CycLAvia is about celebrating Los Angeles in a non-motorized way. A route of city streets that runs past Los Angeles City Hall is closed to motorized traffic for five hours. Many tens of thousands of cyclists and joggers and walkers enjoy the pleasant quiet of city streets that every other day are noisy and dusty from all the cars, trucks and buses. Don’t miss the next CycLAvia… scheduled for April 12th, 2012.

Thank you Donald and Sarah for sharing the following photos.

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¡Calles abiertas a los peatones y ciclistas! ¡Gratis!

An expanded route of Los Angeles streets will be closed to motorized traffic Sunday, October 9th, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.

The Los Angeles CicLAvia means free, family-friendly cycling, jogging, and strolling through downtown L.A.  (This will be L.A.’s third one!) People from far and wide will be there, including many friends from Long Beach.

CicLAvia is not a race. It’s a fun opportunity to enjoy L.A. on your bicycle or on foot… without the noise and fumes of nearby vehicle traffic!

Click on the map to enlarge it on your screen.

The route T’s at L.A. City Hall. From there you can head west to the Bicycle Kitchen (northwest of MacArthur Park)… and/or east to Hollenbeck Park in Boyle Heights… and/or north to Chinatown… and/or south to the African American Firefighter Museum near the 10 freeway. You can start anywhere along the route. You can head in any direction.

You can stop anywhere you like. There are rest hubs at the four end points and also at MacArthur Park and close to City Hall. You’re sure to come across friends or discover a new, favorite café.

To get to L.A. from Long Beach, it’s easy and inexpensive to board any northbound Blue Line train. The one-way fare (including bicycle) is just $1.50.

For more information, go to www.cicLAvia.org, or contact info@cicLAvia.org.

The Bikestation’s new home is located along First Street between Long Beach Blvd. and Pine Avenue. It is an integral part of the downtown transit hub.

Bikestation is about day-use and long-term safe bike parking for commuters, and it is about rental bikes. Also, staff mechanics can fix your flat tire or do a bike tune up. Bikestation is run by Mobis Transportation Alternatives, Inc., a firm specialized in multimodal transportation systems. Mobis runs Bikestations in a growing number of cities, including Washington, D.C.  The very first Bikestation was here in Long Beach, California.

The following images trace Bikestation as it has moved four times over the past fifteen-some years.

Back in the mid 1990s, Bikestation Long Beach was a brand new idea. The first temporary Bikestation structure was placed on what had been an empty plot of land along First Street immediately west of the Promenade. (Since then, a multi-level condominium with first-floor commercial spaces was built on that parcel.)

East Village artist Anna Wooten created the following drawing, celebrating the Bikestation in its first Long Beach home.

In 2000′s, the Bikestation moved several hundred feet east into a second temporary structure.

In 2009, that second structure was demolished.

Between 2009 and July, 2011, Bikestation was housed on Broadway, one block to the north.

On July 27, 2011, Bikestation moves into its new, permanent, two-story facility on First Street east of the Promenade.

Go to www.mobisinc.com for more information about multimodal transportation system projects in planning and underway in many cities. Also, check out www.bikestation.com.

To learn about projects coordinated by the City of Long Beach to help make our city a great place for cycling safely on city streets, check out bikelongbeach.org.

Also, you are encouraged to participate and support the activities of the various cycling groups in the region… most of us operating on little more than shoestrings and enthusiasm.

May 11th — Free, second Wednesdays, 11:00 am-1:00 pm, you are encouraged to take advantage of free Bike Safety Checks at CSULB, courtesy of Jax Bicycles.

May 13th — Free, the Family Fun Fest will take place Friday, 5:00-9:00 pm in the lawn area of the Pike at Rainbow Harbor. This includes live music, cycling stunts, a fixed gear competition, and vendors.

May 14th — Preregistration is required for the Tour of Long Beach (that benefits Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach). Three rides: A 9:00 am, 4-mile family fun ride at Marina Green Park (540 E. Shoreline Drive)… also a 31-mile leisurely circuit around the entire city… also a 61-mile Metric Century.

May 14th — Free, the Finish Line Festival, 9:00 am-4:00 pm. in the Rainbow Harbor area. Children’s activity area, bike safety and education booths, live music, food, and vendors.

May 18th — Free, Traffic Skills 101 at CSULB, Wednesday evening class session, 6:00-8:00 pm. Followed by the free 3-hour Saturday morning on-road training session. Preregistration required. Click EDUCATION at the top of the longbeachcyclists.com page for more information, or click here.

May 19th — Free, Thursday morning Bike-to-Work-Day Pit Stops, one at CSULB, the other at Long Beach City Hall Civic Center Plaza. Refreshments, freebies and bike safety checks.

Long Beach will inaugurate two separated bikeways—one along Broadway, the other along 3rd Street—designed to provide a pleasant, new way for the entire family to cycle when in downtown Long Beach.

The official ceremony will be held at noon.

Click to enlarge the map. Click to enlarge the Grand Opening poster for more details.

During five hours, a 7-mile route running through downtown Los Angeles was closed off to motorized traffic. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, more than 100-thousand cyclists, skaters and joggers enjoyed the free event. Don’t miss the next CicLAvía!

The route ran east or west through downtown L.A.  Cyclists could go either direction and back and forth. The route led through Little Tokyo… across the 4th Street Bridge… as far east as Hollenbeck Park in Boyle Heights. The route also led through an amazing stretch of downtown skyscrapers and intensity… past MacArthur Park… as far west as the Bicycle Kitchen close to Melrose and the 101.

The absence of motorized traffic makes for a delightful city experience; happy chatting and laughter rather than roaring engines and fumes. We saw cyclists of all ages and skill levels. There were numerous cafés along the route, so it was easy to find a perfect place to sit outside for lunch and to soak in the delightful spectacle. Wow!

Along the route, we saw numerous friends from Long Beach, and no doubt missed many more of you who were there as well.

In photos to the right, Bernard of Cyclone Coasters in Long Beach says hello to L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

To the left, hello Scott and Jessica. Hello Stacie. Many friends and new friends.

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Many folks from the Long Beach area will head up to L.A. on the Metro Blue Line, timing themselves to arrive in L.A. by about 10:00 am. Click on the map to see route specifics.

For more information, go to www.cicLAvia.org, or contact info@cicLAvia.org.

The event is free, but you’ll need to RSVP by Wednesday evening, April 6th.

For details, click on the postage stamp to the right. To RSVP, contact Allan Crawford at allancrawford@bikeablecommunities.org.

Then, from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm, also at Bixby Park, join the community workshop to update the Long Beach Bicycle Master Plan. Your suggestions and observations will be noted by staff of the Department of Public Works.

Bixby Park is located between Cherry and Junipero, and between Ocean Blvd. and Broadway.

If the opportunity to participate in a fun bike ride and to provide City planners with your input about cycling infrastructure isn’t incentive enough… here’s one more goodie to sweeten the pot: There will be free Mc’Coffee.

It occurs to us that this Saturday you could enjoy a particularly Buzzy Day in a coffee-tasting way. We suggest that you buy various cups of coffee at several of our favorite local cafés (including coffee from Hot Java and from the Park Pantry—both across the street from Bixby Park—and from Portfolio Coffeehouse on Fourth at Junipero)… and then enjoy some free McCoffee as part of the community workshop. After the workshop, you could then cycle over to Sipology #2 on Broadway at Temple… and then cycle around the rest of the day to a dozen other great, locally-owned cafés. No… wait… you should NOT sip that much coffee in one day. Better to do your coffee tasting little by little. So… scratch the Buzzy Day idea. This Saturday, would you care for some McCoffee?

The final Bicycle Master Plan Update community meeting will take place at the Mark Twain Library (1401 E. Anaheim), Wednesday, March 23rd, 6:00-8:00 pm.

Bill Freed writes: This is a short summary of our trike ride from Canada to almost the Mexican border. Our great adventure began for myself and my good friend Jim Park on June 28th when we met in Seal Beach and rode to San Diego to complete the first part of our trip. We had intended to go to the Mexican border… but got lost in San Diego, falling short of our goal by a few miles.

The next part of our ride began on July 9th after a friend dropped us and our trikes off at Anacordes, Washington State. From there we took ferries to the Orcas and San Juan Islands, and then cycles on to Victoria, B.C., Canada. We rode in each of these locations, then took a ferry to Port Angeles, from where we began our southbound journey down the Olympic Peninsula. Eventually we returned to the coast near Long Beach, Washington.

We crossed the Columbia River into Astoria, Oregon. From there on we remained on the coast (mostly along 101 or Hwy 1) the rest of  the way to our homes in Southern California.

Here are a few statistics about the trip. Miles covered by region: Canada 20, Washington 318, Oregon 365, California 704. Total cycling distance: 1407 miles. We were on the road for about a month and a half. We averaged between 40 to 45 miles per day. All things considered, it was a great trip, and believe it or not we had no flat tires, we had no rain, and we only had to deal with a couple of minor mechanical problems.