Aug 9, 2008 7:23 pm US/Eastern
NYC 's Traffic-Free 'Summer Streets' A Big Hit
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
In Paris, they call it La Plage, or the beach. And in Bogota, Colombia, it's Ciclovia, or bikeway. In New York, about seven miles of Manhattan is becoming traffic-free for six hours Saturday, creating a weekend playground for bikers, walkers and loungers.
Who needs Central Park when you can have Park Avenue?
"I think it's fantastic. It's nice to walk down the middle of the street and not worry about cars," said NYC resident Celia Kemp.
Mayor Bloomberg, who unveiled the plan a couple months ago says the program is modeled after cities around the world that use street closures to create temporary plazas on the weekends.
For bicyclists like Drew Gibson, a Park Avenue free of cars from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park was a dream come true.
"It normally feels so unsafe that I tend to go all the way around the Greenways and Westside," said Gibson, adding, "I feel very peaceful and relaxed, kind of like biking in Europe."
And for those who wanted to get fit, but didn't' feel like a run or ride, there were free exercise classes, with no age limits.
If the rumba and samba are more your speed, free dance lessons were also available.
If you didn't get a chance to take advantage of all the traffic-less space, don't worry, you'll have 2 more chances on the 16th and 23rd of August.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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