Open Streets celebration meant closed to traffic in downtown La Crosse

Event part of 7th annual Bicycle Fest 

The streets of downtown La Crosse were closed Sunday as part of a celebration. 

The event was called Open Streets and, ironically, that meant it was closed to traffic – but open for just about everything else.

Open Streets was organized as part of the three-day Bicycle Fest wrapping up in La Crosse and featured more than just bikes. There was also things like yoga, bean bags and dog therapy in the streets downtown.

La Crosse Mayor Tim Kabat said the Open Streets celebration has been tried in cities like Milwaukee and Madison.

“Even though we’re not at that scale, we’re not that large,” Kabat said, “we are introducing it this year as part of the bike fest to get people to understand that cities were not designed for cars, they were designed for people.”

The 7th annual Bicycle Fest featured riders from several states and Canada, according to Carolyn Dvorak with the Wisconsin Bike Fed.