CicLAvia organizers plan for Round 2

Last October, CicLAvia drew an estimated 100,000 pedestrians and bicyclists to a long stretch of city streets that were cordoned off to traffic. Now organizers say they are ready to do it again.

The next incarnation of CicLAvia will take place April 10, according to Aaron Paley, CicLAvia's producer and a member of its steering committee. He said its footprint will be similar to October's route, which zigzagged from East Hollywood through Westlake and into downtown and Boyle Heights.

Paley said the committee, a diverse collection of bike activists, transportation experts, academics, artists and event planners, plans to host two more events in 2011, in July and October, and would one day like to see a monthly CicLAvia in L.A.

"We have tremendous momentum," said Paley, who reported that city officials had approached the group after the first event to start planning the second. "There wasn’t any question of whether this was gonna happen again. It was just, 'How soon can we do it, and how high should we aim?' "

The concept of the ciclovia, which is Spanish for bicycle path, originated in Bogota, Colombia, three decades ago. Now each Sunday there, hundreds of thousands of people take to the temporarily car-free streets. Many other cities around the world, including New York, have hosted similar events.

RELATED:

Los Angeles streets to be car-free for CicLAvia

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

-- Kate Linthicum

Comments

[Carter R]

Kate,

Thanks for bringing attention to the next CicLAvia, but I would urge you not to conflate "traffic" with "cars" as you do in the first sentence.

The word traffic implies the movement of people, goods, vehicles, cars, trucks, planes, bicyclists, skateboarders, and all the rest.

The important point about CicLAvia was that it set aside the streets for people and people-powered transportation only. Part of the effort to legitimize bicycles as transportation is to recognize that they too are traffic, in so far as people riding bikes are entitled to full use of the roads, and they are required to obey all the attendant laws.

Regards,
Carter Rubin

[Robert]

Why do you the media continue to put out false information? It's been reporting on many blogs and sites after this event last year that it was far exaggerated because the Mayor wanted it to show how successful it was. However, many photos of the actual race showed no more then a couple of thousand actually participated. I also hope that the taxpayers of Los ANgeles are NOT going to pay for this out of city funds. This event should be working on getting a Corporate sponsor and not spend one penny of tax payer dollars for a bunch of bicyclists to ride around the city at our expense.

[Marc]

@Robert: I participated in the October CicLAvia as a pedestrian, and while I didn't count how many people were there, the number was clearly more than "a couple of thousand." In addition, it wasn't a "race," it was simply the closure of public streets to automobiles. Finally, I wonder about your comment about spending for bicyclists at "our" expense. I pay taxes whether I'm on a bike, on foot, or in a car, and have exactly as much right to use city funds and city resources -- including the streets -- as you do.

[LAofAnaheim]

@Robert....do you realize that the City of LA currently subsidizes free parking for you in those garages that LA intends to sell off? So why is it okay to subsidize auto-related activities, but not bicycle?

[John Z Wetmore]

Portland, OR, calls their events "Sunday Parkways", and they have been very popular. Here is a video of the first one they held:
http://www.blip.tv/file/2050894

[Cheryl]

I'm excited!