For information on the next CicLAvia event, go here!

CicLAvia has moved on! Find us at CicLAvia.org

Henny Alamillo, CicLAvia Volunteer Coordinator

Hi, I’m Henny – the new Volunteer Coordinator for CicLAvia.

We’re looking for lots of volunteers – starting tomorrow – Wednesday September 6th 2011.

For pre-10.9.2011 canvassing go here to sign-up.

For 10.9.2011 event volunteering, go here!

East Side Bike Club made this calavera float, pulled by bike, at L.A.'s 2010 CicLAvia

The application deadline for CicLAvia mini-grants has been extended! Mini-grants foster a more celebratory, more festive atmosphere at the October 9th 2011 CicLAvia event. One-page mini-grant applications are now due Thursday September 8th 2011 at 12noon. Full details in these revised Mini-Grant Guidelines and more background at this earlier blog post. 

Also note: we’re getting quite a few applications for static activities. We want some activities that stay put – but we want to especially emphasize, as it says in the guidelines, to “Move through the route, preferably at a walking pace” – like a marching band, a mini-parade, a Chinese dragon, an art-bike, a wheelchair train, etc. etc. Be creative and get your application in by September 8th!

CicLAvia April 2011

Do your part! Help CicLAvia expand on October 9th 2011 by donating to our nuevo Kickstarter campaign. We’re raising $10,500 – a thousand per mile for our 10.5-mile route – and we need to raise it by September 14th 2011! Fun prizes include stickers, buttons, y cool new canvas bags! Donate today.

Capoeira circle at San Francisco's Sunday Streets CicLAvia-type event

updated: new deadline September 8th! Do you dance, perform, sing, play, paint, step, rap, drum, mime, or _____ ? You may be interested in applying for a CicLAvia mini-grant. The CicLAvia mini-grant program is intended to foster a more fun and festive atmosphere, and to help CicLAvia participants slow down and enjoy the open streets. CicLAvia will be awarding approximately ten $500 grants to individuals or organizations to produce activities in and along the Sunday October 9th 2011 CicLAvia route (map).

East Side Bike Club made this calavera float, pulled by bike, at L.A.'s 2010 CicLAvia

To apply, you’ll need to submit a muy simple one-page application, due 12noon on Tuesday September 6th 2011. extended! Thursday September 8th 2011. Don’t send more than one page – or else! CicLAvia mini-grant detailed rules here. Grantees will be notified by October September 15th 2011. If you have questions, enter them in the comments below.

Mini-grant activities can take many shapes – use your creativity! Just a few possible examples: capoeira circle, stepping, mariachi, roller-skate parade of masks, dance performance, marching band, bike art, taiko drumming, square dance, jumpstyle, dodge-ball, cumbia, architecture walking tour, Civil War re-enactment, solar DJ, political rally, face-painting or whatever you think! Surprise us.

Sand castle competition at NYC Sunday Streets CicLAvia-type event - photo via Streetsblog NYC, flickr bitchcakes

If you don’t receive a mini-grant and you still want to perform before tens of thousands of Angelenos – go for it!

Two wonderful too wonderful CicLAvia stickers!

Support CicLAvia via our Kickstarter campaign and receive cool stickers… very appropriate for any bike you might have between your legz. 

They’re, por supuesto, Designed by Colleen… and come in two great flavors: 4″x2.25″ rectangular multi-color and 3″-diameter long-lasting vinyl! You can get yours by pledging Kickstarter, making a donation (we toss stickers in with anything we mail to you), or purchasing them at events where CicLAvia folks and folkettes are tabling, for example, this Sunday’s Tour Da Arts and this Sunday’s CicLAvia South L.A. host committee workshop/ride.

October 9th 2011 10.5-mile CicLAvia route with two new spurs - click for pdf

PLEASE SEE REVISED MAP ON NEW WEBSITE – MOSTLY SAME BUT CHINATOWN SPUR TRIMMED!

CicLAvia is expanding! On Sunday October 9th 2011, the city of Los Angeles and the non-profit CicLAvia invite you to experience 10.5 miles of open streets for walking, bicycling, skating and more! The October route includes a new spur south, mostly through the Fashion District, and a new spur north through Chinatown. 

The October 9th 2011 route includes the full 7.5-mile route from the last two events. In addition, there are two new spurs:

NEW! South Spur: The south spur branches off the route downtown, south on Spring Street, east on 9th Street (which becomes Olympic) and south on  Central Avenue to the African American Firefighter Museum on Central at 14th Street. This new mileage includes Downtown Los Angeles’ Fashion District with hundreds of establishments selling colorful rolls of cloth, and a small area informally known as the “piñata district” where huge numbers of colorful piñatas are sold. The hope is to extend this route further south via Central Avenue in the future.

NEW! North Spur: The north spur branches off the route at L.A. City Hall, heading north on Main Street, crossing the 101 Freeway into the historic El Pueblo plaza area, including Olvera Street. It continues on Paseo Olivares, Spring Street, New High Street, Ord Street and into the heart of L.A.’s Chinatown on North Broadway, ending at Chinatown’s Central Plaza. Both El Pueblo and Chinatown offer CicLAvia participants lots of great places to eat! The new spur also makes a much easier connection with Union Station and with the Metro Gold Line Chinatown Station.

Riders/walkers/skaters can start wherever they want, and do as much or as little as you like. RSVP and share the October 9th 2011 CicLAvia with the Facebook event page!

If you’re excited as we are about the new 10.5-mile route, help us make it happen! Over the next month, CicLAvia is raising $10,500 (that’s a thousand dollars per mile, of course) via our new Kickstarter campaign. There are fun premiums: new stickers, buttons, and brand new CicLAvia canvas bags! Check out our Kickstarter page and pledge your  donation today!

Get your CicLAvia canvas bag by pledging via Kickstarter! Design by Colleen Corcoran, bag by Baggu

]]> http://ciclavia.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/announcing-the-october-9-2011-route/feed/ 30 Joe Linton 11Oct9 Route nocross jpeg bag Ciclavia_Mockup3 http://ciclavia.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/seventh-street-bike-lanes-installed/ http://ciclavia.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/seventh-street-bike-lanes-installed/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:51:41 +0000 Joe Linton http://ciclavia.wordpress.com/?p=3190 ]]>

Cyclists riding west on the new 7th Street bike lanes

Good news! As of this past weekend, new bike lanes are being installed on Seventh Street. So far the city has striped 0.7-miles of 7th, from Catalina to Rampart, with 1.5 additional miles from Rampart to Figureoa under construction and expected to be completed within weeks. 

The news was broken by Bike Commute News, then covered by Biking in L.A. and L.A. Streetsblog, and LADOT. In addition to those pieces, see CicLAvia’s June 2011 coverage of these lanes and the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition’s campaign.

So far, the east end of the Seventh Street bike lanes is here at Rampart Blvd. Within a few weeks, they'll extend to Figueroa Street in Downtown L.A., and later all the way to Soto Street in Boyle Heights.

They’re the first bike lanes on the entire CicLAvia route, and the first bike lanes connecting with Downtown Los Angeles. They’re some of the first bike facilities to serve L.A.’s most population-dense immigrant-rich neighborhoods, where fewer families have cars, and lots of working class folks get around by bike. As of 2009, the city’s draft bike plan showed this stretch of Seventh Street bike lanes to be “infeasible”… but thanks to city reconsideration and a big push by the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition and other bike activists and community leaders, and leadership from City Councilmembers Ed Reyes, Herb Wesson, and Jan Perry, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the lanes are now a reality!

CicLAvia gave the new lanes a spin today. As of the time of this writing, Monday afternoon August 15th 2011, city crews are still installing the lanes. They’re out scraping/erasing the lane markings along MacArthur Park:

City crews scraping existing lane markings today on Seventh Street, along MacArthur Park

The lanes begin at Catalina Avenue – where 7th Street ends at the Ambassador Hotel school site, in Koreatown.

New Seventh Street bike lanes, ending at Catalina Avenue on the east side of the Ambassador Hotel school site in Koreatown

The striping is complete from Catalina Avenue to Rampart Blvd, just east of Hoover Street, in the Westlake / MacArthur Park neighborhood.

As stated in the earlier CicLAvia article, this new configuration is called a road diet. Car lanes have been reduced from four to three, and a new center turn lane has been added. This new configuration has been studied by the Federal Highway Administration and been shown to be safer for drivers, passengers, pedestrians and cyclists!

New left turn lane from Seventh Street onto Hoover Street, where no turn lane existed before. Part of the Seventh Street road diet.

Seventh Street is the main backbone of the 7.5-mile CicLAvia route.

Cyclists on 7th Street at the April 2011 CicLAvia event

Seventh is also an important bike-commuting street to get from mid-city to downtown Los Angeles, being one of the flatter streets, and avoiding freeway ramps.

Within a week or two, the city crews will complete the lanes all the way from Catalina to Figueroa (totalling 2.2 miles). And hopefully, soon, though no timeframe has been given, they will extend all the way from Catalina to Soto Street (totalling 5.1 miles), as approved in the city’s bike plan.

Beautiful new bike lanes on Seventh Street

Matching pink bikes on the 4th Street Bridge downtown during CicLAvia April 2011 - photo by Gary Leonard

Last week, L.A.’s Downtown News Best of Downtown staff picks cited CicLAvia as the Best Reason to Leave the Car at Home. Here’s an excerpt:

[During CicLAvia] Downtown is a giant urban park teeming with thousands of people enthralled by the simple pleasure of navigating our city any way except in a car. This is CicLAvia, which despite occurring only twice so far — in October 2010, and then again in April — appears on its way to becoming an L.A. institution. 

Read the full article here! We’re happy to be in great company with Vista Hermosa Park, vaux swifts, L.A. State Historic Park, Art Walk, the L.A. River, and L.A.P.D. … even if some of us don’t have cars to leave at home!