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The DWP's 13th Annual Griffith Park Festival of Lights is upon us, although the token "Bike-Night" preview night is well behind us.
The Festival is currently open to pedestrians, equestrians and even our canine friends but as for cyclists, the bike parking at the perimeter is all we get. On December 8th it opens to the motor-vehicle crowd.
And that's when we ride!
On Monday, December 8th, we adorn ourselves in the appropriate holiday decorations and ride in ritual protest, sharing holiday goodwill and cheer with the motorists who find themselves trapped in the awe-inspiring gridlock that is most certainly one of the best reasons to ask Santa for a new Bicycle.
“Festival of Rights” - December 8 - meet at the Mulholland Fountain at the SW corner of Los Feliz Boulevard and Crystal Springs/Riverside Drive at 6:30 p.m. and ride @ 7:00 pm. (3700 Los Feliz Blvd. LA, CA 90027)
If you don't care about the politics, who cares? It's an excuse to dress up your bike and maybe yourself and put on a bootleg parade. Speaking of which, does anybody know of an IKEA location that has those cheapo Xmas lights in *green*? All I have is red, purple, and off-white.
i understand the calendar said bikes for one night but i spoke to a worker there and he reassured me that for that same week pedestrians were allowed, so were bikes.
oh, and thanks for pushing me last night. i wouldn't have made it to hollywood and highland without you and chynna's help. and another ride also, don't remember his name though.
While i agree it is fun to ride through the light festival when there are cars, to be perfectly clear, the lightshow WAS OPEN TO BIKES ALL WEEK. We went there twice, both times the people working were super nice and welcoming to us dirty hippies...so don't get your panties in too much of a bunch!
But more inportantly than being allowed to ride with pedestrians and baby strollers...
Are cyclists allowed to ride the mean streets of Griffith Park when they are open to motor vehicles?
NO!
Are cyclists guaranteed by State Law that streets open to motor vehicles are open to cyclists?
YES!
The City's traffic plan consists of taking away the bike lane, creating another lane for motor vehicles and then banning cyclists, all for our safety! It's many things but mainly, it's wrong!
But as others wiser than I have said...regardless of your politics...let's ride!
Did someone say music?? I'm gonna try to make it w/ my tunes. Time for some twisted sister again. This time I've got a few more tunes but it's trying to get off work early which is the tricky part.
Call me at 323-864-7586 and give me your eta and we'll wait. Last year was great, you caught us on our way in to the park! This time we'll ride together!
yeah, they can limit participation to bikes, but if theyre going to allow slow moving cars, then slow moving bikes have to be allowed too. i dont see why this is even a question, other than the fact that the city council doesnt care enough to think about it.
let's go have a good time. and as ridazz always do, let's bring our own festival of lights!
Yes... it's definitely time to tango with these folks... for taking the bike lane away.
@aksendz
Like tortuga mentioned. Slow moving.. .Definitely chill. We've got to say hi to the motorists and enjoy the lights ourselves.... and then repeat. Decorate your bike and have fun.
After a few victory laps through Griffith Park, some will head to the Valley (escorting TowliesBong who was chased by security or coyotes or ...we never found out) some will head back to the Fountain and then down into the wilds of Atwater Village for libations at the Big Foot while those filled with the sheer exuberance to be found at the Festival of Rights will circle the Mulholland Fountain until vertigo overtakes them and then they will set off in pursuit of the Wolfpack.
An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods.
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Kyle
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bi·cy·cle
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from bi- + -cycle (as in tricycle)
Date: 1863
: a vehicle with two wheels tandem, handlebars for steering, a saddle seat, and pedals by which it is propelled ; also : a stationary exercise machine that resembles such a vehicle.
"some will head to the Valley (escorting TowliesBong who was chased by security or coyotes or ...we never found out) "
It turns out it was LA DOT last year. If you ride back through solo just be prepared to be chased, it's very easy to elude them but somehow they were getting plenty of gaps between the cars and were able to keep up with me.
I don't know about tonight, if I make it in time I'm heading to Bigfoot.
is there really a chance of being arrested for this? cuz... I can't risk that. It might harm my chances of extending my work visa again, and possibly face deportation.
I don't want to encourage you considering your status, but after hanging out at the fountains last year it was clear that there wasn't going to be any chance of arrest. You can always ride over there and scope things out. Even though I got chased it was by some young bros with the LA DOT who had no authority whatsoever. I was just in a hurry because I was late for a date after the ride and I just didn't want to deal with those fools.
holy shit the festival of lights is a total waste of time. why the fuck would anyone subject themselves to witnessing that in a car? at least when you do it by bike you can get it over with in like, five minutes. bummer for those guys. apparently we were on the news. did anyone catch that?
yeah. i recorded the last five seconds. the previous 5 seconds was Stephen Box speaking to the camera and I missed it. Looks like you guys got some media attention after all. Even though its really short.
the news crews were videotaping us standing around the fountain for like, thirty minutes. then we started riding through the park. the cops or whoever told us to ride to the left where the lane was clear. cars honked at us and cheered and did whatever and then we regrouped at the zoo. then we rode against traffic all the way to the turn off where the merry go round is. on the way there one of the news vans blocked traffic and yelled at us "you guys messed up, i thought you were gonna ride through again?". we took some pictures in the streetlights by the merry go round and got yelled at for blocking traffic before riding through again. the news crews taped that and then we headed to a liquor store and then to the bigfoot where we got ridiculously drunk and sang 4nonblondes from our booth but didnt do karaoke because that shit sucks. all in all it was a great night.
A Park Ranger met us at the Mulholland Fountain to explain that they had set aside a bike path (the pedestrian path) for our use tonight. "Thanks but no thanks!"
It was opening night for the motorists and it took a bit before we came across the gridlock that makes riding the Festival so pleasurable. There was a tepid attempt to direct us up onto the sidewalk, which only Tom LaBonge's representative took. (I tried to explain to him that the concept of a protest requires us to challenge the status quo, not cooperate!)
Channel 7 was there, Channel 11 was there and Nick from Kill Radio demonstrated his running interview technique as he ran the Festival with us, asking questions as he went.
No drama until the end of the second pass when we split up, User1 leading a group in search of beverages while a smaller group headed back through the Festival, only to have passage blocked!
A bit of a debate, a bit of a challenge, a bit of a threat to write a ticket - we asked for the ticket - it went nowhere and we ended up riding back through the Festival and then off to the Big Foot.
RBI is right about the Festival - it pales in comparison to...the blinky light at the edge of the park that says "LANE CLOSED." The music is harsh but we had DigableSoul's tunes.
This protest is less about the Festival and more about challenging limitations on access to cyclists when motor vehicles are allowed. This is an issue that keeps coming up throughout the Southland and it must be resisted every time. (Pasadena, Long Beach, Redondo, Culver City, Santa Monica and Los Angeles)
LA is notorious for making up the rules as it goes and if we are to capitalize on the recent momentum at City Council, it includes fighting to defend access to the streets.
Happy Holidays!
p.s. If you happen to be in the area over the next three weeks, ride through the Festival and howl at the moon. Wear them down. Let those stuck in the cars see how much fun it is on two wheels!
Word.. i can't imagine seeing all that in a car. I once went to it w/ a gf a while back and waited forever to get there. I also got a pretty good whiff of car fumes. All in all... good stuff and had a lot of fun. Good to see the media out there and funny that the Park Rangers agreed to give us that one lane.
I saw both Fox11 (super quick) and ABC7 which was a lot longer. They had a reporter during the live 11pm broadcast. Interesting how they kind how they covered it.
The video is up on the abc' 7's webpage. I'm a retard and can't figure how to link it.
Thanks for putting this together Stephen and Enci. Definitely glad to represent!!
In the ABC video, they mentioned the possibility that "motorists, distracted by the blinking lights may injure cyclists" And this is different from, say, Hollywood and Highland, or for that matter, most of Hwood blvd, the area around the Staples center, or any of dozens of other sparkly corporate facades plaguing our fair city, how?
If you're driving your car, it is YOUR responsibility to not hit crap with it, sparkly holiday lights or not.
it was fun splitting lanes and dodging orange safety cones at the same time. people in cars are more often than not more into us than the powers that be. before we went to the superbad liquor store on victory/western, a family with a small girl in a stroller came up to user1 (in a santa outfit) and was like "omg santa on a bike" before walking through the festival of lights. i dont understand how they say that pedestrians are not allowed through. they have a fucking sidewalk thats gated off and separated from the road.
the second time we went through the police (or security or whoever it was) started following us through the lines of stagnant cars for a few feet before realizing that they couldnt follow us. so what did they do? they turned to the right and drove on the sidewalk, inadvertently chasing another family off the sidewalk in order to try to patrol us unruly cyclists. they soon gave up once they hit another stagnant row of cars who were idling and polluting the griffith park wilderness.
stephen raised a good point at the bigfoot about how all the lights and cars and awful fucking holiday music chases away all of the wildlife that you usually see while riding through the park at night and how it disrupts the ecosystem. but i mean, who cares, right?
Thanks for putting this on Stephen. It was my first time going through this festival. Last year I got there too late, but I'm claiming they closed too early. I was there around 8:30.
Man the pressure on being a real Santa as opposed to a drunk Santa was on last night. I hope I made that kid's night.
Great job on getting the news crews out there. Would have been nice to see us rolling 50+ deep, but whacha gona do huh?
The way they got it organized for the cars, you would think it's their first year. Really lame how they do it.
I'M SO PROUD OF YOU GUYZ, I TRIED TO MAKE IT, BUT BIKE PROBLEM PREVENTED ME FROM ATTENDING, ANYBODY WANT TO DO IT AGAIN, IM THINKING THAT WE HIJACK THE RIDE ON FRIDAY AND SATURDAY TO CRASH THAT SHIT OVER THERE, YOU WANT TO CAUSE CHANGE?
yeah, i had a great time last night!!! (despite my cold feet... literally... not figuratively...)
damn, that festival sucks. I feel bad for any chump that drives through it. It's kinda fun to quickly ride through (even though it's clearly a horrid invasion on L.A.s diminishing wildlife and I wish it didn't exist), but to be stuck in traffic with nothing to do but listen to adult contemporary versions of already crappy christmas songs? ...suckers.
"damn, that festival sucks. I feel bad for any chump that drives through it. It's kinda fun to quickly ride through (even though it's clearly a horrid invasion on L.A.s diminishing wildlife and I wish it didn't exist), but to be stuck in traffic with nothing to do but listen to adult contemporary versions of already crappy christmas songs? ...suckers." - Canadienne"
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Ridazz Roulette!
The DWP's 13th Annual Griffith Park Festival of Lights is upon us, although the token "Bike-Night" preview night is well behind us.
you just haven't seen karaoke done properly, I take it.
also, heres the video.
Word.. i can't imagine seeing all that in a car. I once went to it w/ a gf a while back and waited forever to get there. I also got a pretty good whiff of car fumes. All in all... good stuff and had a lot of fun. Good to see the media out there and funny that the Park Rangers agreed to give us that one lane.
the answer is...
