Atlanta Streets Alive kicks off on Sunday along North Highland Avenue

• CL File
• No cars allowed, just people

Tune up your bikes and buy that brand new pair of Etonics. (Walking shoes! What a concept!) Atlanta Streets Alive, the reclaim-the-streets-and-do-what-you-wish bonanza, will take place on Sunday along two miles of North Highland Avenue between Virginia-Highland and Inman Park.

Streets along the event will be shut down to automobile traffic for four hours and reclaimed by cyclists, exercisers, kung fu masters, lollygaggers, flaneurs, and all other walks of life. From the Atlanta Streets Alive blog:

Atlanta Streets Alive takes a valuable public space — our city’s streets — and opens them up for people to play, walk, bike, breathe, and make their own. Atlanta Streets Alive is an event inspired by open streets projects all over the world. The idea originated in Bogotá, Colombia, where neighborhood activists open 70 miles of streets every Sunday for over 800,000 people to bike, skate, or use any human powered means of transportation.

Amusing activities are planned all along the route including the Great Atlanta Bicycle Parade, a walking play produced by Wonderroot, StoryCorps, Tactical Urbanism, laughter yoga, salsa, double dutch, boot camp, Soccer in the Streets, kung fu, tai chi, cornhole, a bicycle rodeo and so much more. Starting at Virginia Ave near Murphy’s restaurant, the route traverses five Atlanta neighborhoods: Virginia Highland, Atkins Park, Poncey-Highland, Inman Park, and the Old Fourth Ward, ending at the Highland Bakery. The route connects to the popular Freedom Park Trail and the Atlanta BeltLine project.

The route was chosen, according to event organizer Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, because of its extraordinarily high bicycle crash rate. Enjoy!