off your butts, into the street by jay on Aug 25, 2009
Sunday, August 30, is the day Madisonians take back our streets. By foot...by bike...by rollerblade...by jump rope..you name it, it will be there. Madison is hosting our first CiclovĂa event from 8am to 2pm on six miles of prime downtown streets. Planet Bike is a pumped and ecstatic sponsor of this game-changing event.
For those of you who know Madison, we're going from Olin Park, up John Nolen to Willy St to Blair to East Wash, back up to the Square, down State St. to Lake, to Bedford, then back out to John Nolen and closing the loop back to Olin.
When people first step onto a street with no cars and stay there, it's an eerie thing. You feel like you're trespassing. But that feeling fades, and you soon rejoice in the thrill of seeing your city in a new way. In fact, you are coming home. Until about 1910, streets were for people. They were the mall of their time, with carts of food and goods of all kinds for sale. Kids played in the street, people walked in the street, people biked in the street. There were no sidewalks because there was the street!
See what other cities are doing: El Paso, Chicago, Portland, and the original, Bogotá
Get back that free and easy feeling by joining us this Sunday. Below is a map. For details, click here.
