Imagining car-free streets: Sunday will bring Boise’s first-ever ‘Open Streets’ event

Last year, Idaho hit a 20-year high in traffic fatalities, with about 30 reported in Ada County. Now, the city of Boise and the Boise Bicycle Project are asking residents to imagine another way: streets that put pedestrians and cyclists first.

They’re testing this idea with Boise’s first-ever “Open Streets” event, part of an international project that temporarily closes streets to motorized traffic and opens them to walkers and bikers. Open Streets allows for “reimagining urban spaces and advocating for more livable and inclusive cities,” according to the Boise Bicycle Project’s website.

“You’re walking in the middle of the street, and this is usually not a space that’s safely open to you,” Devin McComas, the director of the Boise Bicycle Project, told the Idaho Statesman by phone. The event, he said, is about “envisioning that this is how the street looks shut down, and this is how it looks when a neighborhood is fully using it.”

Featuring everything from a circus performer to a pedal-powered disco to a presentation about how to load your bike onto a public bus, the event is an outgrowth of Boise’s annual “Goathead Fest,” a parade, street festival and initiative to remove spiky goatheads — invasive puncture vines known to “wreak havoc on bicycle tires, bare feet and pet paws” — from the city’s streets, according to the Boise Bicycle Project’s website.

Boise will join more than 500 cities worldwide, and about 130 in the U.S., that host Open Streets events annually, according to a Boise Bicycle Project news release.

The event is set to close Latah Street on Sunday afternoon from about Emerald to Cassia streets, according to the release.

The Boise Bicycle Project is encouraging participants to commute to the event on a “bike bus”: a group of bikers who meet up in advance and follow a planned route to a destination. There are bike bus meetup spots around the city. Participants can find more information on the organization’s website.

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