Il Dolce Far Niente: CicloSDias

August 2013

Since moved from Finland to California, have learnt that cycling culture was quite different that I'd accustomed to. San Diego being called a cycling friendly city, meaning cyclists are acknowledged in streets and local roads. There are bicycle lanes all over the county. However, to me getting accustomed for a cycling since a kid, local cycling culture has still been a slight disappointment to me. Mainly, missing an ordinary cycling, bicycling to shop, cafes etc and not just enjoying it as a training exercise.

Read sometime ago about a local cycling event called CicloSDias. Inherited from LA's CicLAvia, and the mother of all these cycling events done in Bogota Columbia, San Diego active communities had decided to promote alternative commuting methods for daily life. Four near-downtown-communites among some cycling, walking and other activity groups had setup a car-free day for their streets. One of the key streets for the event, 30th street, was also referred to the city's brewery street. Thus, there were lots of reasons to spend a lazy Sunday among other cycling enthusiasts on the CicloSDias event.

It was a good reason to get to used to neighborhoods one wouldn't necessary to see so often. To me, South Park looked really nice with tree shadowed streets, local pubs, shops and bookstores. Few local bicycle shops were fantastic, boy I did like them. Event itself was nice, too. Artists playing music, pubs offering fancy local food and drinks. Got proper espresso and italian ice cream after long time.

Enjoyed seeing beautiful bicycles, fixies etc, you named them and there they were. However, it's really people who made atmosphere there. Happy faces cycling, walking on car-free streets.