Sustainable Transportation Blog

On September 13th, Winnipeg hosted its -- and, not incidentally, Canada's -- first Ciclovia street festival.

Hosted by the Downtown Winnipeg Biz and backed by many local sponsors (including the City of Winnipeg, CTV and the Winnipeg Free Press), Ciclovia was the result of months of planning that included significant participation by the Centre for Sustainable Transportation.

Ciclovia (Spanish for "bike way/path") is a car-free street festival which originated in Bogota Colombia. Surprising as it may seem now given Ciclovia's global reach, but Bogota was not a promising place for such an event. According to StreetsWiki:

“Bogota is the sprawling capital of Colombia with a population of over seven million. Its congested streets carry over 55,000 taxis, 18,000 buses, and more than a million private cars. The traffic culture in the city is notoriously lawless, resulting in 56,000 accidents and 900 deaths annually."

However, in the 1990s, parks commissioner Guillermo Penalosa initiated a cycling renaissance that was later taken up by his brother Enrique, who, as the city's mayor between 1998 and 2001 radically transformed Bogota's transportation culture:

"He engineered perhaps the most swift and dramatic livable streets renaissance ever seen in a major international city. In just three years in office...he led a transportation revolution so complete that Bogota was transformed from a traffic-clogged mess into one of the most transit and bike friendly cities in the world."

Among the Penalosa brothers' accomplishments is, of course, Ciclovia, during which

"every Sunday and holiday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., Bogota, Colombia closes off--or, rather, opens up---more than 70 miles of city streets. Closed, that is, to cars and open to bicyclists, skaters, walkers, and mass aerobics. When that happens, 1.5 million people come out to enjoy the safety, community, and exercise that a seemingly car-free city allows. According to many participants, the Ciclovi a has transformed life in the city all around for the better. People feel happier, healthier, and more united."

The idea has now spread around the world, and numerous cities have held their own Ciclovias. Winnipeg's event received enthusiastic promotion in the local media and now has its own Facebook page.

The Centre for Sustainable Transportation was instrumental in raising awareness of and organizing the event. Back in 2007, Executive Director Arne Elias wrote in a proposal,

"Ciclovia allows a city to showcase the best of its artists and musicians, to exhibit its cultural industries and parade the best of its urban features to itself and the world. It combines healthy living with arts and culture and engages citizens in active alternatives to motorized transportation, bringing life back to otherwise car choked streets. And it does something else that is exceptional. It allows a city to dream of different ways of living well, of other community aspirations in an urban environment. What does it mean to have a significant stretch of streets free of cars and open to travel, entertainment and new social possibilities."

I attended the festival with my family and we had a terrific time taking in the entertainment and new social possibilities. But it would have been difficult to actually use a bicycle the street was so filled with pedestrians, booths, activities and, every few minutes, a horse-drawn wagon. The range of activities was also exciting: bicycle polo; dance classes; musicians; advocacy; children's games and of course, lots of food.

And bikes! There were recumbents and child/cargo human powered vehicles, pedicabs and unicycles.

Alas, or course, mine was not among them; we came on foot. Since moving to Winnipeg in 1998, we have faithfully attended all the city's street closures, from former mayor Glenn Murray's "Get Together Downtown" street festival on Portage Avenue to the annual Canada Day street festival on Osborne street. We found this event had its advantages over either of those locations. As you can see from the photo, Broadway was ideal: plenty of green space and trees provided shaded spots for attendees and musicians alike. And the sheer length of Broadway meant that it was difficult to take it all in: it was truly an impressive sight.

However, what Broadway lacks that the other Winnipeg street festival locations have in abundance is an active street wall with stores and restaurants. Broadway is largely built up with low-rise office towers, and, being a Sunday there were few destinations open.

That aside, Winnipeg's first Cyclovia, like its predecessors around the world, was not just about bicycles but was all about returning the street to people for human-scaled activities, for fun, for conversation and for celebrating the best aspects of city life.

It's amazing what people can accomplish without cars around.

By Michael Dudley