Kylie Walzak is program manager at Living Streets Alliance, a biking and walking advocacy organization in Tucson, AZ. Her organization puts together Cyclovia Tucson, an Open Streets that first occurred in 2010 and has grown from an annual event to drawing 25,000 twice per year. This blog is part of a series. 

Here’s Kylie’s advice for other organizers.

Don’t despair if you don’t have time! Our first event in 2010 came together really quickly. We put it together in just over three months.

Choose goals for your initiative. Our goals were to (a) show people that walking & biking are fun, safe, convenient ways to get around and (b) grow a community of support for accessible streets for all. 

Don’t put the route along streetcar tracks! We learned this in our first year. But do leverage the Open Streets as an opportunity for education. We showed people how to interact with the Streetcar and demonstrated what protected bike lanes would look like.

Living Streets Alliance's streetcar track demonstration showed bike riders how to safely navigate tracks. Photo credit: Kathleen Dreier

Don't be afraid to spend some money on good design. After the last event, we followed up with a survey to about 200 attendees – and were able to create a great reporting poster.

Living Streets Alliance created this infographic from data collected at Cyclovia. Image: Kylie Walzak

Pursue partnerships! We partnered with lots of government agencies. The City of South Tucson put on a festival in their section of the Open Streets. FitKids held small kids’ running races.

FitKids held a one-mile kids race, which was a big hit. Photo credti: Sarah Buss

The City of South Tucson organized a street fair within one section of Cyclovia. Image: Conor Garmon

We learned from CicLAvia that music is an important component. If you have some money to spend, spend it on DJs or musicians approximately every mile.

Taking a cue from CicLAvia in Los Angeles, Tucson's Cyclovia featured a DJ or music approximately every mile. Photo credit: Kathleen Dreier

One fellow even played a drum set on a bike trailer. Photo credit: Conor Garmon

Document everything! It’s worth it to spend money on photographers. Next year, we’re going to hire aerial drones to record the event.

Tucson organizers recommend investing in photographers and videographers. Photo credit: Mamta Popat

Spend money in the right places. We found it incredibly worthwhile to spend on the following things:

• Music and talent
• Facebook promotion
• Branding and graphic design
• Infographics
• Sponsorship brochures
• Drones, photographers, and videographers

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