CicLAvia will return to the Westside for the first time since 2013 in a little more than a month with our CicLAvia – Culver City Meets Venice Presented by Metro route on August 9. Since our last visit to Culver City and Venice, we have held open streets events across LA County: on iconic Wilshire Boulevard, in historic neighborhoods in South LA and below the foothills that distinguish the gateway to the Valley.
We’ve traveled among Pasadena’s vibrant commercial corridors and from the Heart of LA into East LA. That is the beauty of open streets events – they can be held anywhere.
While CicLAvia is a leader in open streets events in North America, we are far from the only open streets event. San Diego, Pittsburgh, Tucson, Minneapolis, San Antonio, San Francisco, Portland, New York, Columbus – the list goes on and on.
Since the concept of open streets started in Bogotá, Colombia more than 40 years ago, open streets events have expanded throughout the world at an exponential pace. These types of events, common in many cities throughout Latin America, are spreading to cities as diverse as Belfast, London, Wellington, Cape Town, and Toronto. Many more are using open streets events to change how residents view their cities, how they travel within those cities and how people connect to each other.
As Metro continues to expand open streets events in Los Angeles County, as seen in the recent Long Beach - Beach Streets open streets event, there are many opportunities for you to plan trips to other cities (Pittsburgh is on July 26!) to experience the great cultural and social benefits seen in their version of open streets. Some of these events have been thriving in their communities for years, while others are just starting out. All of them deserve our support.
