San Gabriel Valley-based nonprofit ActiveSGV hopes to highlight what sustainable transportation looks like on one of LA’s busiest freeways. On October 29, the organization will prohibit cars on six miles of the 110 freeway and one mile of adjacent streets so pedestrians, runners, cyclists, skaters, and others can enjoy its 20th-anniversary ArroyoFest.
“This isn't an ordinary highway. The Arroyo Seco Parkway is a national historic place. It's a scenic byway, it's the first freeway in the West. So it holds a lot of symbolism, of course, for Los Angeles and for our transportation planning over the last 70 years,” explains Wes Reutimann, special programs director at ActiveSGV.
He says the open streets movement allows people to experience their public streets in a different way and at a different speed.
While the 110 stretch of the festival is only car-free from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., event-goers will be able to enjoy live performances, family-friendly games, and booths about wildlife conservation, public health, mobility, and more at activity centers for hours afterward.
Reutimann and the team at ActiveSGV hope to reimagine the ways people interact with the historic freeway. “Even the simple things, just the silence — I think a lot of us forget about how much noise is created from highways because it’s almost always there. And we only really notice it when suddenly it’s not.”