Downtown streets will be closed to cars but open to the community during the first Trenton Ciclovia Open Streets Festival featuring a bicycle rodeo, pop-up skate park, circus fun, Zumba and food along Warren Street in downtown Trenton from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 21, 2019. The free event features a half mile of bike fun, activities, and food.
“This is a chance for Trenton to come together and enjoy their city and for our neighbors to experience what the capital city has to offer,” said Sonia Szczesna, South Jersey Program Manager, Tri-State Transportation Campaign. “Ciclovia is all about encouraging healthy exercise and seeing the potential in our cityscape for creativity and community.”
“We’re ecstatic to have Ciclovia finally come to Trenton,” said Mayor Reed Gusciora. “Only positives come out of events like these which get people outside and get them talking about our community. We need to make sure that the next generation of Trentonians are staying active and involved in their City. I’m happy to see Trenton trending in the right direction.”
Trenton Ciclovia will cover the half-mile of Warren Street that stretches from the Battle Monument to East Lafayette Street, leading into Mill Hill Park, linking activities from health screenings to exercise classes and featuring more than 40 community groups sharing information and hosting activities including:
- Circus performances and activities by the Circus Squad
- Pop-up Skate Park by Freedom NJ
- Bike Rodeo by Greater Mercer TMA
- E-Scooter Demo by Lime
- Zumba by the American Heart Association
- Mobile Health Unit by Horizon
Ciclovia (” seek – low – VEE – uh “) means bikeway in Spanish. Open street events like these started in Bogota Colombia as a way to reduce congestion and air quality issues. These are programs that temporarily open streets to people and close them to cars. People traffic replaces car traffic and the streets become ‘paved parks’, where people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds can come out and improve their health. A coalition of partners interested in the health and wellness of the community decided to bring this event to Trenton to encourage more residents to walk and bike in the city. Ciclovias have become part of a worldwide movement to reclaim the streets for people and they can be seen locally in Philadelphia, New York City, Princeton, and New Brunswick.
The 2019 Trenton Ciclovia/Open Streets Festival is hosted by the City of Trenton and made possible by the generous support of the following organizations Wells Fargo; New Jersey Manufacturer; Ready, Set, Healthy!; Horizon; American Heart Association; Trenton Downtown Association; New Jersey Community Capital; the Circuit Trails; and REI.
