[Click here for a Noozhawk photo gallery from the event.]

Thousands of people could be seen walking, biking, skating or Segway-ing their way along a car-free Cabrillo Boulevard during the first-ever Santa Barbara Open Streets event Saturday.

More than 150 volunteers and approximately 10,000 people showed up for the festivities, which featured seven hub-zones offering endless free activities along a 2½-mile stretch of the waterfront normally busting with car traffic. Jiu jitsu, yoga and salsa dance classes, face painting, live music and a boot camp class with personal trainer Jenny Schatzle were just a few of them.

“They’re not just watching a performance going on,” Santa Barbara Open Streets coordinator Robin Elander said. “They are actively creating the performance.”

Elander said the goal is to get people out of the house and create a stronger community and social ties by improving public fitness and health.

“The combination of those things as well as the sustainable transportation aspect … definitely creates a stronger community,” she added.

The idea originated in Bogotá, Colombia, as Ciclovía, a day of free, healthy activities that promote community in public streets. Thirty years later, it has become a growing international movement.

“I was just completely taken by this concept,” said Kent Epperson, director of Traffic Solutions, who, along with the Coalition for Sustainable Transportation (COAST), helped coordinate the program, which got under way in January.

Political officials such as Mayor Helene Schneider, City Councilman Bendy White and Assemblyman Das Williams, D-Santa Barbara, could be seen answering questions about homelessness and the city’s gang injunction plans as they rode an orange, seven-seat “conference bike” down the roadway.

“I wanted to be part of this as soon as I heard about it five months ago,” White said. “If this turns out to be a total success, we’ll be able to make this at least an annual event and just make better use of our streets … for recreation and happening purposes.”

Years ago, kids running around playing street hockey, biking or playing marbles outside used to be fairly common and safe, Epperson said. But, he added, it’s not like that anymore.

“We are reopening this public space that is safe, where we can invite people of all ages to come out and just enjoy the streets the way they were intended many years ago,” Epperson told the crowd. “You own the streets today.”

COAST and Traffic Solutions said Saturday’s Santa Barbara Open Streets was “a test run” and that they’re waiting to get permission to make it an annual event.

— Noozhawk intern Linda Sturesson can be reached at lsturesson@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.