Austin Ciclovia, Sun. 5/20/12, 10am-3pm, 6th Street

MichaelBluejay · 2012-05-18 13:10:37

Austin finally gets a ciclovia! It's called Viva Streets, and takes place on Sun. 5/20/12, 10am-3pm, on 6th Street between Brazos and Robert Martinez Jr.

bizikletari · 2012-05-18 16:18:51

For the last twelve years I have been training for this Sunday, 10am-3pm at Viva Streets Austin.
We will be riding a whole 1.5 mile (http://tinyurl.com/6w3hk53) on the streets! (without cars)
The main skill you'll need is to know how to dodge skaters and dog-walkers; that in itself is a reason to smile, so let's smile.

damicoaustin · 2012-05-19 09:55:08

Alonso, get plenty of rest tonight and drink plenty of fluids!
I'm not to bummed about the short route this time, since it's the first one. I would love to see Guadalupe from the triangle to the river. Technically that's not allowed by city ordinance. But hey, council could vote to do it. Everyone get your friends to come. We need this to be successful to spur more!

dougmc · 2012-05-19 10:29:37

bizikletari wrote:

The main skill you'll need is to know how to dodge skaters and dog-walkers; that in itself is a reason to smile, so let's smile.

I seem to recall them expecting 30k people?

If so, driving there will be difficult as there won't be any parking for miles. Biking there will of course work well, but with 30k people milling about you will be walking your bike once you get there as there won't be room to ride. (And probably not much room to lock it.)

Should be interesting either way.

ggw · 2012-05-19 13:11:13

If all 30,000 showed up at once there would be 8.8 square feet/person for this event

dougmc · 2012-05-20 16:03:02

Well, I don't know how many people showed up, but it worked out to be quite a nice ride. A few spots were crowded, but for the most part it was fairly open.

I was pleasantly surprised -- it worked out very nicely. Very good cycling (and pedestrian) advocacy!

bizikletari · 2012-05-20 18:31:14

I concur. It was a very good first edition.

I had very little excitement for the Viva Street event, but today I was happily proved wrong.
I was disapointed with how short the route was and with the street choice itself. I still think it shows a very timid approach from the city to the whole idea, but I do feel now that the decision of having the event mostly running through the east side of Sixth St. was a good pick after all. It seemed to me that there was a good deal of involvement from the community itself.

In front of Bike TX, I saw a group of women —obviously from the area— with an aerobics session having a blast. There was, at the same section of the street, a group of Chinese folk dance parading and dancing in attire. I trully enjoyed the people that actually took the streets with a table, chairs and a whole brunch under a tree shade, right on the street. What a magnificent view. Some of the Bike zoo creatures were also unleashed on the East side to the pleasures of every witness. I saw that Café Buenos Aires had tango exhibitions on the street and I believed they probably profited much of the event.

The West side busineses did not show the same initiative. I actually noticed that in the E Sixth St. there is more on street bike parking that in the West side. That I found dumbfounding since I would have never thought that the people were actually smarter on the other side of the I-35. Today they seemed to be. There was a quite a nice crowd of all ages were enjoying the simple fact of retaking their public spaces; that segment of our streets, which exist thanks to our money, were available for all Austinites from 10am to 3pm, and that is great.

Thanks to all of those who worked to make the Viva Streets event possible.

Last edited by bizikletari (2012-05-20 19:47:57)

MichaelBluejay · 2013-01-15 05:17:08

Mexico City has a ciclovia every damn week.

I'm jealous.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-a … -City/339/

MichaelBluejay · 2013-03-27 12:32:34

New York City is ROUTINELY closing LOTS of streets to auto traffic, via their Play Streets program. I'm jealous.

http://www.nycgovparks.org/programs/playstreets

dougmc · 2013-03-27 14:50:48

Austin does close significant swaths of sixth street to traffic quite often -- several times a week it seems lately.

That said, when they do, they close it to bikes too, so boo-hiss. Though often there's so many pedestrians that you wouldn't really be riding much anyways.

MichaelBluejay · 2013-03-27 15:06:08

Yeah, but Austin's not closing even 1/8th the streets that NYC is. (NYC is 8x Austin's size.)

We're supposedly so bike-friendly, but we're lagging behind lots of other cities in various ways.

Bicycle Austin forum

#1 2012-05-18 13:10:37

Austin Ciclovia, Sun. 5/20/12, 10am-3pm, 6th Street

#2 2012-05-18 16:18:51

Re: Austin Ciclovia, Sun. 5/20/12, 10am-3pm, 6th Street

#3 2012-05-19 09:55:08

Re: Austin Ciclovia, Sun. 5/20/12, 10am-3pm, 6th Street

#4 2012-05-19 10:29:37

Re: Austin Ciclovia, Sun. 5/20/12, 10am-3pm, 6th Street

#5 2012-05-19 13:11:13

Re: Austin Ciclovia, Sun. 5/20/12, 10am-3pm, 6th Street

#6 2012-05-20 16:03:02

Re: Austin Ciclovia, Sun. 5/20/12, 10am-3pm, 6th Street

#7 2012-05-20 18:31:14

Re: Austin Ciclovia, Sun. 5/20/12, 10am-3pm, 6th Street

#8 2013-01-15 05:17:08

Re: Austin Ciclovia, Sun. 5/20/12, 10am-3pm, 6th Street

#9 2013-03-27 12:32:34

Re: Austin Ciclovia, Sun. 5/20/12, 10am-3pm, 6th Street

#10 2013-03-27 14:50:48

Re: Austin Ciclovia, Sun. 5/20/12, 10am-3pm, 6th Street

#11 2013-03-27 15:06:08

Re: Austin Ciclovia, Sun. 5/20/12, 10am-3pm, 6th Street

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