Google Maps ‘Bike There’

The first news reports of New York’s experiment with a ciclovia, Summer Streets, are starting to trickle in. Gothamist has a quick rundown:

The first Summer Streets Saturday, where the city closed 7 miles of Manhattan streets (between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m.) to create a vehicle-free boulevard for people to stroll, bicycle, and and just enjoy, seems to be a big hit. Of course there were complaints from drivers trying to make their way around.

We listed ciclovias as one of our recommended Big Initiatives. (For those that don’t know, ciclovia is a Spanish word that means “bike path.” The term is used in Latin America to refer either to a permanent bike path or an event where streets are temporarily closed to automobiles so that other forms of transportation may have primary use. See this Wikipedia entry for more information.)

Portland was the first big city in the U.S. to get on the board, and now we have New York City. The New York City—the most populous city in America.

This is absolutely tremendous. If we all collectively decide that New York’s Summer Streets program was a full-on success, then there’s no way that opposition to these programs will stand a chance. Whatever complaint gets raised, we’ll have a ready reply: “Then what about New York?” Nonetheless, let’s hope that business opposition is not too strong.

And now is probably a good time to start thinking about how we need to educate the public at large on the benefits of a bicycling/walking culture. We suggested a coordinated campaign in the Big Initiatives list, and John Pucher, the Bicycle Scholar, has said that this education component is important if we want to be successful like our European brothers and sisters.

If we can make it in New York, we can make it anywhere.

[Photo by themikebot]

Postscript: Awesome! Clarence just posted his video of NYC Summer Streets. That was some quick turnaround time. Get some sleep, dude! You rock!