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Entries tagged: Open Streets

As Open Streets initiatives continue to grow in both frequency and size across the continent, the Alliance for Biking & Walking and the Street Plans Collaborative launched OpenStreetsProject.org today to document the growth of these initiatives and provide resources to foster continued development. An accompanying best practices guide will be completed in the next few weeks and will be available for purchase as a hard copy or as a free download on the website.

Open Streets initiatives temporarily close streets to automobiles, allowing residents to walk, bike, skate, dance and utilize the roadways in countless creative and active ways. From Seattle to Miami, and Los Angeles to Ottawa, open streets initiatives have become a way for cities to build community, promote active transportation and reconnect neighborhoods divided by traffic.

“I’ve personally seen numerous Open Streets events in cities around the U.S. and, without fail, each of them has been tremendously inspirational,” Jeff Miller, Alliance President/CEO says. “Open Streets are not just an excellent way for cities to promote biking and walking; they inspire citizens to see their streets as public spaces.”

Open streets have exploded in popularity across North America in the past six years. In 2005 there were fewer than 10 documented initiatives across North America. Now there are more than 65, drawing hundreds of thousands of participants each year. OpenStreetsProject.org allows organizers to share information on their initiative and explore other initiatives across the continent. The site also provides helpful resources for organizers looking to start a new initiative or grow an existing initiative in their community.

“The Open Streets Project aims to support this exciting movement by providing advocates and organizers with a comprehensive overview of organizational and implementation strategies,” says Mike Lydon, Founding Principal of The Street Plans Collaborative. “The Project includes a significant, open source website intended to not only keep information current for all existing and future initiatives, but to also provide a free web presence for those communities who should focus their limited resources on implementation rather than building websites. In this way, we believe the Project will be a catalyst for the continued growth of the open streets movement.”

If your city or organization has information to share about an Open Streets initiative in your community, please contact Mike Samuelson, Alliance Member Services and Open Streets Coordinator, at (202) 449-9692 x7 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

There’s just ONE DAY left to enter your best images of biking and walking in the 2011 People Powered Movement Photo Contest.

The submission period ends TODAY, October 31st, at midnight EDT. Don’t miss your chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip from VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations!

The 2011 Photo Contest aims to both celebrate the beauty and energy of active transportation and continue to build an online library of high-quality images that can be used by bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations across North America. Categories include:

• Advocates in Action
• Biking
• Biking and Walking
• Diversity / Equity / Building an Inclusive Movement
• Open Streets / Ciclovias
• Walking
• Women

Additional entrants in the Women, Diversity and Open Streets categories are particularly encouraged!

Individuals can submit up to 20 photo entries via the contest website until midnight, TONIGHT, October 31. From November 1st to 31st, public voting will determine the finalists in each category. A panel of expert and advocate judges from across the continent will then determine the winners.

The overall grand prize is an all-expenses-paid biking or walking trip to Italy, from VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations. Additional prizes include: A new bicycle from PUBLIC Bikes; bags from Ortlieb ; lights from Planet Bike; gear from Fyxation; helmets from Bern and more! Plus, all winning photos also will be featured in the March 2012 issue of Momentum magazine.

Enter TODAY at www.PeoplePoweredMovement.org/PhotoContest

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at Carolyn@PeoplePoweredMovement.org.

Photo: You could win a biking (or walking) trip to Italy from VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations!

If a picture says a thousand words, then a video must say a million. That why the folks at Active Transportation Alliance have produced a three-minute highlight reel of Open Streets on State Street, which opened up the heart of downtown to thousands of walkers and cyclists.

We can talk and talk about how open streets initiatives are a lot of fun and a great way to introduce people to biking and walking, but this video does a better job showing the excitement that took place during the initiative. Check it out!

Imagine riding your bike through Tuscany, Italy — pedaling through picturesque medieval villages, cruising down country lanes lined with olive trees, hopping off your bike to explore white beaches and sip wine in local vineyards.

Picture yourself strapping on your walking shoes and traversing the cool, shaded hillsides of Italy’s Amalfi Coast, wandering through chestnut forests and lemon groves and learning culinary secrets from locals, with shimmering azure waters never out of view.

Well, here’s your chance to turn your best pictures of biking and walking into the trip of a lifetime!

The Alliance invites you to submit your images in the 2011 People Powered Movement Photo Contest. This contest aims to both celebrate the beauty and energy of active transportation and continue to build an online library of high-quality images that can be used by bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations across North America. Categories include:

• Advocates in Action
• Biking
• Biking and Walking
• Diversity / Equity / Building an Inclusive Movement
• Open Streets / Ciclovias
• Walking
• Women

Additional entrants in the Women, Diversity and Open Streets categories are particularly encouraged!

Individuals can submit up to 20 photo entries via the contest website until October 31. From November 1st to 31st, public voting will determine the finalists in each category. A panel of expert and advocate judges from across the continent will then determine the winners.

The overall grand prize is an all-expenses-paid biking or walking trip to Italy, from VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations. Additional prizes include: A new bicycle from PUBLIC Bikes; bags from Ortlieb ; lights from Planet Bike; gear from Fyxation; helmets from Bern and more! Plus, all winning photos also will be featured in the March 2012 issue of Momentum magazine.

Enter today at www.PeoplePoweredMovement.org/PhotoContest

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at Carolyn@PeoplePoweredMovement.org.

On October 1, Chicago advocates celebrated the first open streets initiative since 2009 — and they went big.

The initiative was held on the city’s iconic State Street in the heart of downtown, and was titled Open Streets on State Street. Unlike the initiative in New York City, which was organized by the NYC DOT, Chicago’s initiative was put on by local Alliance member organization Active Transportation Alliance, in cooperation with the Chicago Loop Alliance.

While Active Trans has organized open streets in the past, this was the advocates first time preparing an initiative downtown. In anticipation of the time commitment, the organization hired several part-time staff members to help coordinate volunteers, programming and logistics for the big event. Active Trans also partnered with local media to spread the word.

The initiative itself was a huge success, with thousands of pedestrians and cyclists enjoying a brisk fall day. Children were everywhere along the route, enjoying relay races, the imagination playground and plenty of active games. Even Chicago Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein got in on the fun by taking a turn in the dunk tank.

Active Trans Open Streets Manager Julia Kim summed up Open Streets on State Street by saying, “We’re encouraging people to ride bikes, take a stroll, and embrace the dramatic beauty of Chicago. Open Streets brings communities together to have fun and lead active lifestyles.”

With the success of this year’s initiatives, Active Trans is already looking forward to holding more frequent and larger open streets next year. The goal is to create routes that link downtown and neighborhood initiatives, allowing Chicago’s open streets to benefit both its diverse communities and major business district.

Learn more about the evolution of Chicago’s initiative and get tips from Active Trans’ Adolfo Hernandez by listening to or downloading the tip sheet from our recent Mutual Aid Call on Open Streets. If you have successes to share about initiatives in your community, e-mail me at Mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org.

By Mike Samuelson, Alliance Opens Streets Coordinator

For a few hours, one of New York City’s most famous streets was transformed from a frenzy of car horns, squealing brakes and congestion to an oasis of people powered transportation. The reason for change: Summer Streets.

Held during the first three Saturday’s in August, Summer Streets creates a car-free route from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, including 60 blocks on Park Avenue and connecting streets. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, from all types of backgrounds, took the opportunity to explore their city in a way they seldom have available.

As part of the Alliance’s recent grant to launch the Open Streets Project, I traveled to New York to learn more about one of North America’s largest open streets initiatives. This was my first time attending an event, and I was blown away by what I saw! Along with cyclists and walkers, the street was packed with scooters, trikes, rollerbladers and just about every other type of human propelled movement. While some spandex-wearing riders weaved in and out of the crowd, most folks took advantage of the ability to go slow and see their city from a whole new angle.

At several points on the route, there were rest stops that allowed participants to take a break and engage in fun and educational activities such as yoga classes, musical performances and bike safety demonstrations. Of course, local Alliance member organization Transportation Alternatives was on hand offering free bike valet, and using the opportunity to engage New Yorkers in T.A.’s campaigns to create safer streets for all users.

Along with taking in the excitement that is Summer Streets, I was also able to meet with some of the great folks at NYC DOT who put on the initiative, and learn what it takes to put on such a successful event. Despite the difficult financial times, NYC DOT hasn’t cut back a bit on Summer Streets because of its popularity and support from private funders.

I’m looking forward to the launch of the Open Streets website this fall, which will allow cities across the continent to share their successes and plans. Open Streets are more than an opportunity to have fun on a street normally used for cars; they’re a chance to re-imagine the way our cities could be.

T.A. probably said it best in one of their recent newsletters, “For three days every summer, we don’t need schematics and modeling to understand what New York City would look like if pedestrians were prioritized. For three days this summer, our dream is reality.”

Don’t fall asleep at the wheel and miss your chance to win an all-expenses-paid biking or walking trip to Italy! Enter your best pictures in the 2011 People Powered Movement Photo Contest today.

With more than $8,000 in prizes for the winning entries, the Alliance invites professional, amateur and advocate photographers to celebrate the beauty and energy of active transportation and continue to build an online library of high-quality images that can be used by bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations across North America.

Don’t wait: There’s just one month left to submit your photos in the following categories:

• Women: Historically, men have far outnumbered women in active transportation in the U.S. - but that’s changing quickly. We want to see college women pedaling to class, female professionals using bike share to commute to work, mothers walking their kids to school, female advocates and engineers leading the charge to make their communities more bicycle and pedestrian friendly and more…

• Diversity / Equity / Building an Inclusive Movement: This category includes photos of the faces and efforts of the incredible diversity of people, from all racial and economic backgrounds, who walk and bike for transportation and recreation in their unique neighborhoods. Submit your images of Major Taylor Bicycle Club events, social justice rides, transportation equity rallies, outreach efforts to non-English-speaking communities, classes and bicycle giveaways at community cycling centers, recycle-a-bicycle programs and more…

• Open Streets / Ciclovias: Open Streets temporarily close streets to automobiles, allowing residents to walk, bike, skate, dance and utilize the roadways in countless creative and active ways. From Los Angeles to New York to Miami, Open Streets have become an effective and high-energy means to build community, promote active transportation and reconnect neighborhoods divided by traffic. We want to see how your community is engaging in this growing movement.

• Walking: Photos of walkers and pedestrians moving their feet for fitness or mobility.

• Advocates in Action: Images of biking and/or walking advocates making the case for active transportation.

• Biking: Photos that showcase the joy and utility of bicycling for transportation and recreation.

Individuals can submit up to 20 photo entries via the contest website until September 31. From October 1st to 31st, public voting will determine the finalists in each category. A panel of expert and advocate judges from across the continent will then determine the winners.

The overall grand prize is an all-expenses-paid biking or walking trip to Italy, from VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations. Additional prizes include: A new bicycle from PUBLIC Bikes; bags from Ortlieb ; lights from Planet Bike; gear from Fyxation; helmets from Bern and more! Plus, all winning photos also will be featured in the March 2012 issue of Momentum magazine.

Enter your photos by September 31 at http://www.PeoplePoweredMovement.org/PhotoContest.

Thanks to the advocates at BikeDenver, the Mile High City is now on the map.

Less than 10 months in the making, Viva Streets debuted in Denver this past Saturday and 7,500 residents took advantage of the city’s first Open Streets event.

Organized and hosted by BikeDenver and LiveWell Colorado (and funded, in part, by Bikes Belong), the four-hour festival closed down a two-mile stretch of 23rd Avenue to automobiles and invited citizens to experience their public space in creative and active ways.

“The turnout was amazing,” Piep VanHeuven, BikeDenver’s executive director, says.

“Four city councilmembers — almost a third of the council — attended the opening ceremonies and the bike parade that followed. People packed the route and many greeted and visited with friends and neighbors. More than 150 volunteers helped with activity zone offerings and monitoring the route as roving marshals. Local businesses got into the groove, too, offering everything from solar-power baked chocolate chip cookies to street side shish-ka-bob. My favorite was the ping-pong table that spontaneously appeared in the middle of the street.”

Not surprisingly, the successful event won wide coverage from local media. The Westword newspaper raved: “Bikes of all varieties ruled the road, but scooters, skateboards and rollerblades wheeled alongside. Pedestrians and runners weaved their way around. Twister, street hockey, basketball, hopscotch, jump rope, hula hoops and other games filled the shopping districts and parks. Music played from stages, impromptu drum circles, boomboxes on bikes and standing symphonic ensembles. Amenities were aplenty and sidewalk chalk scrawled into the streets.”

For VanHeuven, the take-away from the event was clear. “Denver was really ready for a ciclovia,” she says. “We had trouble getting people off the route and could easily have kept it going until 4 p.m. We’ve already had inquiries about bringing Viva Streets to other areas of Denver next year, as well as questions from City Park / Park Hill and Stapleton residents who want a street closure every month.”

Want to learn more about Viva Streets? Sign up for the Alliance’s upcoming Mutual Aid Call, “Open New Doors with Open Streets Events” and discuss the growing movement with VanHeuven and other Alliance leaders.

Do you love Streetfilms? Do you read Streetsblog? Yeah, we do, too.

So we’re excited to share that Open Plans — the company that developed those two leading bike-ped sites — is working with the Alliance and Street Plans Collaborative on the Open Streets Project.

Open Streets initiatives temporarily close streets to automobiles, inviting residents to walk, bike, skate, dance and utilize the roadways in countless creative and active ways. From Los Angeles to New York to Miami, Open Streets have become an effective and high-energy means to build community, promote active transportation and reconnect neighborhoods divided by traffic.

Earlier this summer, we announced the new Open Streets Project, which will support this exciting trend with the November release of a print guide and website that will serve as the one-stop source of information, models and best practices.

The “open source” website will allow municipalities and advocacy organizations to share information and resources on their Open Streets initiatives as they evolve and expand. Because interactivity is one of our top priorities for this website, Open Plans was a perfect fit.

“We make software to support aspirational citizen engagement with urban planning,” the New York City-based company notes. “We believe that better information is essential in shaping cities in an equitable and inclusive way. Community groups need information to guide their advocacy; agencies need information to support effective public outreach.”

Stay tuned for more updates on the Open Streets Project, including the website launch date this fall. In the meantime, check out Open Plans other engaging websites, like CityFix.org and CommunityAlmanac.org.

With more than $8,000 in prizes for the winning entries, the Alliance invites all members of the public to submit their best images of biking and walking to the 2011 People Powered Movement Photo Contest.

The contest aims to both celebrate the beauty and energy of active transportation and continue to build an online library of high-quality images that can be used by bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations across North America.

In 2009, more than 2,000 photographs were submitted in the first Alliance photo contest. Today marks the launch of the 2011 contest. Once again, categories include biking, walking, and advocates in action. New in 2011, the People Powered Movement Photo Contest invites photos in additional categories, including:

• Women
• Equity / Building an Inclusive Movement
• Open Streets (Ciclovias)

From August 1st to September 30th, individuals can submit up to 20 photo entries via the contest website. From October 1st to 31st, public voting will determine the finalists in each category. A panel of expert and advocate judges from across the continent will then determine the winners, to be announced in March 2012.

The overall grand prize is an all-expenses-paid, 10-day bike trip to Tuscany, Italy, from VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations. Additional prizes include:

• A new bicycle from PUBLIC Bikes
• Bags from Ortlieb
• Lights from Planet Bike
• Gear from Fyxation
• Helmets from Bern
• Socks and subscriptions from Bicycle Times

All winning photos also will be featured in the March 2012 issue of Momentum magazine.

To learn more or enter, visit PeoplePoweredMovement.org/PhotoContest

Open Streets initiatives have exploded in popularity across North America, encouraging millions of citizens to experience and celebrate their public spaces in ways they’ve never imagined. To advance this growing movement, the Alliance and Street Plans Collaborative are launching the Open Streets Project this summer.

Open Streets initiatives temporarily close streets to automobiles, allowing residents to walk, bike, skate, dance and utilize the roadways in countless creative and active ways. From Los Angeles to New York to Miami, Open Streets have become an effective and high-energy means to build community, promote active transportation and reconnect neighborhoods divided by traffic. The Open Streets Project will support this exciting trend with the November release of a print guide and website to increase the success with Open Streets initiatives, serving as the one-stop source of information, models and best practices.

“I’ve personally seen numerous Open Streets events in cities around the U.S. and, without fail, each of them has been tremendously inspirational,” said Jeffrey Miller, Alliance President/CEO. “Open Streets are not just an excellent way for cities to promote biking and walking; they inspire citizens to see their streets as public spaces. This project will allow the Alliance to work with our members - more than 170 bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations across North America - to establish and grow these exciting initiatives in their communities.”

Capitalizing on research from The Street Plans Collaborative, the Open Streets Project will release a comprehensive guide in November 2011, featuring an in-depth overview of all known Open Streets initiatives in the United States and Canada. (Preview the list of cities here.) This guide will include more than 55 case studies and showcase the growth of the movement in compelling graphics. (Click here for a PDF of the maps below.) The published guide will be supported by an “open source” website, allowing municipalities and advocacy organizations to share information and resources on their Open Streets initiatives as they evolve and expand.

“We’re thrilled that our firm’s ongoing research will result in a new and critical tool to advance the livable streets movement,” said Mike Lydon, Founding Principal of The Street Plans Collaborative. “By providing these definitive resources, the Open Streets Project will give new initiatives the targeted knowledge and contacts they need to move forward and boost existing initiatives with best practices and innovations from other cities.”

The published guide and online resource are the first steps in a long-range vision, which will include technical assistance from Alliance staff to accelerate the number of new initiatives and help established efforts to overcome challenges and grow even larger.

If your city or organization has information to share about an Open Streets initiative in your community, please contact Mike Samuelson, Alliance Member Services and Open Streets Coordinator, at (202) 449-9692 x7 or mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org.

By Jeff Miller, Alliance President/CEO

For more than six hours I soaked up as much as I could: the sun, the views, the smiles, the sheer beauty of seeing hundreds of thousands connecting with their neighbors and city in a wonderfully unique and natural way. Los Angeles is known to most of us for its tangle of congested highways and smog from the millions of cars. But yesterday, during CicLAvia,I saw an amazing city of cyclists!

Estimates put the crowd at 200,000-500,000 people and I think every demographic was represented among the masses. Sure, there were plenty of folks wearing lycra on expensive bikes — Lance Armstrong included — but they were out numbered by the hipsters on their fixies, sporting tattoos and U locks hanging from belts. Really the largest numbers were everyday people, wearing normal clothes on a wide range of bikes. There were small kids on scooters or riding bikes with training wheels; young boys and girls on BMX bikes, parents with toddlers in seats and trailers; couples on tandems (and a few tandems ridden solo with signs offer the seat up for a small fee or smile); teenagers riding with their cliques; men with long beards; ladies with fashionable skirts and fancy hats; and people of every ethnic and social background together. All of them were viewing their city and fellow citizens like they had never seen it before — free of dominating and oppressive automobiles.

Cops were grinning with all the “thank yous” and reveling in the people watching. Gear geeks were astonished at the range of cargo bikes, antiques, high-end rigs, Pedersens, custom “big wheel” style bikes and homemade, custom-painted bikes. Dozens of homemade giraffe bikes stood over the crowds, but none more so than the four-frame-high beast (including a tandem frame for the foundation) that supported it’s cape-wearing captain 10 feet above the crowds. In short, it was a bicycle advocate’s dream — everyone you could imagine riding back and forth across the city, excited at the possibility never before conceived and happening at that moment.

Open streets events (Sunday Parkways, Ciclavias, etc.) have a magical ability to open the hearts and minds of people from shop owners to politicians. A hundred times the size of the biggest San Francisco Critical Mass ride I’ve ridden, it has none of the rancor or controversy. Kids have the safety and freedom to again play in the street while parents admire and laugh. Couples kiss at red lights, beaming with the joy around them. Families even cruise comfortably down streets they never would think of being on for fear of gangs. And the overwhelming threat of swarming two-ton SUVs and the noise and exhaust they emit are distant enough to forget. Everyone is having so much fun it almost escapes them that this is how it could be. Except it doesn’t.

Everyone gets a glimpse of how it could be. Young and old, thin and “not so thin,” rich and poor, all connect and realize they have a community they didn’t know existed. That is the power of the bicycle, and open streets events like this help open the possibilities and prospects of safer and complete streets. If your community has an open streets event of any sort – celebrate it and cajole every neighbor, elected official, family member, and friend to experience it. If your community doesn’t have one, it is well worth the effort to organize one. In the end, open streets aren’t the answer, but they are an incredibly powerful tool of persuasion and we all need to leverage that.

To see the full list of tweets and photos from Jeff’s CicLAvia adventure follow him on Twitter @jeffreybcmiller.

There’s no doubt that Americans are hungry for fresh, local food. Over the past decade, the number of farmers markets has doubled, with a 16 percent increase in 2010 alone. Even in the heart of New York City, urban residents savor the opportunity to wander in the open air, connecting with their regional growers.

This summer, bike-ped advocates at Transportation Alternatives came up with an innovative way to partner with their local farmers markets — and prove that kids have an appetite for open streets.

In July and August, TA worked with the Strategic Alliance for Health, an arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Harvest Home Farmer’s Market, a non-profit organization that runs 20 farmer’s markets in low-income neighborhoods, to produce a series of events called Play Street.

In the unused areas of farmers markets in East Harlem and the South Bronx, the streets remained off-limits to traffic and open to area children. Kids from the surrounding neighborhood turned out in droves to jump rope, play sports and even take yoga classes. Hosted in areas where more than one-third of residents live below the poverty line and more than 40 percent of primary school children are overweight or obese, Play Street drew more than 1,200 children and teenagers.

“Streets and sidewalks make up 80 percent of our public space in New York City and we need to make sure these streets benefit everyone, not just private vehicles,” Julia De Martini Day, director of transportation and health at TA, said in a press release last week. “Play streets are a great way to demonstrate the potential for NYC streets to be healthy places where kids and adults can socialize, play and exercise.”

The Play Street events went so well that advocates are hoping to expand the idea to eight other farmers markets next year. And to make their case, TA hooked up with the New York Academy of Medicine to conduct a survey of the events’ participants. The results, released last week, included some moving numbers.

- If not at the Play Street, 64 percent of children would have been doing something sedentary, like watching TV or playing video games

- Because of the Play Street, 84 percent of families felt their neighborhood was safer

- More than 90 percent said they would recommend Play Street to their friends and neighbors

“In New York City, our streets are our backyards,” Paul Steely White, executive director of TA, said. “By creating a safe space from cars at our doorsteps, play streets make the healthy choice the easy choice by allowing people to incorporate play and exercise into their daily routines.”

Read more about the project and download the Play Street report from our Resources Library.

The event was three weeks ago, but we’re willing to bet that folks in Los Angeles are still smiling about CicLAvia.

On 10-10-10, the City of Angels hosted its first open streets event, closing a 7-mile stretch to automobiles and throwing open the floodgates for car-free fun. The public rushed in: An estimated 50-100,000 participants showed up on foot, on bikes, on inline skates and plenty of other creative means of self propulsion to reclaim their public space.

The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition was a key partner in making the event possible and (wo)manned a pit stop in MacArthur Park. Over the course of the day, advocates supplied bicyclists and pedestrians with water, energy bars, air for their tires, LACBC brochures, and route information. But mostly they reveled in the unprecedented and off-the-chain atmosphere.

“Several families stopped by — many from the first ever MidDay Ridazz Family/Kids’ ride — and it gave us hope to see some of the future leaders of the bicycle movement out on their bikes, experiencing how fun and efficient bicycling can be,” membership manager, Carol Feucht, wrote on LACBC’s blog. “Props to the one kid who explained to a pit stop visitor and me what sharrows were and where we could find them. That’s a future LACBC employee right there!”

Over on Streetsblog LA, writer Damien Newton noted that, even residents who didn’t directly participate, benefited from CicLAvia. It wasn’t just the cyclists and pedestrian who were inspired by the wide open roads. The success of the event trickled far beyond the streets themselves. “CicLAvia touched hundreds of thousands of people, even if it was just that they heard laughing on their streets instead of cars honking their horns,” Newton wrote. Organizers hope to make that millions in 2011. Four days after the event, still basking in the success, the CicLAvia board met. They’re still in the early planning stages, but LA residents could be treated to as many as half-a-dozen LA open streets events next year.

The sooner the better: Feucht joked that Angelinos already are suffering from CicLAvia withdrawal, pondering the creation of a support group to ease the pain until the next event. “Our cheeks hurt from smiling so much, and we can’t wait until the next one,” Feucht added. “Sunday, October 10, 2010 will be remembered as the day Angelinos came together to reclaim their streets by playing in them.”

For a tiny dose of that day’s energy, check out the StreetsFilms above.

The first time was impressive. The second time was gigantic.

The third time? Off the charts.

In June 2009, the City of Madison hosted the inaugural Ride the Drive, with lead sponsorship from Trek and plenty of help from the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. Closing off major roads for car-free fun, the open streets extravaganza drew 10,000 participants. A year later, in June 2010, the second event turned out nearly 25,000 bicyclists and pedestrians.

So what happens when you add Lance Armstrong to the mix? An eye-popping crowd of more than 50,000 riders.

“Every time we hold it, it doubles or triples,” says Amanda White, the Ride the Drive coordinator for the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin.

This past Sunday, the cycling celebrity addressed the gigantic crowd and led a loop on the six-mile course through the heart of Madison. Dressed in gym clothes, Armstrong mingled with the thousands of bicyclists. “I led a bike parade after the big ride with Lance and he stopped by and signed our Feet in the Street, where kids were stenciling their feet with sidewalk chalk,” White says.

But the Tour de France champion isn’t the only reason the Bike Fed’s open streets events have taken off. According to White: “The messaging for the event is very inclusive: ’Come out with your kids, with your friends. Whether you want to wear spandex or blue jeans, come out and enjoy the day.’”

“And we’re very focused on a more mainstream crowd,” she adds. “We have a lot of unique activities along the route. We have kite flying. We have a bike parade. We have the wheelmen group with huge old bikes, and an art bike group with all these beautifully decorated bikes. And there are different areas along the route, like the Family Drive area, which is a little festival in itself directed at families.”

A well-chosen course has also enticed participants. “The roads we have closed off — or, as the mayor says, have opened up — for bicyclists are six-lane streets with very heavy traffic volumes,” White says. “They’re streets most people would never think to bike on, so to be able to bike on those streets is such an amazing thing.”

Click here to check out some amazing pictures from the University of Wisconsin cycling team.

According to the Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation, “Ciclovia—the street festival where cities close down miles of streets and residents come out to enjoy walking, bicycling, scootering, skating, and all other manner of fun physical activity—is coming to Missouri in a big way this summer.

Kansas City’s Car Free Weekends on Cliff Drive are entering their third year and have been a very successful program.  By removing cars from the drive on weekends, more citizens are able to enjoy bicycling and walking and crime has been reduced significantly. Now Kansas City is expanded on this successful program by creating the city’s first full-blown Sunday Parkways festival.” St. Louis is also expanding it’s ciclovia programming this summer. 

The Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation is working to bring ciclovia festivals to cities around Missouri.  The state has gone from no Missouri ciclovia festivals in 2007, to one in 2008, and now seven planned for 2010.

Learn more at MoBikePedFed.

According to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, tens of thousands of adults and kids flooded the car-free Embarcadero on this year’s first San Francisco Sunday Streets event. The second 2010 Sunday Streets event is planned for Sunday April 11th from Golden Gate Park to the Great Highway. According to the SF Bicycle Coalition, “the Sunday Streets route will be hopping with activity from bicycling to dancing and rollerskating, yoga to hula-hooping.”

The SF Bicycle Coalition is coordinating the volunteer corps that make all Sunday Streets events possible. For each of the nine 2010 Sunday Streets events, more than 150 volunteers will make the event happen. If you’re in San Francisco and want to get involved, sign up at sundaystreetssf.com/volunteer.

For more information on SF’s Sunday Streets see http://www.sundaystreetssf.com.
Read press coverage of the 1st 2010 Sunday Streets event at the SF Chronicle.

According to Walk + Roll Cleveland, “ Kaiser Permanente has provided seed funding for six Walk+Roll programs in neighborhoods all over the greater Cleveland area!

Saturday, May 15 in Cleveland’s Kamm’s Corners neighborhood will kick off the 2010 Summer of walking and rolling! Walk+Roll is partnering with Taste of Kamms which is a new event to celebrate this family-friendly neighborhood and it’s streetscaped Lorain Avenue.

Other neighborhoods and dates will be revealed soon. Always free and always fun for everyone, this year’s Walk+Roll initiative will include our signature street-closings plus also free guided bicycle rides and walks to secret places you’ve probably never experienced. With six events spread over the summer and throughout the city, you will be continually reminded and encouraged to walk and bike more in your daily life which will make your world cleaner, greener, wealthier and healthier.”

Walk + Roll is a ciclovia-type event that temporarily closes streets to cars and opens them to people on bike, foot, and skates. Learn more by visiting http://www.walkroll.com.