The beauty of a closed street…

[dasgeh]

From today’s Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/mexicans-try-two-wheels-to-beat-car-culture/2012/04/11/gIQA1Cen9S_story.html?hpid=z5

It seems Mexico City closes thoroughfares to cars on Sunday mornings and people love it. Bogota does this too, and it’s awesome.

Any hope for such fun in this area (Beach drive doesn’t count)? DC may be a long shot, but what about shutting down Wilson/Clarendon or Columbia Pike? Glebe? Sounds like the kind of thing a LAB Gold community would do…

Topic

[PotomacCyclist]

There are already similar events going on in May and June in Arlington, where certain streets will be closed to cars:

Bike DC on May 13
Crystal Ride (Air Force Cycling Classic weekend) on June 10

True, both rides require a registration fee for cyclists, but both are untimed noncompetitive rides on the roads of Arlington (and D.C., for Bike DC). (Competitive cyclists do have some incentive to ride hard during the Crystal Ride. It’s untimed, but they track how many laps you do during the 3 and 1/2 hr. time period. Beginners can just take in the scenery and atmosphere and go as slowly as they want, and stop riding when they want to. The hyper-ambitious folks can race around the course and try to complete 6 laps, which will take some doing. That’s almost 56 miles. Not too bad for an advanced rider but definitely more than an easy stroll on the bike.)

***
For an ongoing “open streets” day or ciclovía, you would have to take into account the weather as well as the existence of other events. I don’t think there would be any point to having the bike day during the winter, even when there isn’t that much snow on the ground. The cold weather will keep most people away so the expenses wouldn’t be worth it. I’m also wondering about the midsummer too. The hardcore cyclists might be out there in mid-July, but would most of the casual cyclists? I don’t know. August is kind of dead around here, with Congress out of session and many people heading out of town on vacation.

Spring and fall would be ideal for these events. With Bike DC and the Crystal Ride, I don’t know if we would need another spring event, except maybe in April. The fall could present some scheduling problems because there are a lot of running races going on then, almost every weekend. This includes all of the shorter races like 5Ks (including the popular Clarendon Day 5K) to the big races like the Nation’s Triathlon, the Army Ten-Miler and the Marine Corps Marathon. There are many running races in the spring too, with the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run being the most well-known.

[Mark Blacknell]

BikeDC and the Crystal Ride are about riding bikes on streets. A ciclovia is about closing the streets to cars and getting people in the streets. Very different events. Highly encourage checking out the Sunday Parkways link above. Madison does something similar.

[consularrider]

I’m heading to Quito, Ecuador in about a few weeks and it looks like they have something similar, the Ciclopaseo, on Sundays. Hope to be able to check it out before heading on to Guayaquil Sunday afternoon/evening.

[KLizotte]

@Mark Blacknell 17964 wrote:

BikeDC and the Crystal Ride are about riding bikes on streets. A ciclovia is about closing the streets to cars and getting people in the streets. Very different events. Highly encourage checking out the Sunday Parkways link above. Madison does something similar.

Interesting: Portland has a different route for each Sunday to highlight different sections of Portland. Now wouldn’t that be awesome!?

[culimerc]

What about closing only one lane of what could be developed into a full street closure later as participation is expanded?? Take one lane of Clarendon and one lane of Wilson from the top of Rosslyn to Ballston and set up x-over points at either end with police to create a loop. Once it becomes well attended move forward with the idea of completely closing one or the other. In the meantime, car traffic still has access, and foot traffic is increased, and a habit and expectation is hopefully established.

[Author]

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