Today, CicLAvia released details for all the cool activities taking place at the next CicLAvia — Culver City Meets Venice on Sunday, August 9. Notably for Metro, the agency plans to roll out the red carpet by demonstrating its new bike share vendor equipment at the Downtown Culver City Hub. Metro also will be offering a couple bicycle safety classes funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety for people on bikes who need some bike safety pointers. Metro also will staff a big booth to talk with the public about its numerous transportation projects and programs now reshaping L.A. County. Read full details below in CicLAvia’s official news release.
CicLAvia – Culver City Meets Venice Presented by Metro
Follow the Car-Free Road on August 9 as CicLAvia Returns to the Westside
Route Goes Between the Home of Oz in Culver City and the Home of Muscles at Venice Beach
LOS ANGELES – One hundred years after the first movie studio in Culver City called out, “Action!” the city will be ready for its open streets close-up when thousands of people come out to enjoy CicLAvia – Culver City Meets Venice Presented by Metro from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 9.
The car-free route will be a six-mile variation of the 2013 CicLAvia Westside route, allowing participants to explore more of Culver City’s charming neighborhoods, eclectic businesses and delicious restaurants, as well as connect with such Westside treasures as the Mar Vista Farmers Market, Abbot Kinney and Venice Beach.
CicLAvia is a free, family-friendly event with no official starting or ending point. Participants can show up anywhere along the route and stay as long as they please, enjoying a day of biking, walking, running, skating, strolling or using any other form of non-motorized transportation. The route also offers many opportunities for people to explore restaurants and stores that they might otherwise drive by in a car.
CicLAvia – Culver City Meets Venice Presented by Metro is the third CicLAvia event in 2015. The funding for the Culver City route is provided primarily by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) as part of a $4 million Open Streets grant that was awarded to municipalities throughout Southern California to sponsor car-free events in 2014-2016.
The CicLAvia Neighborhood Guide, written by Andrea Richards and designed by Colleen Corcoran, highlights dozens of sites of historic, cultural and community interest. Participants may enhance their CicLAvia experience by picking up a guide on the route and learning about the transformation of Venice from a man-made water resort to an eclectic beach community; the growth, transformation and rebirth of downtown Culver City; and the evolution of Mar Vista from farms to factories to family-friendly neighborhoods. The guide can also be downloaded here.
There will be four CicLAvia hubs on the route which offer CicLAvia information and merchandise, bike parking and bike repair, free water, restrooms and first aid stations. Each hub will also have entertainment, sponsor booths and more. Participants may pick up neighborhood guides and activities fliers at the information booths.
CicLAvia’s partner, Cirque du Soleil, will be at the Culver City Hub promoting their newest touring Big Top show: KURIOS – Cabinet of Curiosities™, which will debut in Southern California this fall. The KURIOS space will include the chance for participants to make stop-motion videos which will place them on the silver screen. Cirque will also have penny-farthing bikes on the route featuring costumed riders.
CicLAvia is offering four free pedi-cab along the route, sponsored by Whole Foods. Two pedi-cabs will be traveling the route, picking up passengers along the way for short distances. An additional two pedi-cabs will be dedicated to shuttling people between the Culver City Metro stop and downtown Culver City.
Along the Route Activities at CicLAvia – Culver City Meets Venice Presented by Metro:
DOWNTOWN CULVER CITY HUB
Free Bike Valet
Free Pedi-Cab rides between the hub and Culver City Metro Station.
Metro will publicly showcase its new Bicycle Transit Systems, Inc. (BTS) bikeshare docking station and bicycles that are planned to be installed in Downtown Los Angeles as part of Metro’s bikesharing pilot project in Spring 2016.
Take a free Metro bike safety class for all ages and improve confidence and skills riding a bicycle in an urban setting.
Try out the Metro bus bike rack and learn how to secure a bicycle to the bus.
Complete the kids bike safety skills course and get a free kid’s bike helmet (while supplies last).
Contribute to a collective painting on the Mobile Mural Lab from 11am–3pm.
Cirque du Soleil’s #Kurios Zone
Create an old-timey stop-motion video and learn more about the newest touring show, KURIOS—Cabinet of Curiosities™.
NEAR THE HUB
Discover the best of what downtown Culver City has to offer with family activities, live music and open house at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Explore the hip and historic neighborhood’s mix of buildings, boutiques, theaters, galleries and unique restaurants opening on to tree-lined streets.
TELLEFSON PARK HUB
The CicLAvia Old School Merchandise booth offers a variety of CicLAvia apparel and items from past events.
MAR VISTA FARMERS MARKET HUB
Free Bike Valet
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Councilmember Mike Bonin showcase a pop-up parklet as part of their vision for the Venice Blvd. Great Street.
Urban planner James Rojas will ask participants to use art and play to reimagine local streets.
Create fun works of art to take home with the help of Steve’s Machines – custom built, interactive creative contraptions.
Sign up for a free Los Angeles Public Library card and keep an eye for the roaming Book Bike. Free books will be given to people with library cards.
Plug into the phone charging station at the LADWP Solar Trailer to recharge phones.
NEAR THE HUB:
Mar Vista Farmers’ Market on Grand View Blvd celebrates its 9th anniversary with Birthdaypalooza from 9AM-3PM. The market will feature live music, prepared food vendors and 50 farmers. Join in the fun and participate in a corn shucking, seed spitting or egg toss contest.
VENICE HUB
Food Trucks: Artesana Pops
Solar DJs—The SYCONS will spin tunes all day.
NEAR THE HUB:
Snap a photo in front of the CicLAvia mural on the Venice Art Walls at 1800 Oceanfront Walk.
The full Activities Flyer can be downloaded here.
Elsewhere along the route, Metro’s Destination Discounts program offers CicLAvia participants the chance to #GoMetro and save money at select businesses along the route, as well as save 15% on CicLAvia t-shirts at the Tellefson Park Hub, by showing their Metro TAP card. For a full list of Metro Destination Discount businesses visit http://www.metro.net/service/discounts/family-friendly/ciclavia/.
Metro’s Open Streets Program allocates $2 million annually for these types of events within L.A. County. The program seeks to increase sustainable transportation mode share, including transit, bicycle and pedestrian trips, create opportunities for first time transit usage, and encourage cities to develop multi-modal polices. Other benefits include economic, public health benefits and opportunities to highlight and promote cultural resources.
CicLAvia has held 13 open streets events since 2010 and is recognized as being a world leader in transforming streets into temporary urban parks. Hundreds of thousands of people have participated in CicLAvia as they connect with their communities, businesses, healthy activity and each other in a way that isn’t possible by car.
The final CicLAvia event of 2015 is CicLAvia – Heart of LA on October 18.
About CicLAvia
CicLAvia is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization. CicLAvia catalyzes vibrant public spaces, active transportation and good health through car-free streets. CicLAvia engages with people to transform our relationship with our communities and with each other. With the full support of Metro, local governments, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Los Angeles City Council, Police Department, Fire Department, Department of Transportation, the Department of Water and Power, and the Department of Parks and Recreation, CicLAvia is an innovative model for creating new public space and enriching civic life.
Partners include Metro, the City of Los Angeles, City of Culver City, the Wasserman Foundation and an Anonymous benefactor. Supporters include the Annenberg Foundation, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Rosenthal Family Foundation, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Durfee Foundation and LA 2050. Sponsors include Cirque du Soleil, Los Angeles County Department of Water and Power, David Bohnett Foundation, Roth Family Foundation, Southern California Gas Company, Tern Bicycles, Indie Printing, Whole Foods and Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. Media Sponsors include LA Times, LA Weekly, 102.3 KJLH, Laemmle Theatres and Time Out Los Angeles.
About Metro
Metro is a multimodal transportation agency that is actually three companies in one: a major operator that transports about 1.5 million boarding passengers on an average weekday on a fleet of 2,000 clean air buses and six rail lines; a major construction agency that oversees many bus, rail, highway and other mobility related building projects, and Metro is the lead transportation planning and programming agency for Los Angeles County.
Overseeing one of the largest works programs in America, Metro is, literally, changing the urban landscape of the Los Angeles region. Dozens of transit, highway and other mobility projects, largely funded by Measure R, are under construction or in the planning stages. These include five new rail lines, the I-5 widening and other major projects.
Stay informed by following Metro on The Source and El Pasajero at metro.net, facebook.com/losangelesmetro, twitter:metrolosangeles and twitter.com/metroLAalerts and instagram.com/metrolosangeles.
About City of Culver City
The City of Culver City is a charter city incorporated in 1917, with a population of nearly 39,000 residents within five square miles and surrounded by nearly 370,000 households within a five-mile radius. Centrally located between the beach and downtown Los Angeles, Culver City is six miles north of Los Angeles International Airport and is strategically located with easy access to the Santa Monica (I-10), San Diego (I-405), and Marina (SR-90) Freeways.
Culver City is a modern and progressive community with great shopping, dining, and entertainment, a vibrant business environment, and an exceptional quality of life. Culver City’s unique combination of small-town charm and big-city amenities make it a great place to live and work. With roots in the early days of the motion picture industry, the City has now become a powerful and expanding multi-media hub, as well as a mecca for the fashion and design industries.