Coming Soon: A Major Car-Free Event in NYC

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Cyclists enjoy Bogotá’s weekly Ciclovía. Which New York streets will host a similar event this summer?

Speaking at Tuesday’s Fit-City Conference, Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced that a Ciclovía-style car-free street event is in the works for this summer. New York is not alone. According to a story published earlier this week on RedOrbit, several other American cities are considering the same thing:

Others are planning ciclovia, or "bike path," programs in which
networks of streets are temporarily closed to driving and open for
non-motorized play. Last summer El Paso, Texas, staged the first
ciclovia in the United States, and now Chicago, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Cleveland, and Portland, Ore., are working on similar events.

Details of the New York Ciclovía have yet to be revealed. Streetsblog will fill in the blanks as this story develops.

Photo: themikebot / Flickr 

  • Angus Grieve-Smith
  • Clarence

    Thank goodness the cat is out of the bag…. I want to come up with a Ciclovia song for NYC!

  • Central Park? Prospect Park?

    Seriously, I can’t understand why even the new DOT won’t close the parks to cars. Even just for the summer.

  • Moser

    #3 above = classic Streetsblog conceit: NYC DOT runs the city

  • Geck

    Broadway

  • Car-free Central Park! The incremental approach just isn’t working.

    By the way . . . anyone know how Ken C. is doing?

  • I am so excited! Hooray, JSK!

  • galvo

    this sounds great!

  • Rob

    Seriously lets close all of Broadway from 72nd st to the Battery. It would be awesome!

  • In my dreams, we’d close the longest street in each borough, from end to end:

    Broadway in Manhattan
    Grand Concourse
    Queens Boulevard
    Bedford Avenue
    Hylan Boulevard

    Imagine!

  • Rob, why stop at 72nd St? Why ignore uptown? Let’s go all the way to the edge of the island! A couple of years ago, I walked all the way from Broadway and 225th St (in Marble Hill) to Battery Park. It was exciting to view all the different neighborhoods that Broadway crosses through and there is some terrific architecture uptown in Washington Heights and Harlem. I would be thrilled to follow the same route again, this time on my bicycle.

  • gecko

    A Ciclovía here will be WONDERFULLLLLLLLLLL! Great gobs of Goodness! All the time. Everywhere!

  • YES! YES! YES!

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