CicLAvia Coming Up Has Villaraigosa Reiterating Bike Safety

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Grab your bike, but don't forget your helmet! CicLAvia is back!
The free event will bring people out by the thousands to bike, rollerblade and walk next Sunday, April 15th from 10 a.m to 3 p.m.
The city is closing down 10 miles of streets to cars and Council Member Tom LaBonge thinks that's a good thing. He says getting out of cars and on to bikes allows people to see the city in ways they haven't before.
"I tell people to get lost and found in L.A. and CicLAvia is the perfect way to do it," LaBonge said.
CicLAvia event planners think more than 100 thousand people will participate. The festival is part of the city's effort to provide a more sustainable L.A. and encourage people to use other types of transportation.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hopes CicLAvia can help drivers and bikers to learn to share the streets.
"So the message is the same for all Angelenos: drive safely, be courteous, follow the rules and share the road," Villaraigosa said.
Marilyn Dwellingham is a member of the "Real Rider, Low Rider Bike Club and believes CicLAvia has helped bike safety.
"They watch out for us more, they move over, when they see us coming. Even if it's one or two of us. We've noticed that they give us the road, they give us a lane," Dwellingham said.
Aaron Paley is the co-founder of CicLAvia and also thinks it brings the Los Angeles community together.
"People run into each other, people see each other they haven't seen in a long time, they see their best friends and go, I can't believe you're here," Paley said.
And if you don't have a bike, Bike Nation will be lending 100 bikes for rent at CicLAvia to the first 100 people who sign up.
Villaraigosa also announced a new Spanish language bike safety campaign and hopes to expand it to other languages like Mandarin and Korean.
People won't just see their neighbors and friends biking next weekend. they may even see Mayor Villaraigosa, since he says that he plans to hop on a bike, too.