5th Great Montgomery County Bike Summit

Sunday, September 29, 2024 - 2:00pm
Wheaton Rec Center

The 5th Great Montgomery County Bike Summit takes place Sunday afternoon, September 29, 2024 in Wheaton, Maryland organized by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. This free event will advance the cause of safe biking for all, across the county. We’re excited!

The summit will feature presentations and panel discussions with policy-makers and advocates. We’re looking forward to the program including a keynote from Will Pines, Maryland State Highway Administrator, and also particularly to a planned panel on Community Advocacy. We’ll have snacks and plenty of time for informal discussion and networking.

Check-in starts at 1:30 pm. Please plan to arrive before 2 pm for the start of our program:

WABA welcome (2 pm)

Executive Director Elizabeth Kiker & team

Keynote speakers

Councilmember Natali Fani-González
State Highway Administrator Will Pines

Panel: Effective Advocacy, plus community-panel discussion

Dan Reed, Greater Greater Washington, moderator
Danielle Blocker, Young People for Progress
Helen Heinrich, Action Committee for Transit
Shannon Shea, Rockville Bicycle Advisory Committee

Break (30 minutes)

State and County updates

Delegate Marc Korman, chair, Environment and Transportation
Matt Johnson, Montgomery County Department of Transportation

WABA Advocacy update

Maryland Advocacy team: Kalli Krumpos, Peter Gray, and Seth Grimes

Wrap-up (5 pm)

We’ll have a few informational tables plus snacks and plenty of time for information sharing and networking.

If you’re a recreational rider or bike commuter or family biker – if you want to see safe streets and the creation of new trails and bike lanes and easy transit access – if you’re an advocate or county or state official or just a biking enthusiast – please join us at the summit.

Questions or suggestions? Please get in touch with WABA Maryland Organizer Seth Grimes at seth.grimes@waba.org. And we could use a few volunteers, to help with check-in, set-up, break-down, and a few other tasks. If you can help, drop us a line.

We hope to see you on September 29 in Wheaton.

More about Complete State Roads: Montgomery County

WABA’s Complete State Roads initiative aims to remake state highways in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties as complete streets, boosting safety and mobility for people who walk, bike, roll, or use transit as well as for drivers and their passengers.

The Complete State Roads–Montgomery County report is available at waba.org/stateroads and you can watch a presentation delivered about it at WABA’s 4th Great Montgomery County Bike Summit in 2023.

As part of the Complete State Roads initiative, WABA backed the development of legislation for introduction in the 2024 Maryland legislative session.

More about Montgomery County Equitable Bikeways

Montgomery County's piecemeal approach to building bike infrastructure is not aligned with its stated climate, safety, and equity goals,

In 2021, WABA assembled a proposal that prioritized projects in the county's existing (and laudabe!) Bicycle Master Plan within county-designates Equity Focus Areas. You can read the report here. With around $110 million, the County could build all of the Tier 1 bikeway projects in most of the equity emphasis areas in the County. This dollar amount spread over the FY 23-28 six year capital budget period is consistent with current commitments to biking and walking

More about Complete Streets

Complete Streets are streets designed to accommodate all users, and that prioritize historically underinvested modes of transportation like transit, walking, and biking. An incomplete street might lack adequate sidewalks, low-stress bike infrastructure, or safe and comfortable access to transit.

Effective Complete Streets policies change the way a jurisdiction plans and builds transportation infrastructure—sidewalks, low stress bike infrastructure, and transit should be included in any new or rebuilt street by default, rather than as an add-on when there's space or demand.

While most regional jurisdictions have a Complete Streets policy of some sort, they lack teeth and permit transportation departments to continue to build streets that put cars first and squeeze other modes into the margins.

More about Montgomery County Budget

Montgomery County's budgeting process, both for its annual budget and its 6-year Capital Improvement Program, takes place in the spring. WABA works with grassroots advocates and partner organizations to build support on the County Council for funding individual projects and to ensure that the relevant agencies (usually Parks, Planning, Transportation) have the resources required to grow and maintain the County's active transportation network.

Current priorities include funding the Montgomery County Equitable Bikeways proposal, completion of the Capital Crescent Trail from Bethesda to Silver Spring, and developing an e-bike purchase rebate program.

More about Advocacy

WABA fights for a region where biking, walking and transit are the best ways to get around.

We educate policymakers and organize grassroots advocates for to speak up for safer places to bike and walk; and for laws and policies that protect people who are walking and biking, reduce dangerous driving, and facilitate changes to the built environment.