I encourage you to watch this short video of Portland’s first Ciclovia style street closure. With 6 miles of streets closed to automobiles for half a day one Sunday, residents had the opportunity to get out and walk, bike, skate and basically just celebrate being outside. Can you imagine something like this here in Greenville? The fact that Portland embraces ideas like this is exactly why they are a platinum level Bicycle Friendly Community. Greenville is not quite as bike friendly as Portland yet, but I don’t see why we couldn’t do something like this? We close off streets for events, including the US Pro Championship races, so why not close a handful of City streets for a few hours to remind everyone that streets really are for people?While I am thinking of things I would love to see here in Greenville, I’ll mention the idea of a bike co-op workspace or a non-profit community bike shop. They vary from educational bike workspaces like the Bicycle Kitchen in LA to places like The Recyclery in Portland where they sell used bikes as well as teach people how to repair them. The common thread is these are places where old bikes can be fixed to get them back on the street, which translates to economical bikes for people who need them. Closer to home are the Asheville ReCyclery, Sopo bikes in Atlanta, and now the Hub Cycle program in Spartanburg. For now, any of you who have old bikes that you want to donate should direct them to the Hub Cycle program, but wouldn’t it be great to have something like that in Greenville?
Photo: kids riding at Portland’s Sunday Parkways event from BikePortland.org
8 comments:
Wow, what a turnout! Not only that, it was great seeing such a wide range of activities, and the wacky bikes.
That is fantastic! Thanks for sharing. I would LOVE to see Greenville do something similar and a Recyclery type of shop would also be extremely beneficial in fostering the type of environment/attitude we all hope to see blossom here.
We went on vacation to Guadalajara, Mexico a few years ago and on Sunday morning we found the main thoroughfare closed off to motor vehicles. It was amazing - the street was packed with families on bikes and on foot. Guadalajara is a city of 1.5 million people and the street they closed off was five lanes (usually packed all day with buses and cars and taxis). We were very impressed! It was such a family atmosphere, and a really, really wonderful change from the chaotic, smelly, noisy street it was all day other days of the week.
Would love to see Greenville do this on a big street too. People might like the family-oriented-ness of it...
Hey, great post. I volunteer at Sopo and it is great to see how it energizes and unites Atlanta bike community. You might be interested to know that a new bike co-op should be starting soon in Columbia SC.
Also, Sopo will be hosting the first BikeBike South this coming January 09. Hope you come down for it!!
Thanks for the comments everyone. Sarah, the experience in Guadalajara sounds great. I think more people would really enjoy a street closure like this after they experienced it. It's just a matter of getting over the hurdle of selling the idea.
Emily, thanks for the heads up on the Columbia bike co-op. Also, I penciled in BikeBike South on my calender. Where can I find out more about it?
There isn't a proper website for Bikebike South, but there is a myspace page: http://profile.myspace.com/ind
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wprofile&friendid=388565801
I'm sure the Sopo website will have more info sooner to the date, too.
I'm moving to Columbia in August, and psyched to see what's up in SC!!
I'd like to see this in Toronto!!
Thanks for sharing information
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