A WABA Washington DC bike advocacy update

It has been a bit since WABA last sent a Washington DC advocacy update. Let’s do some catching up, but first, let’s recognize that these are challenging times for our country, and for nowhere more than the District.

Free DC, DC Bike Party August 13, and “Buck the Riders”

WABA is proud to support Free DC, “a movement led by the people of the District of Columbia to win dignity for our communities and exert our right to self-determination.” Free DC and partners have responded to one outrage after another, most recently – as of this writing – convening an August 11 rally in response to the Trump Administration’s deploying federal law enforcement agents in DC communities and taking control of Washington DC policing, “DC is our home. Trump can’t have it.”

If you’re looking for a fun biking opportunity to learn about Free DC, DC Bike Party’s August 13 ride highlighting Free DC is the event for you! 

WABA has contributed in our own way, for instance by preparing responses to traffic safety points in Federal appropriations riders as part of Free DC’s Congress Working Group. To explain: “Budget riders are when legislators try to make policy changes through a budget process. This is historically one of the biggest ways Congress has exerted its interference and control over DC. This year, it’s worse than normal. The subcommittee of the U.S. House that works on budget issues for DC has introduced its budget bill for next year. The bill includes an unprecedented number of attacks on DC laws and programs. These provisions have nothing to do with federal spending, but would restrict DC’s ability to spend our own local money on health care, safety programs, and more.”

One rider would prohibit DC from using local funds for automated traffic enforcement law and another from using local funds for no right turn on red implementation. These riders are a direct attack on sensible, proven traffic safety measures, noting particularly that 27 states deploy forms of automated traffic enforcement. A next step will be to recruit DC residents and supporters to lobby Congress. We’ll keep you posted.

Mobility and Resistance

Given this context, I found an article by Michela Grasso somehow comforting. Grasso is a researcher at Urban Cycling Institute. She writes, in Resistance, Solidarity and Bicycles, referring to World War 2’s fascist dictatorships, 

“Controlling the way people moved was an extremely relevant aspect of these authoritarian regimes, which saw the bike as both an opportunity for order and progress, and a danger due to its ability to evade check points and lower the visibility of individual riders.”

Grasso’s article audience is urban planners and cycling researchers, but I’d say we community advocates share their point of view:

“We all know that to use a bike in many urban areas, it is already an act of resistance in itself. As bike riders navigate through rows of parked and moving cars and activists fight to reclaim space for active mobility, we are reminded of the inequalities and conflicts inherent to our cities.”

Now on to more conventional updates… 

Happenings: A Meetup, Two Rides, and DC Family Bike Fest

Join WABA for an August 20 DC bicycling advocates social meetup, 5:30-7 pm at Nanny O’Brien’s in Cleveland Park. This will be our fourth meetup of the year, in but not exclusively for Ward 3 – we held previous socials in Wards 4, 5, and 6 as well as community bike rides in Wards 7 and 8 (our July Tour de Ward 8 is pictured above) – and all are welcome. The meetup is free, but buy your own drinks. Register here.

And while there are dozens of bicycling/related activities coming up, we’ll call out four:

• A Bike Bus Info Session on August 19th will share tips and experiences to help get more kids and families riding to school.
• DC Bike Ride is a 20-mile, car-free ride through the city, taking place on Saturday, September 6. WABA’s a partner; register with the promo code TEAMWABA25 for a discount on standard entry. Register here. 
• WABA’s 2025 50 States Ride takes place on Saturday, September 20. There are three route choices, the longest of which (60 miles) visits every one of the 50 state-named avenues in the city. Register here.
• DC Family Bike Fest 2025 takes place on Sunday, September 28 at Alethia Tanner Park off the Metropolitan Branch Trail. For information and to register, click here.

And check out Hill Family Biking and Ward 5 Family Biking for other wonderful rides.

A Loss and an Opportunity: Arizona Ave. NW and the Palisades

The big DC bicycling news of the last few months is the District Dept. of Transportation’s downgrade of protected bike lanes (PBLs) on Arizona Ave. NW, to unprotected bike lanes. 

DDOT issued a Notice of Intent for this work and invited public comment, in accordance with DC law. WABA asked DDOT Director Sharon Kerschbaum to withdraw the NOI because the PBL removal contravenes several established DC transportation policies and practices. Councilmember Matt Frumin, ANCs, and others had similar messages. DDOT did not withdraw the NOI. The tally: DDOT received 789 comment messages, and it appears only 38 supported the NOI with 751 opposed. (We’re waiting for a corrected summary from DDOT.)

We’ll work to make sure there are no further District road-safety downgrades, and to advance other projects to completion. Had the Arizona Avenue to Capital Crescent Trail connector trail project been completed, higher Arizona Ave. NW bicycle traffic volume might have convinced DDOT not to remove the Arizona Ave. NW PBLs. The District’s FY 26 budget allocates $3 million for the connector. Let’s get it built and then take DDOT up on their promise to consider reinstalling protected bike lanes on Arizona Ave.!

We’re also working with Ward 3 advocates including Ward 3 Bicycle Advocates (W3BA) and ANC 3D commissioners to advance the Arizona Avenue NW Pedestrian Bridge and Connecting Trail and the Palisades Trolley Trail and Foundry Trestle Bridge project, and with advocates across the city to promote safe-streets policy and adherence to data-driven, best-practices approaches despite the shameful Arizona Ave. NW failure.  

We hope never again to see a headline like “Bad leadership from DDOT will result in more dangerous streets.”

A Win with an Asterisk: Capital Bikeshare

Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) has been breaking ride records month after month. Samuel Littauer reports in his Greater Greater Washington Bikeshare Beat column, “Through June 2025, CaBi annual ridership is up 28.8%,” with annual ridership that now totals 3,328,847 trips through June 2025. That’s a win for affordable green mobility and reduced traffic congestion.

The asterisk, that is, the “but”: The regional CaBi system is funded by membership and ride revenue and public subsidies. CaBi recently announced a broad price adjustment and increase (the first since 2021) that went into effect August 1st. We certainly understand the goals of greater financial sustainability, operating efficiency, and bike availability and are cautiously hopeful the pricing changes will help the system survive and thrive. But this isn’t the end of the conversation. We’re told staff intend to monitor the changes with an eye towards potential future adjustments.

For the Record

WABA testifies frequently on matters before the Washington DC City Council. Our asks are what you’d expect: funding and policies that expand the bikeway network and sustain bicycle programs, safe streets, and transit. We’ll share:

• Comment on B26-0288, the Robert F. Kennedy Campus Redevelopment Act of 2025, a bill concerning the stadium site that was considered and then passed by the council in late July. We called for creating a new Metrorail station and minimizing the number of new-development parking spaces, among other points. 
• WABA testimony at the June 2, 2025 Washington DC City Council budget-oversight hearing for the District Department of Transportation regarding DDOT’s FY26 budget.
• News from the District’s Office of Unified Communications that the Dept. of Public Works is in the process of creating a new service request for bike lane cleaning. WABA (and others) had pressed for this new reporting category, to make it easier to report bike-lane obstructions. OUC and DPW are planning to go live with this option at the start of FY26, that is, in October 2025.

On the Docket

• WABA and partners are working an active issue that’s currently before the DC Council: a bid to boost required motor-vehicle insurance coverage from levels set forty years ago. Please visit our petition page, It’s time to raise DC’s insurance minimums, and sign if you haven’t already. We wrote Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, who chairs the Committee on Business and Economic Development, and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, in June with a first set of petition signatures. We plan to send a follow-up letter with additional signatures. Yours?

Looking Ahead

We’ll close this update with two forward-looking  items:

• WABA Advocacy is planning a first Capital Bike Summit, tentatively scheduled for Saturday afternoon, November 8. We’re planning a panel on Opportunities, Obstacles, and Strategies for More and Better DC Bicycling and another on Effective Organizing/Building Community Power, with networking time built in. Please save the date!
• We’re eagerly awaiting DDOT’s announcement of DC Strategic Bikeways Plan community-engagement programs. DDOT announced plans to hold a fall workshop in each of the city’s eight wards, and it’s WABA’s intention to boost turnout, in part by holding pop-up events that spotlight protected, safe bicycling infrastructure in each ward. Stay tuned!

What haven’t we covered, what issues would you like to see us take up, and how can we support community bicycling and safe-streets work? We’d love to hear from you. Contact WABA Advocacy at advocacy@waba.org.