This fall has been good for DC biking!
The DC Family Bike Fest 2025 in September (the header photo above) was a blast, and we also enjoyed smaller-scale events such as the Mount Pleasant Transit Party and Petworth Family Biking’s Cargo Bike Show & Tell, both also in September. WABA Advocacy co-organized a DC Climate Ride with the DC Sierra Club – we cycled across Ward 7, from Capitol Heights to the RFK stadium site via Kingman and Heritage Islands, and then on to Union Market – and supported a Blessing of the Bicycles memorial event and ride at the Church of the Ascension and St. Agnes at 12th and Massachusetts, NW. And community groups including Hill Family Biking and Ward 5 Family Biking have hosted their own wonderful rides and activities.
If WABA Advocacy can support organizing in your neighborhood or in partnership with your community group, please get in touch!
WABA’s other fall organizing has included helping revive the ANC Vision Zero Caucus. ANC = Advisory Neighborhood Commission, and Vision Zero is the District’s (and other jurisdictions’) commitment to drive traffic deaths and serious injuries to zero. According to the DC Vision Zero dashboard, DC has experienced 21 traffic fatalities in 2025 to date — 13 were pedestrians and one was on a bicycle — and 266 major injuries. We have work to do.
There are many ways to get involved. We’ll call out two November-December opportunities to get hooked-in plus two up-coming rides, one for fun and the other reinforcing our dedication to safe streets.
DDOT’s Strategic Bikeways Plan
The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) launched development of a DC Strategic Bikeways Plan earlier this year, to “establish the District’s priorities for the future development of bikeways, including bike lanes and trails. The strategic plan will inform an update to the moveDC (2021) bicycle priority network based on projects completed since 2021, best practices, and community input.”
Work has advanced to a broad community-engagement phase, with workshops announced for each of the city’s eight wards. The first, a Ward 4 workshop, is scheduled for Thursday evening, November 13. Other workshops are scheduled for November and December evenings although DDOT has yet to post a Ward 5 date:
- Ward 1 Public Workshop, December 2, 2025, 6–8 pm, St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church, 1525 Newton Street NW
- Ward 2 Public Workshop, November 20, 2025, 6–8 pm, MLK Library, 901 G Street NW
- Ward 3 Public Workshop, December 10, 2025, 6–8 pm, UDC, 4000 Connecticut Avenue NW
- Ward 4 Public Workshop, November 13, 2025, 6–8 pm, Raymond Recreation Center, 3725 10th Street NW
- Ward 6 Public Workshop, December 3, 2025, 6–8 pm, Southwest Library, 900 Wesley Place SW
- Ward 7 Public Workshop, December 11, 2025, 6–8 pm, Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church, 3000 Pennsylvania Avenue SE. Plus: Councilmember Wendell Felder and DDOT Director Sharon Kershbaum will hold a Transportation Town Hall in Ward 7, Wednesday, November 12, 6–8 pm at the Strand.
- Ward 8 Public Workshop, November 17, 2025, 6–8 pm, RISE Demonstration Center, 2739 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE
At each workshop, “the project team will be presenting results from its evaluation of existing conditions and will be inviting community members and stakeholders to share feedback on the project team’s work to date, bicycle transportation needs, safety concerns, key gaps in the bicycle network, potential project ideas, and other local considerations.”
Look for WABA’s Advocacy team – Director Kalli Krumpos, Washington DC Organizer Seth Grimes, and Community Outreach and Coalitions Coordinator Taahira Thompson – at the DDOT workshops. Before then, you can help us now by sharing your bikeway priorities for your ward, via a form we’ve set up. We plan to send a message to WABA contacts in each ward, alerting them to the workshop for their ward. This will be accompanied by a one-pager on priority projects and unmet needs in the ward.
Showing up and weighing in on the bikeways plan is important, so please plan on attending a workshop. You will be able to provide feedback via a survey, too. And for now, consider responding to a DDOT Strategic Bikeways Plan survey about current conditions.
The first annual District Bike Summit
WABA Advocacy will have our own event this fall, a first District Bike Summit, Sunday afternoon, December 7, 2–5 pm at the Festival Center in Adams Morgan. This is a free event; registration is open at https://waba.org/event/dbs-2025/.
The summit is focused on advancing Washington, DC bicycling and safe streets, Our aim is to bring together District cyclists and talk about the joy of bicycling and how to make DC cycling even better!
We’ve lined up a visionary keynote speaker — MIT Mobility Initiative fellow David Zipper will speak on autonomous vehicles and their implications for bicyclists and urban transportation — and we’re planning panels that will highlight community organizing and advocacy. The first will explore Effective Organizing, that is, how do we build and tap into movements city-wide, with Hill Family Biking co-founder Mark Sussman, Alex Clark from DC youth cycling program Prime Ability, and environmental justice advocate and ecofeminist Brenda Richardson. The second panel will tackle More and Better DC Bicycling with a look at opportunities, obstacles, and strategies relating to infrastructure, policy, and programs, with participants Alyssa Proudfoot Siegel from WABA, Ward 5 Family Biking co-founder Brooke Bernold, and a Prime Ability program youth advocate. We’ll also hear from DDOT bikeways lead Greg Billing, and mid-way through the summit, we’ll have an extended networking break with snacks and drinks.
Please join us December 7! Register here.
Happenings: The Ride for Your Life and the Cider Ride
Also on the advocacy front: The Ride for Your Life is the DMV’s largest bike ride dedicated to street safety.
The 2025 ride takes place November 16. It will be the fourth annual ride dedicated to the memory of Sarah Debbink Langenkamp, a mother and U.S. diplomat who was killed while cycling in Bethesda, MD, in August 2022. The 10-mile route starts at 10 am in downtown Bethesda ending at the Lincoln Memorial, for a Washington-area World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims commemoration rally that will start at 12 noon and conclude before 1pm.
Riders will be joined at the Lincoln Memorial by participants in a one-mile walk hosted by DC Families for Safe Streets that starts at the Foggy Bottom Metro station. (Northern Virginia and Montgomery County Families for Safe Streets Chapters will also lead groups to the rally.)
The ride is free, and we have volunteer opportunities. Learn more and register at https://waba.org/event/ride-for-your-life-2025/.
And a fun happening this week: WABA’s 2025 Cider Ride takes place on Saturday, November 1. There are 60, 30, and 10-mile route choices, visiting northeast DC and Prince George’s County, with hot cider and donuts at pit stops along the way with a celebration at the finish. Register here.
Advocacy Opportunities: DC 2050 and the regional Visualize 2025 transportation plan
We’ll call out a couple of other advocacy opportunities.
DC 2050 is an update of the District’s Comprehensive Plan, currently under development by the DC Office of Planning. What’s a comprehensive plan?
DC 2050 guides where and how we build new housing, grow job opportunities, connect neighborhoods, preserve our rich history, and invest in amenities. As our city evolves, DC 2050 will align land use policies and investments to make the District more equitable, affordable and resilient.
The District separates land-use and transportation planning although there’s an obvious link between the two. DC 2050 is focused on land use and moveDC is DC’s long-range transportation plan. (DDOT’s Strategic Bikeways Plan is, in effect, a moveDC update.) And there’s an up-coming opportunity to weigh-in on land use:
The DC Office of Planning has launched and will present DC 2050 Phase 2: Explore Possible Futures at a couple of November workshops. The sessions will take place at the DC Planning office at 899 North Capitol Street NE, on November 6, 2025, 6–8 PM and on November 15, 2025, 11 AM–1 PM.
A regional opportunity, Visualize 2050:
The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) is accepting public comment on the National Capital Region Transportation Plan, the FY 2026-2029 Transportation Improvement Program, and the Air Quality Conformity Analysis Report, as part of the Visualize 2050 transportation planning process. The comment period is open through November 21, 2025.
Extracting from the Visualize 2050 Web site:
- The Visualize 2050 National Capital Region Transportation Plan guides long-range transportation for the National Capital Region 20 years into the future, highlighting the region’s planned investments through the year 2050 to address transportation issues and achieve regional goals. The plan includes transportation and infrastructure programs and projects that will help people who live in DC, suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia enjoy safe, affordable, and reliable travel options.
- The FY 2026-2029 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) is a four-year blueprint of the transportation projects that will be receiving funding from federal, state, local, and other sources. Find out more by attending a November 13 TIP Forum, in-person at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments building, 777 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC with an online-participation option.
- The Air Quality Conformity Analysis Report of Visualize 2050 is an analysis of the regionally significant highway and transit projects and future land use changes to assess if the region will meet regional air quality standards.
Visit Visualize2050.org to read the documents, watch a short video about the plan, explore resources, and comment.
Your thoughts?
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.