The 8th edition of San Antonio’s Síclovía is heading to Southtown come Sunday, March 29, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The later than usual start will allow Palm Sunday worshipers to attend services and still join the 50,000 other cyclists, pedestrians, pet walkers, skateboarders and random others who will gather outdoors for the one-day street festival that features just about everything except cars and trucks.
“We’re heading back to Southtown!” Lisa Ramirez, YMCA’s vice president for strategic partnerships and program innovation, declared Tuesday morning at the kick-off press conference held at the Tripoint YMCA. “This time we will start at South Alamo and South Saint Mary’s Street and finish at Mission Concepción.
H-E-B again is the presenting sponsor, and is expected to once again offer health cooking demos, nutrition consultations with registered dietitians on scene, and other wellness initiatives. Humana is the platinum sponsor and also will have a team on hand for wellness consultations.
Among the other Reclovía attractions along the way will be bike maintenance and safety stops where adults and children can take a class and earn a free bike helmet.
The big change for Síclovía VIII is the Safety Pledge, an outgrowth of growing concerns about mishaps along the route that have occurred at past events. The Rivard Report appreciates the acknowledgment offered Tuesday of our efforts to highlight the need for better safety along the route and better enforcement of share the road rules. Speeding cyclists, unsupervised children and loose pets have contributed to some unnecessary collisions and minor injuries that organizers are determined to eliminate from this and future Síclovías.
(Read more: Síclovía 7 Turns East to Dignowity Hill.)
Organizers are asking all of the expected 50,000 participants to take the pledge online before March 29, and to take note of the safety volunteers in bright orange t-shirts working along the route. Bike World is offering a little motivation, too, in the way of a beautiful Trek X-Caliber 6 mountain bike with front shocks and disc brakes with a retail value of $918 that will be given away. Click on the above Safety Pledge image, take the pledge, and your name will be entered into the drawing.
Terry Bellamy, assistant director of the City’s Transportation and Capital Improvements department, was on hand to underscore the City’s commitment to making San Antonio’s streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
“Síclovía is encouraging people to get outside and get healthy,” Bellamy said, noting that a key element of SA Tomorrow, the City’s long-term transportation plan, is safer streets for people who are not driving vehicles. “Being the seventh largest city in the country, we think we should become the number one city in the country with zero fatalities.”
San Antonio Assistant Police Chief Jose Bañales put it another way: “Síclovía is not a race and you shouldn’t try to make it one.”
Ba?ales said vehicle drivers in San Antonio need to become more accommodating of cyclists and pedestrians, and everyone needs to start obey traffic signals, drivers, riders and jaywalkers.
“Each year we see too many lives lost as a result of someone failing to comply with the law,” Chief Bañales said. “We want to remind everyone that there’s enough room on the road to go around.”
An estimated 50 cyclists and pedestrians were killed in accidents involving motorized vehicles in 2014, according to SAPD figures.
As always, the emphasis will be on health and wellness, outdoor recreation, and community building.
“We are so proud of how far we have come,” said YMCA of Greater San Antonio CEO Sandy Morander. “We know from surveys that 37% of participants had not been physically active before participating in a Síclovía, and 56% say it is spurring continuing physical activity. Many also say it was their introduction to Southtown and without Síclovía they would have never learned about the great restaurants and other places to come experience down there.”
The 2.5 mile Southtown route crosses three City council districts, and two of the council members were on hand to take the Safety Pledge and speak.
“This event brings out thousands and thousands of people to play in the streets,” Councilmember Rebecca Viagran (D3) told the audience. “In District 3, all roads lead to Mission Concepción.”
“As a policymaker I’m so excited to hear that one of the things we are working on specifically, is zero pedestrian fatalities. Vision Zero Initiative is a concept that is sweeping the nation,” Councilmember Shirley Gonzales (D5) said of the national movement to reduce urban cyclist and pedestrian fatalities to zero. “San Antonio should be at the forefront of that.”
Kevin Barton, a Texas A&M University-San Antonio faculty member, avid cyclist, and husband of Gonzales, has reported on the initiative for the Rivard Report. (See: Vision Zero Through Comprehensive Planning.)
As the event came to a conclusion, Viagran and Gonzales made their way to nearby laptops to be the first to take their pledge online.
*Featured/top image: A crowd gathers to take the Síclovía Safety Pledge – including (from front right). Councilmember Rebecca Viagran (D3), SA2020 Interim President and CEO Molly Cox, and Terry Bellamy, assistant director of the City’s Transportation and Capital Improvements department. Photo by Robert Rivard.
This story was originally published on Tuesday, March 3, 2015.
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This makes me so happy, they will finally not have to sweep up all the trash these people leave in front of my business.
PICK UP AFTER YOURSELF!!
THANK YOU
I really like the Safety Pledge. Yes, I took it. I hope it is posted at every booth and the booth participants point it out to everyone. Here’s to a smooth Siclovia in Southtown!
Good idea..there were no details of enforcement, though…
My friends and I skipped the last one because nobody seemed willing to “share the road” or even notice that other people were present during the one held just before that one.
We were on bikes; there was no chance of racing. You’d barely get moving before having to stop abruptly to not run into some child or teen suddenly crossing right in your path. Most parents seemed to be paying no attention at all to their kids.
We saw no enforcement of safety rules at all.
It wasn’t fun, and it wasn’t even exercise.
I was originally excited about this article, thinking it brought good news. The route down St. Mary’s is so much better due to the wider streets but I am so disappointed to learn of the later start time. There are reasons that 5k’s, charity walks/runs etc start early in the day. By 11:00 the heat and sun can already be oppressive in San Antonio. I hope they are prepared for more overheated individuals, especially since ( as the article states) 37% of participants are sedentary before the event and therefore not ready for such exertion. And to state the reason for the change in start time is an effort to accommodate Palm Sunday worshippers is an insult to those who do not share the same religious beliefs.
I like the fact that they are trying to make people more safety conscience. The fact that you are entered for such a nice prize is a good incentive to sign the safety pledge.
This one looks as if it will share the same MAJOR problem that the other one in Southtown had–very limited parking nearby making it very difficult for participants to get to the area. I avoided the first Southtown Siclovia for that reason, and I will likely avoid this one, too, for the same reason.
Silly but fun.. d3 is not my favorite place to ride..since the rebecca viagran spearheaded removal of southflores bike.. lane..
The most powerful sentence in this article:
Terry Bellamy, “Being the seventh largest city in the country, we think we should become the number one city in the country with zero fatalities.”
Leadership on city staff is embracing Vision Zero!
This is not an argument against the safety pledge, but an observation about our society’s basic assumption behind the pledge. The recommendation to move pedestrians and slower traffic to the right, or onto sidewalks, and that children should not play in the street supports the basic assumption that faster moving traffic has priority. That’s why pedestrians are required to yield to motorists except in the brief time and space where they are specifically given permission to cross a road with the right of way. This assumption is so widely accepted we don’t even question it.
There is an alternative. Faster moving traffic should always yield to slower moving traffic. Those moving at higher rates of speed have the ability to control their speed, and should therefore have the responsibility to not externalize their risk to more vulnerable road users.
Cyclists externalize risk to pedestrians, and motorists externalize risk to pedestrians and cyclists. A change of philosophy could make Ciclovia a different experience. Pedestrians have complete freedom of movement, cyclists yield to pedestrians at all times. Roads are public space and should prioritize activities that externalize the least risk. In other words, pedestrians should be prioritized. This same philosophy extended to every street in the city, every day of the year would make the city truly walkable.
It’s not impractical, it’s just a different world view.