Some L.A. streets will close Sunday for another CicLAvia bike ride
There’s no "Carmageddon" freeway closure or imminent threat of "Carpocalypse," but Los Angeles officials are hoping residents will again give up their cars this weekend for the fifth installment of CicLAvia.
On Sunday, authorities will shut down more than nine miles of city streets to motor traffic from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in favor of bicyclists, skaters and walkers.
L.A. held its first CicLAvia -- billed as the city’s biggest block party -- in October 2010, when 7.5 miles of streets were blocked off to motor vehicles from East Hollywood to Boyle Heights. That event, and the three CicLAvia celebrations that followed, have been wildly popular, often drawing an estimated 100,000 people or more.
“Angelenos are aching for a day without a car, and CicLAvia gives us just that,” said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
At a news conference Thursday in the Exposition Park Rose Garden, Villaraigosa said that the city’s reputation as “home of the freeway and land of the Range Rover” was changing, and that CicLAvia was an example.
Many groups have shifted their weekend activities to coincide with CicLAvia, including the California African American Museum, which is hosting a slate of events on Sunday including the Ace Dance Team, singer Jason Powell and music group Las Cafeteras, who are scheduled to play at 3:20 p.m., just after CicLAvia finishes.
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-- Ari Bloomekatz
Photo: Riders make their way across the 4th Street Bridge in April against a backdrop of the downtown skyline during the fourth installment of CicLAvia. Inspired by Ciclovia, the original weekly street closure event in Bogota, Colombia, CicLAvia opens L.A. streets to bicyclists and pedestrians, creating a temporary web of public space. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times
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