga classes, dance routines and political protests. And because many of CicLAvia's planners are active in L.A.'s growing bicycle scene, there are sure to be cyclists galore.

A diverse group of bike activists, transportation experts, academics, artists and event planners has been working for a couple of years to make CicLAvia, pronounced seek-la-VEE-uh, a reality.

-- Kate Linthicum

Map: CicLAvia

Comments

[mike mcquestion]

Bravo Los Angeles! You have pulled off a great maiden ciclovia. We here in Baltimore, MD have been studying cicLAvia, and you inspire us to do the same here.

[Rory]

Thank you CICLAVIA! It was wonderful. I hope I (an LA resident) will be able to take part in this again very soon.

[Phillip]

It's dead obvious that the fat people opposing this awesome event have never exercised in their lives.

[Bike LA]

Great event. And could the complainers please explain how closing 7 of the 6500 miles of roadway in LA to cars for 5 hours is 'closing down major traffic routes'.

[Marino Pascal]

Funniest comment so far.

"How about the downtown gyms that stand empty because the people can not get to them? "

How about walking, jogging, riding to the gym? I know it sounds crazy to use your feet outside the hamster wheel you call gym but stranger things have happened.

Awesome event. Make the it permanent.

[gg]

It was a great event. I still feel giddy thinking about it today.

Agree with others, the haters obviously didn't go. Hah, and the person complaining about not making it to the gym cos of street closures is perhaps missing the point of a gym. You had 7.5 miles to run or bike.

[D]

Re: p senio

Actually, most downtown businesses did better than they normally do. There are 40,000 residents in Downtown LA, and most of us are forward thinking, not bitter idiot teabaggers who have nothing better to do than complain. 100,000 plus people enjoyed this event, and hopefully it will be a normal occurrence.

Also, cars are not the only way around and closing a couple of streets is not the end of the world, as was proven yet again.