CicLAvia

“We’ve got the ocean, got the babes/ Got the sun, we’ve got the waves/ This is the only place for me,” Best Coast blasted over Spring as a flash dance mob line danced across the steps of City Hall… Back on the bike toward the Historic Bank District, and it’s bikes as far as the eye can see.

The thing about a bicycle is that it’s like floating on a magical transportation device. A bike evokes an inexplicable sense of childlike playfulness. There’s a reason why the apocalyptic father of sci-fi, H.G. Wells, is known to have said, “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.”

But, the impetus behind CicLAvia was not to urge adults to rediscover their innocence.  It was to urge car drivers to get out of their cars.  In the 1970’s, Bogota, Colombia, was a traffic nightmare.  In response, some members of the government and some from the community got together to try closing down the streets to cars.  By 1982, it became a weekly event in Bogota and has since spread to over 100 cities all over the world.  Current advocates for the project purport increased cycling to alleviate traffic and fight the obesity epidemic.  Quite the feat for two wheels and some aluminum!

Last Sunday’s event was the fifth installment in Los Angeles, drawing over 100,000 people.  Rumors have it that CicLAvia might become a monthly event.  So, it’s not too late to get a bike and join the party.

For more information, check here: http://www.ciclavia.org/