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Entries tagged: Washington Area Bicyclist Association

According to 2009 data, women account for just 24 percent of bicyclists in the U.S. But, on Monday night, female cyclists of all ages and abilities packed the house for a new event hosted by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

An innovative evening of collective brainstorming, the Women’s Bicycling Forum convened nine female panelists who shared their bicycle stories and discussed ideas to close the gender gap. Nearly 80 ladies showed up to observe the lively conversation among the diverse bicycling “experts” and toss in their two cents on the timely and important topic.

The forum was the brainchild of Jesse Cohn, WABA’s Women’s Outreach and Advocacy Intern, a new position the organization created this fall. I had the pleasure of meeting with Cohn as she interviewed a number of women in the DC region about what keeps ladies from getting on bikes and how we can convert the large pool of interested-but-concerned riders. I cited some of the work of other Alliance member organizations, like the new Family Biking Guide produced by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and the “Women on Wheels” bicycle education classes offered by Marin County Bicycle Coalition.

For Cohn, the one-on-one insight was a prelude to a more public conversation. As she noted on the WABA blog: “I conceived of the Women’s Bicycling Forum as a way to jumpstart a conversation about this huge topic, bringing together a group of women to discuss the barriers and brainstorm the solutions.”

At least in DC, women are clearly hungry for that discussion; the response was so fast and furious WABA had to claim a bigger room in the West End Library.

To kick off the evening, Cohn set the statistical stage, noting that DC is actually a leading city when it comes to gender parity; more than 30 percent of area cyclists are women. But that pales in comparison to countries like Denmark and the Netherlands where the split is 50-50 — or higher. “We can aim for that one-to-one ratio,” Cohn said. “It is possible.”

That sentiment was shared by the panel, which included:

• Fionnuala Quinn, an engineer with Alta Planning + Design and Vice Chair of the Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling
• Katie Knight, General Manager of Revolution Cycles
• Kate Ryan, reporter for WTOP radio station
• Veronica Davis, urban planner and founder of Black Women Bike DC
• Ellen Jones, Director of Infrastructure & Sustainability at the DowntownDC Business Improvement District and former executive director of WABA
• Heather Deutsch, trail planner for the DC Department of Transportation
• Tracy Hadden Loh, Director of National Transportation Enhancements Clearinghouse at the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
• Liz Sherwood, manager at Bicycle Space
• Katie Sihler, Program Director for goDCgo

The conversation and interaction among the panelists was both engaging and inspiring as they spoke truthfully and passionately about their experiences and ideas. The energy was palpable and WABA captured some of the choice quotes with their live Twitter feed from the event.

Just one of the comments that earned an audible amen from the crowded room came from Tracy Hadden Loh: “This is a movement that’s almost totally led by white men,” she said. That certainly sounded familiar to me.

In 2010, at the Alliance Leadership Retreat, a number of female advocates came together as a Women’s Caucus, and addressing the perception and reality of a male-dominated movement was one of the key issues that drove the discussion. We already knew we weren’t the only ones who considered this an important topic. The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals had just completed its Women’s Cycling Survey — and garnered insight from 13,000 women across the U.S.

The consensus at the informal Caucus was clear: We need to create a stronger network of female leaders by providing a venue where we can discuss our experiences, share best practices and get more women involved in the movement. Since then, I’ve been working with a number of advocates and Kit Keller, the executive director of APBP, to create just such a space that centralizes knowledge and fosters community among women bicyclists.

Stay tuned in coming weeks for ways you can get involved in the Women’s Cycling Project. In the meantime, read more about the Women’s Bicycling Forum on the WABA blog.

Photo credit: WABA

By Lisa Seyfried, Contributing Writer

Thanks in part to the incredible popularity of Capital Bikeshare, the District of Columbia is awash in new cyclists. And new legislation proposed by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) aims to boost their safety by giving bicyclists strong legal recourse when they are wronged on the road.

The proposal comes on the heels of a stunning act of intentional violence toward an innocent commuter on his way to work this summer. A helmet-cam video (above) shared by WABA showed a male cyclist being verbally assailed and then struck by a pickup truck. The man was thrown from his bicycle, crashing to the pavement, as the motorist fled the scene. Circulated by bloggers and advocates, the incident quickly served as a catalyst for many community members to push for a new measure to protect cyclists’ rights on the road.

The new anti-harassment legislation, titled ‘Assault of Bicyclists Prevention Act of 2011,’ would seek to provide a civil right of action for cyclists in the case of assaults, and the ability to recover legal fees and damages. The goal is to provide legal recourse for cyclists who have been intentionally harassed or assaulted by drivers in the District of Columbia.

“Given the obvious physical differences between automobiles and bicycles, there is ample opportunity for bullying in the form of harassment, assault, and battery,” WABA Executive Director Shane Farthing said of the proposal’s purpose in July. “That opportunity should be curtailed by consequences for roadway bullies — but to date the imposition of consequences has been rare.”

The WABA-proposed legislation is based on the Los Angeles anti-assault law that passed in July 2011. The LA legislation came after several years of LA bike activists working to pass a Bicyclist Bill of Rights. Supporters of the DC bill hope it will send a message to motorists that cyclists have the ability to take legal action when their rights are violated on the road.

The legislation will move forward to a public hearing on November 2. WABA is encouraging its members (or any bicyclists) to fill out the crash tracker on its website to provide more anecdotal evidence of why this bill is needed. Read more about WABA’s efforts to push this legislation forward here.

This fall, Maryland cyclists can feel more confident when sharing the road with vehicles, thanks to a revision to the Maryland State Driver’s Manual that specifically addresses sharing the road with bicycles.

In recent months, a diverse coalition of regional groups, including Alliance members Bike Maryland and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association worked closely with the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration and State Highway Administration to improve driver’s education and new driver’s licensing examination questions.

Questions about the effectiveness of the previous manual arose at an early Bike Maryland legislative task force meeting, after misstatements by the MVA printed in the paper insisted that the new 3-foot passing law did not negate the duty of cyclists to move out of the way of cars. This set advocates into action, prompting them to provide MVA with comments and suggestions on how to revise the current manual to mention how bicyclists and cars can safely share the roads.

As noted in the new Sharing the Road section, the manual now outlines that cyclists can lawfully ride in a travel lane. The new language gives cars suggestions on how to approach cyclists, rather than simply pass safely. Fines are now mentioned for motorists that violate the newly imposed rules, too.

While advocates are still waiting for promised improvements to the Maryland Driver’s test — which will help to further progress bicycle safety — this work has clearly strengthened the relationships between bicycle advocates and the Highway Safety Office and the MVA.

Read the full text of the Sharing the Road section here and follow Bike Maryland’s 2011 Legislative Agenda for more updates.

In March, I wrote a post that looked at the Washington Area Bicyclist Association’s efforts in the District’s underserved Wards 7 and 8. Back then, the “East of the Anacostia” initiative was in its infancy, a proposal with a list of objectives that aimed to encourage residents to realize the positive benefits of biking.

Much has changed since my last post. In just four months, the “East of the Anacostia” program has made amazing headway. In its first phase, the initiative focused on increasing the number of bikes on the road in this area by running free classes for beginner cyclists, providing free bike repair and maintenance, and hosting a “Get on a Bike Contest” in which residents wrote in to the organization to describe how a bicycle would affect their lives.

Just last week, WABA announced the winners of the contest and provided five Ward 7 and 8 residents with brand new Jamis commuter bikes, helmets and locks. Another 50 residents received free Capital Bikeshare memberships. Applicant responses varied from saying a bicycle would lead to increased physical activity and improved personal well-being, to stating that a new bike would give the gentle nudge needed to begin bike commuting.

One contest winner, Keith, had previously considered using his bike to get to work, but just needed a final push to get his wheels rolling. “I would like a bike so that I can begin to commute to work,” Keith wrote. “I currently drive and would like to change that habit. It really isn’t that far and it’s about time that I joined this bicycle movement.” Another winner, Sondra, felt that a new bike would help improve not only her lifestyle, but also the habits of her friends and family. “In the long run it will make me stronger and healthier, and I envision that others will be encouraged by me and will want to follow suit,” Sondra said.

Now that they’ve help lay the foundation, WABA will be working with these cyclists to ride together and more regularly. Want to know the latest? Keep up with the progress of the East of the Anacostia initiative on WABA’s blog.

Photo: Smiling faces at the Anacostia Library mobile bike shop in May (WABA)

Last week, on the very same morning, we celebrated the past, present and future of the Advocacy Advance initiative.

When I arrived at the Patrick Henry Library on Thursday morning, I was still putting the finishing touches on the Alliance’s press release announcing SRAM’s continued support (to the tune of $1.2 million) of Advocacy Advance — a partnership between the Alliance and the League of American Bicyclists.

But the reason for my Virginia field trip was to congratulate the recipients of one of the very first Advocacy Advance Grants. Last year, the Alliance awarded the Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling a $9,600 grant to create a new handbook on the complex subject of road design. The folks at FABB took the challenge and knocked it out of the park.

A perfect example of the intent of Advocacy Advance, the Guide for Reviewing Public Road Design and Bicycling Accommodations is simple to read, nice to look at and absolutely essential to any advocate working for better bicycling infrastructure. It demystifies the complicated process and gives folks who don’t have an engineering degree the knowledge they need to get engaged in the process that shapes their streets.

For the public launch of the guide, a diverse group of advocates and officials braved a downpour to celebrate. Bruce Wright and Fionnuala Quinn (pictured above), the two FABB advocates who played the lead role in the creation of the guide, had plenty of people to thank, from members of their own organization to transportation planners at the county and state level. But every one of the speakers turned the tables and praised Wright and Quinn for compiling such a valuable resource for bike advocates across the country.

Shane Farthing, the executive director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, said his copy of the guide is already dog-eared and well-worn. In fact, he said, it was one of the first things he read when he took the top job at WABA. But it’s not just advocates who are pouring over its contents. Doug Miller, from the Virginia Department of Transportation, said he took a stack of guides to a VDOT district meeting and it made quite the impression on his colleagues, too.

Andy Clarke, president of the League, noted that FABB, a small volunteer group, had to compete against the proposals of numerous big-city organizations with sizable staffs and budgets to receive the Advocacy Advance Grant. But the Guide to Road Design, Clarke said, has had perhaps the biggest impact of any grant awarded thus far. “The stuff that makes life better for bicyclists is done at the local level,” he said. “And this will be really useful.”

In fact, the guide is proving so useful — and in-demand — that FABB is working on a template that would allow your organization to use the information and structure of the guide and simply tweak some of the contents to fit your city, state or region.

In the meantime, if you haven’t read it yet, click here to download the guide from our Resource Library. For pictures of the event, check out the Alliance Flickr page.

It’s been a pretty stellar week for proponents of Complete Streets.

As Stefanie Seskin notes on the National Complete Streets Coalition blog, a new round of grant funding announced yesterday by the U.S. Department of Transportation is dedicating millions to projects that advance complete streets policies. From Illinois to Georgia, TIGER II dollars will bolster projects that account for all road users, including cyclists, pedestrians and transit riders.

But DC isn’t just dishing it out. The nation’s capital inked its own complete streets policy this week, too.

In early October, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association started a petition campaign with a simple slogan: The District Deserves Complete Streets. As executive director Shane Farthing wrote on the Quick Release Blog, plenty of other jurisdictions — including the neighboring states of Maryland and Virginia — had already enacted complete streets.

“Despite its world-class Metro system, its renowned L’Enfant streetgrid, its forward-thinking transportation leadership, the District of Columbia has no such policy,” Farthing wrote. “In the District, there is no law, rule, or even publicly stated commitment to ensuring that our roadways and streetscapes — our most basic public spaces — serve all users… As new leadership comes to the District and we continue in our daily travels to see dangerous intersections, near-misses, and disconnected sidewalks and bike lanes, we need to show DDOT and the District’s leadership that while we appreciate the individual projects and upgrades, we believe this holistic change in approach is important and that public space should be serve the entire public — not just motorists or just cyclists or just the able-bodied. Everyone. That is why we at WABA are launching a campaign for Complete Streets in DC.”

Well, mission accomplished!

Yesterday, WABA members, like me, got a celebratory e-mail: “I am writing to you to share the exciting news that DDOT Director Gabe Klein has signed a Complete Streets Policy ensuring that both bicyclist and pedestrian level-of-service will be considered in every significant roadway project! This is a huge step forward for the District, and comes as a direct result of WABA’s campaign initiated several weeks ago. Thank you to the over 350 DC WABA members and supporters who signed our petition. Your voice was heard, and DDOT now has a policy mandating that the needs of cyclists, pedestrians, and all roadway users be balanced in their projects.”

Read more on the WABA blog — or click here to send a thank-you e-mail to DC officials.

Cyclists understand public streets more intimately than most motorists. On our regular routes, we know the precise location of every pothole and potentially wheel-swallowing sewer grate. We learn how traffic flows and explore streets that many automobiles never see.

But, when it comes to road design, many bike commuters and recreational riders are tossed into utterly unknown territory.

Advocates want to see bicycle facilities included in local transportation projects, but the agency jargon and hyper-detailed engineering schematics can be a foreign language.

Virginia advocates have come up with a handy road map that demystifies the bureaucratic maze.

In 2009, the Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling — a working group of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association — received one of the very first Advocacy Advance Grants from the Alliance. In the span of a single year, the FABB turned that $9,600 award into a “Guide for Reviewing Public Road Design and Bicycling Accommodations for Virginia Bicycling Advocates.”

The 28-page resource simplifies and streamlines the confusing road design process with easy-to-follow flow charts, handy check lists and explanations that make sense to folks who don’t have a masters degree in urban planning. In a neatly designed format, FABB lays out the anatomy of road projects, from initial planning to final inspection, and provides specific advice for how bicycle advocates can get involved.

“As far as we know, no one has compiled material like this before,” said Fionnuala Quinn, the primary author of the guide, in the group’s press release last week. “I wanted to use my background in civil engineering to help demystify the road design process and to help people take advantage of occasions to incorporate bike facilities whenever roads projects are being designed. A crucial point to remember is that the earlier you provide input to the road design, the better your chances of having an effect on the final design.”

Chanda Causer, Alliance Grants Manager, said she was impressed with the content and quality of the guide, which represents an exciting, tangible product of the Advocacy Advance program. Although the agency details are specific to Virginia, the ideas and strategies in the guide are applicable to advocates across the country.

Download a copy from the Alliance Resource Library or the FABB website.

(Washington, DC) Just in time with daylight savings, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) has launched its Got Lights? program in partnership with the District Department of Transportation, the City of Alexandria, and Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling.

The Got Lights campaign is a joint safety and educational campaign aiming to raise awareness of the importance of cyclists being seen at dusk, dawn, and night. In an effort to ensure bicyclists are seen, WABA is handing out 800 free bike lights to bicyclists, as well as other bicycle safety literature, in three different DC locations. The campaign will extend only until November 8th, but the message of “Be safe and be seen” will continue to linger in WABA’s ongoing efforts and events. 
To get your free lights and to find out more about the “Got Lights?” campaign, visit WABA’s website at http://www.waba.org/events/gotlights.php. 

On October 2, 2009, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association and many other bike enthusiasts shared in the ribbon cutting celebration of the new state-of-the art BikeStation® D.C. Opening the ceremony to a shoulder to shoulder audience, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty stated, “This is not a crowd but a response to a growing national trend.”

The D.C. bike station was built in concert with Mobis Transportation/Bikestation and funded by the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) and Federal Highway Administration. DDOT Director Kelin said, “This new architecturally striking facility serves as a symbol that bicycling is a legitimate form of transportation.” The architect designed the station to reflect the image of a bike helmet and also embody sustainability.

The new bike station’s glass enclosure minimizes power usage and recycles rainwater for use in irrigating surrounding plants. BikeStation® D.C. will house approximately 133 secure bicycle parking spaces, and provide changing rooms and lockers. In addition, the BikeStation® D.C. will be staffed daily (Weekdays 7am-7pm, Weekends 9am-5pm) by Bike and Roll Washington D.C., offering bicycle repair, retail sales, and bike rental.  Individuals can purchase a membership for 24/7 access to the station. For more information about BikeStation® D.C visit http://www.bikestation.com/washingtondc/index.asp.

According to the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, “Thousands of bicyclists turned out to celebrate Bike to Work Day 2009 at locations in the District of Columbia, suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia.  Over 8,000 people signed up to participate in advance of the event, which set a new record for registrations. Bicyclists gathered at a total of 26 “pit stops” featuring entertainment, food, drinks, and raffles.  Experienced WABA volunteers helped lead “commuter convoys” from across the area to Freedom Plaza and other pit stop destinations. Convoy leaders assisted participants with safe riding and equipment tips as well as showing riders the best route to their destination.”

For more information, click here…

The City Council of Washington, DC recently passed the Bicycle Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 at the urging of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA).  Following the death of cyclist Alice Swanson in Washington, DC last summer WABA worked hard with their local political leaders to pass a bill that would better protect cyclists on the city’s streets.  The bill requires advanced bike and pedestrian safety training for the drivers of city-owned heavy vehicles, mandates blind spot mirrors, blind spot warning stickers, and rear wheel under-run guards on the city’s heavy vehicle fleet, adds a new fine for driving in bike lanes, and establishes a three foot passing law.

Click to read more...

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) coordinated the successful America Bikes to the Inauguration effort in conjunction with the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama. According to WABA’s Executive Director, Eric Gilliland, “We parked 2,040 bikes which, to my knowledge, is the most ever valet parked in one day in the US.  We didn’t lose a single bike and the one helmet that went missing was eventually found.” Everyone who parked a bike received a commemorative spoke card.

To view photos from this historic effort visit http://flickr.com/photos/waba/sets/72157612778271825/