The car may be king in Los Angeles, but for a few sacred hours on Sunday, the bicycle ruled downtown.
Thousands of cyclists pedaled up and down the streets and boulevards of downtown Los Angeles as part of the second annual CicLAvia, a free event created to promote physical activity and reduce air pollution while highlighting various businesses and landmarks along the way.
 
Cyclists on a variety of wheels wound casually down the 7.5-mile route, which stretched from Boyle Heights to East Hollywood.
 
Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa were on hand to kick off the event in Little Tokyo, where several riders fastened on helmets then rode blissfully past glassy corporate buildings, classic architecture, and public parks, unencumbered by cars and buses.
 
"I like it when it's empty like this," said Glendale resident Sean Salinas.
 
The 24-year-old paused with friends near Alvarado Street to eat pulled-pork barbecue from a local food truck.
 
"The event is well organized and the LAPD are doing a good job," Salinas said. "It's just so relaxing, kind of euphoric. I got a different view of streets and businesses without all the cars."
 
His friends Gilbert Campos and Jimmy Parasite agreed that the event brought on a close, community feel in the middle of a big city.

"I did it last year too," Parasite said. "It's good to see families with their kids and friends get
together."  
"I can't wait for the next one," Campos said.
 
Along 7th Street, with the lake and green grass of MacArthur Park alongside, inline skaters, children on scooters, and skateboarders and any other kind of wheeled contraption without a motor filled the asphalt and rejoiced in the freedom of having the road almost to themselves.
 
Music from a nearby Salvadoran restaurant poured into the streets where Greg Pincus and his 11-year-old son Evan passed. Father and son thought it was a great day for a walk.
 
"It's fantastic," Greg Pincus said. "You get to see everything. It's a different perspective without all the cars."
Evan marveled at all the different bikes, from racing and mountain bikes, to tricked out tour bikes and cruisers.
 
"People are on ridiculously different forms of bicycles," he said.
 
CicLAvia, a nonprofit organization with the same name as the event, has planned similar upcoming outings for July and October. The nonprofit works to improve public health, increase public space, enhance communities and economic development and promote bicycle and pedestrian traffic.
 
The event is based on a concept that emerged in Bogota, Colombia, in 1974, called Ciclovia. Last year's event drew about 100,000 people. Organizers estimate more turned out this year.
 
"Through the support of public/private partnerships, CicLAvia will continue in Los Angeles," Villaraigosa said in a statement. "L.A. is committed to opening up its streets. We are the car capital of the U.S., but we also want to become the bike capital of the U.S."
 
Near City Hall on 1st and Spring streets, a group of about 20 cyclists from California Institute of Technology in Pasadena were stocking up on water and tightening their head gear.
 
Paul Anzel, a graduate student in applied physics who runs the bike shop on campus, said he organized the group outing. He said he wasn't doing it for any profound reason other than for the opportunity to cycle through Los Angeles.
 
"It should be fun to just go out and be able to see some of the downtown area," he said.
 
Leslie Keirstead, 47, of Pasadena met her brother Dave Keirstead, 51, of Moorpark at Union Station, so they could both participate in CicLAvia with their mom Gail Sturla, 71, of Los Angeles.
 
Sturla is known as Mrs. Bicycle to her children, because she rides to work every day, for a total of nine miles.
 
"I've rode bicycles all my life," Sturla, a hairdresser said.
 
"This is great," she said. "There should be more bike lanes in the city. And I want all the idiots off the road."