Two Wheels Good: Bike Night at the Festival of Lights
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Forget that the LADWP is burning fuel we're paying for to make a holiday display a good 30 days early, this was fun:
The LADWP lit up its Festival of Lights along Zoo Drive tonight, and closed the roads to all but bicycle traffic. The displays are old, corny, even silly (I particularly liked the animated jets landing along the strobelit "LAX" runway), and the music too damn early and old. (Feliz Navidad for the umpteenth time).
But any chilly night spent cruising blissfully through Griffith Park on two wheels among animated pin-bulb elves and cheerful, lollygagging cyclists is a good night: (More photos after the jump) ...
Waiting for takeoff. The crowd hung for a good 30 minutes after the "official" 6 p.m. launch time to allow Councilman Tom LaBonge to kick off the ride.
LaBonge and Louis Alvarado, the "Unofficial Mayor of Griffith Park" (right) say a few words, applauding the LADWP and the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition for pushing for a cyclists'-only night. The only reason this is a treat (and some say it should happen on a weekly, if not nightly basis during the holiday season) is that the route is usually clogged with slow-moving looky-loo motorists in both directions, and polluted with a miasma of car exhaust.
A vintage Schwinn Orange Krate ferries its owner and a stuffed reindeer.
The strip of strobes beneath the animated "landing" airplane helped sell the illusion.
A new piece? Griffith Observatory.
Lit-up elves (and cyclists)
The Golden Gate Bridge, or a reasonable facsimile thereof.
LaBonge and Louis Alvarado, the "
