Car-Free Streets

Inspired by Streetfilms, Ciclovia Comes to Roanoke, VA

Here's a neat livable streets success story from Virginia. A short time back a woman named Andrea Garland dropped by the TOPP office in Manhattan. A transportation engineer and native of Colombia, Andrea now lives in Roanoke, where she is active in several cyclist and pedestrian groups. One of those groups, BikeWalk Virginia, is bringing Ciclovia to downtown Roanoke in August.

By Brad Aaron

1:04 PM EDT on July 15, 2009

Here’s a neat livable streets success story from Virginia. A short time back a woman named Andrea Garland dropped by the TOPP office in Manhattan. A transportation engineer and native of Colombia, Andrea now lives in Roanoke, where she is active in several cyclist and pedestrian groups. One of those groups, BikeWalk Virginia, is bringing Ciclovia to downtown Roanoke in August.

Downtown Roanoke. Photo: ocracokewaves/Flickr

Andrea, who is planning the event, explains that the Ciclovia Streetfilm was instrumental in making it happen.

Watching the Ciclovia video was very inspiring. I don’t often
think that Colombia could be an example for the world. So I feel proud
of Bogotá to have many features to showcase, such as Ciclovia and
Transmilenio. I thought the video was worth more than 1,000 words, and
it was the easiest way to get people’s attention toward having a
Ciclovia in Roanoke.
At first I used it to introduce Ciclovia to the
people that are currently helping me with the event — city officials,
artists, friends, etc. I broadcast it during
an Earth Day festival hoping to get some volunteer interest. Now that
I’m actually having the event, I’m using it to get more organizations
involved. I’m introducing the event with a brief description and
including a link to the video so that they get a better idea.
I really think that without the video (the short version actually is the one I use the most), it would have been very hard to even get a permit for it, because it is such a new concept for this region.

Congratulations to Andrea and everyone down in Roanoke. If anyone else out there has a similar story, or if you’d like advice on how to use Streetfilms, Streetsblog, or other Livable Streets Initiative tools in your town, let us know.

Brad Aaron

Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.

Car-Free Streets | Ciclovía | Out of Town | Streetfilms

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