Every year, the DC Council holds public hearings to consider the performance of each of the city’s agencies. For bicycle advocates with a little spare time on weekdays, it is a prime opportunity to talk directly to councilmembers and agency heads to highlight strengths and areas of improvement for an agency.
Here’s a list of those public hearings and forums:
Wednesday, February 13 at 10:00 am: Department of For Hire Vehicles
- Persons wishing to testify about the performance of any of the foregoing agencies may contact: Chanell Autrey (cautrey@dccouncil.us) or by calling 202-724-8053.
- Issues of concern:
- Education, training and testing of for-hire drivers
- Collecting reports of driver behavior
- Uber & Lyft parking in bike lanes & dooring
- Ticketing and retraining as behavior modification tools
Friday, February 15 at 11:00 am: Department of Public Works
- Persons wishing to testify about the performance of any of the foregoing agencies may contact: Aukima Benjamin (abenjamin@dccouncil.us) or by calling 202-724-8062.
- Issues of concern:
- Leaf collection in protected bike lanes
- Parking enforcement
- Proactive enforcement in high-infraction areas
- Reprioritizing from resident parking violations to traffic safety (bike lanes, crosswalks, sidewalk, illegal loading etc.)
- Responsiveness to reports of illegal parking/safety issue
- Alternative enforcement options (eg. citizen reports)
Monday, Febraury 25 at 11:00 am: District Department of Transportation
- Persons wishing to testify about the performance of any of the foregoing agencies may contact: Aukima Benjamin (abenjamin@dccouncil.us) or by calling 202-724-8062.
- Issues of concern:
- Design & construction of multi-use trails like the Metropolitan Branch Trail, Anacostia River Trail, South Capitol St. Trail, etc.
- Design & construction of on-street bicycle infrastructure like bike lanes and protected bike lanes
- Are sufficient resources being devoted to improving options for safe biking and walking?
- Dockless bikeshare & scooters
- The pace of expansion of the bicycle network & reaching goals
Mayor Bowser’s Budget Engagement Forum
- Thursday, February 21 at 6:30 pm: Budget Engagement Forum at the Arthur Capper Community Center (1001 5th Street, SE)
- Saturday, February 23 at 10:00 am: Budget Engagement Forum at the Deanwood Recreation Center (1350 49th Street, NE)
- Monday, February 25 at 6:30 pm: Budget Engagement Forum at Roosevelt High School (4301 13th Street, NW)