The Alliance for Biking & Walking and Streetfilms have teamed up to produce a new video celebrating the growing popularity of “Open Streets” initiatives around the world, where cities temporarily shut down a street to motorized traffic so that people can enjoy it on foot and on bicycles.

Despite the start of Bicycle Sundays in Seattle in 1965, and the spread of similar Open Streets events across the country, DC has yet to really join the momentum. We’ve come close, but not quite, by closing Rock Creek Park’s Beach Drive weekly to non-motorized recreational uses and with the annual “Feet in the Street” in Fort Dupont Park.

As Gil Peñalosa notes in the video, “When people are creating Ciclovías or Open Streets, there is always some resistance. And the better the city, the more resistance because sometimes it is more difficult to go from good to great than from bad to great.” The time has come to take the District from good to great when it comes to sharing the streets; the time has come for our first “DCiclovía.”

One of GGWash's early contributors and editors, Jaime is currently assistant director of planning for the City of Greenbelt, MD. Over the years and across the country, Jaime's work on transportation and the built environment has focused on the critical intersection of health equity and planning. She lives in Trinidad, DC.