NEW YORK — In Paris, they call it La Plage, or the beach.
And in Bogota, Colombia, it’s Ciclovia, or bikeway.
For six hours Saturday in New York, it was called Summer Streets: nearly 7 miles of Manhattan that were stripped of traffic, creating a weekend playground for bikers, walkers and loungers.
“Bellissimo!” declared Antonio de Lucia, a tourist from Caserta, Italy, who read about the event and decided to walk about 3 miles from his Chinatown hotel to a friend’s Times Square restaurant — with more than 90 pounds of luggage.
An hour into his hike, he was smiling as he sauntered up a stretch of Park Avenue awash in cyclists, pedestrians and in-line skaters. One man on a bicycle swooped down a sloped section of the avenue yelling “whee!” at full voice.
“It’s a moment of truth for this city. People are participating — New Yorkers are united with their city,” said de Lucia, 29, a business consultant.
Bike-loving celebrities Lance Armstrong and David Byrne are helping Mayor Michael Bloomberg launch the experiment. It emulates initiatives in cities around the world in aiming to create a livable, ecologically gentle urban environment.
The route is set to be repeated for the next two Saturdays, starting at 7 a.m.
