The organizers of Louisville’s first-ever CycLOUviasay the event in the Highlands was a success, and they’d definitely like to do it again.A two-mile stretch of Bardstown Road and Baxter Avenue was closed to vehicles Sunday to encourage walking and biking. Hundreds of people turned out.“Bardstown Road is such a unique environment with all those businesses with street frontage, I think it’s a neat way to get up and down the street and see some new businesses,” said Metro Government urban planner Mike King. “But also I think it’s also just a new, unique event, and kind of the newness of all of it really attracted a good crowd out there and the ability to kind of do whatever you wanted in the middle of Bardstown Road doesn’t present itself very often.”King says all the feedback he’s received so far has been positive. Shop owners say business was about on par with a normal Sunday, or slightly below average. But he says many said it was worth it for the increased exposure.“The ones that I talked to said the ancillary effects of this, in terms of getting new eyes on our businesses, of people that have never seen it before because they’re usually driving past or not in the area was great,” King said.King says Metro Government hopes to reprise CycLOUvia, but there are no details yet for when and where. He says it’s possible it will happen twice a year in the Highlands, then sporadically in other areas around Louisville.For more photos of CycLOUvia, click here.
