User:Epicpajamas/sandbox/Ciclavia

CicLAvia is an event held in Los Angeles where streets are closed to motor vehicles and open for the public to walk, bike, and skate through the open streets. Each CicLavia event is planned by the nonprofit organization CicLAvia in partnership with the City of Los Angeles. The event takes place on a given Sunday and is open for a predetermined set of hours. This started out as a once a year occurrence but later expanded to 3 times a year. In fact, plans to have CicLAvia once a month are in the works. While primarily intended for cyclists, many people can be seen skateboarding, running, or walking down the path. Each street that is closed off is guarded by traffic officers who direct the cars to alternative routes through Los Angeles. On some streets the traffic lights are still in service which means the bikers and pedestrians must abide by the traffic laws. Police are guarding each intersection to allow ultimate safety of the community during this event. CicLAvia brings together densely populated and diverse neighborhoods through a bike route. The event now attracts over 100,000 participants and expands to connect even more neighborhoods.

History
CicLAvia is based on Ciclovia, which translates from Spanish to English as “bike path.” Ciclovia originated in Columbia to promote the city of Bogota as a bike friendly city because it had been dominated by automobiles. The city closed the streets and filled them with performances and different community based activities happening on the sidewalks. These sidewalks are filled with vendors and music turning them into a full festival. Meanwhile cyclists and pedestrians go through these streets and are lead through the different stages of the city. These stages are known as "Hubs" which are essentially small bike stops for people to get bike repair, music, shops, merchandise, free water, food trucks, first aid, kid zones and other franchises and activities to bring the community together and inform them of several public resources that the city has to offer. This event took place every Sunday from 7am till 2pm. Los Angeles activists, Stephan Villavaso and Jonathan Parfrey, created their own version of Ciclovia in order to connect communities and promote healthy living to the busy city. CicLAvia struggled to have its official grand opening as it was postponed twice before its debut on October 10, 2010. The event has added popularity and awareness of bikes to the city. Bikers have become more welcome on roads and more bike lanes have been added to streets all over Los Angeles. The money raised by the CicLAvia nonprofit goes to expanding and making the event well known and accessible to the entire community.

Bike Paths

 * October 10, 2010 - This was the very first CicLAvia event where the bike paths went from East Hollywood to Hollenbeck park through separated streets
 * April 10, 2011- From 10am to 3pm the same 7.5 mile route was continued.
 * October 9, 2011 - CicLAvia expanded its route with a north and south spur on spring street. The course expands north on this street toward Chinatown central plaza rest stop and south on spring street toward the African American firefighter museum stop. This created a 10.5 mile route of open streets
 * April 15, 2012- CicLAvia route stayed the same as the previous route
 * October 7, 2012 - The core of the CicLAvia route stayed at 7th and Spring street but the route has changed from being a predominantly a west through east route to becoming a north to south route. The "starting points" are cut out and shortened but the north south was expanded. The north starts at Chinatown, the east has the Soto station stop from the Metro Goldline in east LA, the south expanded to Expo Park in South LA, and the west ends at MacArthur Park Hub. This change was made because the founders felt that they needed to change up the cycle for each new CicLAvia to connect more communities.
 * April 21, 2013 - CicLAvia to the Sea- This was an experiment in CicLAvia running down a single street. It spanned most of Venice Blvd. from Downtown to the Ocean. The route started at the "El Pueblo Hub" and ended at Venice beach. According to riders, they enjoyed the extended route, fifteen miles of streets from downtown to Venice, but some were frustrated when the crowd backed up at a number of intersections while cars crossed the route. The STOOPIDTALL bike premiered at this event.
 * June 23, 2013 - Historic Wilshire Blvd. - The path connected One Wilshire in Downtown LA to Fairfax avenue using the Miracle mile. For the first time, there was pedestrian-only zones at the beginning and end of the route making this the "most walkable CicLAvia ever." This was also the first CicLAvia to be from 9am-4pm. Previously, all events were 10am-3pm.
 * October 6, 2013 - Heart of LA - The route was made for the people of Los Angeles, or the "Angelenos," to rediscover the origins of the city. The path was evenly spread with the core at Spring street once again and familiar hubs such as Chinatown, Mariachi Plaza, African American Firefighter Museum, and MacArthur Park. Organizers estimated more than 100,000 people turned out to bike, walk, run and roller-skate along the downtown streets.

Bike Culture
Bike culture has always been expanding, but the CicLAvia event took the craze to the next level. Every CicLAvia event has a new mastermind to try to make the next new outrageous bike or way of transportation. Among them is the "STOOPIDTALL" bike which is a 14.5 foot tall bicycle made by Richie Trimble. This bike received a lot of publicity because the biking phenomenon that had been rushing Los Angeles culture. The Los Angeles bike culture has a specific energy to it which is clearly felt when you attend CicLAvia. Different biking groups and activities other than CicLAvia have emerged due to this trend. One group in particular is known as the Wolf Pack Hustle who are a competitive gang of bikers who use LA streets as their racetrack.

Feeder Walks/Rides
To expand on their community activism, CicLAvia supports a "carpool" program called Feeder Walks or Rides for people of farther communities to meet up and go together to the event. There are several different cities around LA that use this program for community members to meet up at a specific location and at a specific time to ride their bikes together or walk together to the event so the biker or pedestrian does not have to go alone. This brings a sense of unity to the surrounding communities which is the purpose of the CicLAvia event.

How To Participate
There is no charge or specific path for participating in the CicLAvia event because there is so much activity happening all around the vicinity of the bike paths. Having a bike adds to the experience, however, there are several pedestrians who attend the event and get just as much out of it because of the vendors and sidewalk activities at the Hubs laid out. It is helpful to have a plan on what to see or do while at the event. Familiarizing yourself of the area and different activities or landmarks along the route can maximize the time spent in the track so that it is possible to experience everything that CIcLAvia has to offer. Several participants should take self guided tours to learn about LA and review the rules so that safety is kept at all times during the festivities.

Safety Rules
Safety road rules are essential to keep the event going on a positive note. These rules include:
 * Share the road with other bikers, skaters, and pedestrians
 * Ride on the street
 * Obey same signs and signals as cars
 * Ride to the right when slow
 * Ride with traffic, not against it
 * Yield to traffic
 * Ride three feet from parked cars
 * Bring family to the Kids Zone
 * Do not bring inexperienced riders, beginners should walk
 * No racing
 * Treat pedestrians with respect
 * Wear a helmet if under 18 years of age
 * Walk bike if route is too crowded
 * No motorized bikes, scooters or vehicles, unless handicap
 * Dismount if there is a mandatory dismount
 * Do not litter

Business Participation
Several businesses tend to benefit from CicLAvia because so many customers come to the event and become familiar with what the business has to offer to the community. CicLAvia encourages and supports new businesses along their paths in order to add more connections throughout the community. They recommend to bring the business outside during the event to attract the people and offer discounts in honor of the event. The metro company is willing to advertise for free at the Metro CicLAvia Destination Discounts webpage.

CoFounders

 * Stephan Villavaso - a civil engineer from Austin,Texas who was working as a contractor for Metro before he began his journey in CicLAvia.
 * Jonathan Parfrey - the Vice Chair of the CicLAvia Board of Directors and served as director of the GREEN LA Coalition for four years.
 * Aaron Paley - Co-Founder and executive director of CicLAvia. He also is the president of Community Arts Resources and the founder of Yiddishkayt.
 * Amanda Berman - Co-Founder of CicLAvia and strategizes in order to achieve nonprofit short and long term goals.