There isn’t an earthshaking reason to close 1.6 miles of city streets in Salinas on Oct. 25 – no hometown hero is visiting, no sports team won a championship – but the city is doing so anyway.

Thanks to CSU Monterey Bay student Bernard Green,the university will be represented as the city celebrates Ciclovia, part of a global movement to get residents outdoors for biking, walking, roller-skating, skateboarding – any kind of people-powered transportation – on motor vehicle-free streets.

Green, the university’s student transportation coordinator, will build a pop-up protected bikeway between two intersections along the route. He’ll explain the benefits of protected/separated bikeways and related projects that are planned or under way in Monterey County. “Last year’s protected bikeway demonstration drummed up a healthy discussion among residents, news outlets and elected officials about how we can reallocate public space to accommodate all modes of transport,” he said. Green has been cycling for years, starting as a competitive cyclist at the Los Angeles Velodrome. After a year of track racing, he felt the competition was taking away from the joy of riding. He shifted gears, became a bicycling advocate and focused on sharing that joy with others. He's also a certified instructor with the League of American Bicyclists. His goal is for CSUMB to be officially recognized by the League of American Bicyclists as a bike-friendly campus by the time he graduates in 2016. After graduation, he’s thinking about moving to the Pacific Northwest and studying urban planning in graduate school.