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For First Time Since Inception, CicLAvia To Hold Car-Free Event Outside City Limits Sunday

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — This weekend, CicLAvia makes its debut in Pasadena.

On Sunday, a 3 ½-mile stretch of Colorado Boulevard will be closed motor vehicles and filled with bike riders and others.

But even as the group expands its reach countywide, the man who's become the face of CicLAvia is preparing to bow out as the organization's executive director.

"I grew up in the San Fernando Valley. I rode my bike to elementary school and junior high and high school, but I don't consider myself a 'bike person,' " said Aaron Paley, the co-founder and executive director of CicLAvia.

Paley, who has been the leader of CicLAvia for its nearly five years of existence, is an urban planner.

"And I've been thinking about the ways space works in Los Angeles my entire life and what I've been doing with my career for 30 years is creating events in Los Angeles and creating temporary public space, so I was looking to figure out how to take that to the next level," he said.

CicLAvia has been a huge success, but in a few months, Paley will no longer be running CicLAvia, although he'll continue to produce open-streets events for the organization as the executive producer.

"I'm excited to have somebody else take the leadership and take it maybe someplace that I can't see where it can go," he said.

Tamika Butler, the executive director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, says in a city where cars are king, Paley has changed the mindset and figuratively moved mountains.

"I think everyone really appreciates how much Aaron and CicLAvia have done for our movement," she said.

Paley agrees the success of CicLAvia has had an impact on the culture, mindset and the vibe of Los Angeles.

"I think what it's done is it's opened up the eyes of Angelenos to a different way of using the city. Things that they weren't discovering when they were driving by and the opportunity to be there without cars slows things down to this granular level and you get to experience things in a different way," he said.

Looking to the future, Paley says CicLAvia and other events like it are demonstrating how, even in Los Angeles, things can become more livable and less motor-driven.

"Cars can't solve all the problems and, not only that, cars create certain problems of their own, so how can we create a livable, human city now that we have this infrastructure for cars?" he said. "We're headed to creating wonderful, livable, neighborhoods throughout the LA-area and I see those already happening."

CicLAvia Pasadena will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Click here for more information and listen to KNX 1070 Newsradio for traffic updates.

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