holiday party

WABA Member Holiday Party: celebrating a year well done.

| Cyrus Chimento
We threw our annual Holiday Party for WABA members last week, on Wednesday, December 12th! Members, WABA staff, board members, and our bike-curious friends, family, and neighbors shared an evening of good cheer and celebrated all that we’ve accomplished together over the last year. Check out the photos below! A huge thank goes to Bar Roubaix and Arturo (manager of Bar Roubaix and WABA member since 2011) for hosting us! A special thanks also goes to New Belgium Brewing for buying a round of drinks, and Sugar Shack, Big Wheel Bikes, Rapha, Evo Cycle Works, CAVA, VeloFix, 3 Stars Brewing, Capital Bikeshare, REI, and the Daily Rider for all the raffle prizes. We are so grateful for the the deep commitment of our community to building a region that’s better to get around in. Here are a few of our wins this year: These victories aren’t possible without you. You and the thousands of other people who support WABA are a fiery reminder of how much power we have to make our region a better place to ride a bike. With your investment, we’re making our collective voice stronger.

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You’re invited: WABA Member Holiday Party!

| Cyrus Chimento
  When: Wednesday, December 13th, 6-9pm Where: Bar Roubaix, 1400 Irving St NW, Washington, DC 20010 (former location of Acre 121) Who: WABA members (don’t worry, you can join at the door!) RSVP: Join the Holiday Party event on Facebook and invite your WABA friends All WABA members are invited to join the WABA Staff, Board of Directors, and your fellow WABA members on Wednesday, December 13th at Bar Roubaix in Columbia Heights for an evening of bicycle cheer. Come eat, drink, and be merry with us in celebration of this year’s successes and mingle with fellow WABA members. The party is free and there will be drink specials available for you to purchase at the bar. Bar Roubaix (a new, bicycle themed bar!) has generously agreed to match the first $1,000 you donate to WABA at the party! And, 20% of the proceeds from the night go to WABA, so come ready to support better bicycling and enjoy some drinks!

Want to volunteer to help sell WABA merchandise and keep the night running smoothly? Sign up here.

This party is for WABA members (don’t worry, you can join at the door). WABA is a member-supported nonprofit organization and your yearly membership dues and donations fund our ongoing advocacy, education, and outreach work. We can’t do this without your financial investment. If you have friends who are not WABA members, bring them and encourage them to join at the party! And, if you’re not sure if you’re a current dues-paying member, email membership@waba.org or check a recent email from WABA—there will be a note at the bottom. Questions? Email events@waba.org or call 202-518-0524 x218.

Best of WABA Events: 2016

| Michelle Cleveland
Looking back at 2016, the WABA Events Team wanted to share with you our favorite moments from our signature events of the last year: February 2016: The Bicyclist Choice Awards and Annual Members Meeting

DDOT Director Leif Dormsjo accepts The WABA Vision Zero award.

WABA staff.

The Awards event is our opportunity to be fancy and to recognize and thank those people who really and truly make a positive difference for bicycling in the region. It was really special this year to have the Director of the District Department of Transportation in attendance to accept an award we gave him. -Michelle March 2016: The Congressional Ride 

Photo Credit: The League of American Bicyclists

The Congressional Ride is a really unique ride event that WABA organizes as part of the League of American Bicyclists’ National Bike Summit each year. It’s special because we get to meet bike advocates and bicyclists from all over the country, talk to them about the work WABA is doing in our Nation’s Capital and around the region, and show off some of DC’s best bicycle infastrucutre. Everyone is always so impressed with the bike lanes and protected infrastructure, and they love hearing about our programs, events, and the impact we have on the region. -Michelle The Vasa Ride

Vasa Ride 2016

The weather machine cooperated and the cloudy skies held their rain for this year’s Vasa Ride. Flowers were in bloom. The breeze was almost warm. The highlight is always the grumbling and tight muscles in the morning as sleepy-eyed riders stretch out their riding legs for the first time all winter, and then the joy, smiles, hugs, and happy conversations had over warm blueberry soup at the end of the ride inside the absolutely gorgeous House of Sweden. -Michelle  May 2016: Bike to Work Day

Photo Credit: John Pickett

What’s not to love about Bike to Work Day? The ENTIRE WABA staff and board unite to go spread the bike love. This year, WABA had a presence at a record number of pit stops for us: 26 different pit stops! We mobilized 31 WABA captains and 112 volunteers to get out there super early on a Friday morning and talk to people about better bicycling. So much sunshine. So much coffee. So many bagels. And so many bicycle-induced smiles and high fives. -Michelle Tour de Fat

DC celebrity spotting! Local bicycle advice columnist Gear Prudence for City Paper came out to support WABA.

Just look at those lines!

I was a bit terrified when Tour de Fat rolled around this year because there was rain in the forecast — LOTS of rain. But, to my delight, people still came out to celebrate and drink beer and ride bikes in the rain! I couldn’t believe it and I am SO grateful that the #bikedc community is so supportive of the work we do. -Michelle  June 2016: Bike to Work AGAIN Day

Bike to Work Again Day + beer!

We loved Bike to Work Day so much this year that we decided to celebrate it again a month later! With three “pit stops” at local bars and restaurants in Arlington, Bethesda, and the District, we hung out with bike commuters on their way home and talked about our favorite subject: bikes! -Nick July 2016: Bike to the Pools Ride

Cooling off at a splash park right off the Marvin Gaye Trail!

The Washington area gets pretty hot in July, so we decided that we’d combine two things we all love to do: biking and swimming! (And a bit of splashing.) We rode our bikes from the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens along the Marvin Gaye Trail, stopped at a splash park, hopped on our bikes again, and finished the ride at the Deanwood Pool. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon! -Nick August 2016: Open Streets Community Organizing

Petworth residents, ANC commissioners, and community leaders came together to help guide us in planning a community wide event in their neighborhood that will have a positive lasting impact, promote community building, and bring neighbors together.

This entire year we have been working to bring an open street event to DC, where a roadway is temporary closed to vehicles so it can be opened up to the people to walk, bike, dance, and play in the middle of the street. We are lucky to have the support of the DC Office of Planning in this effort and received a substantial grant for this project from the agency. It’s a big undertaking, and we still have a lot of work to do, but we’re excited for the connections and relationships we’ve begun to build with Petworth and city officials, and can’t wait to continue work in 2017 to bring DC its first open streets program. -Michelle September 2016: The 50 States & 13 Colonies Ride

Photo credit: Chuck Cage

Years of tinkering with WABA’s weather machine to let up on the rain finally paid off, but someone forgot to adjust the temperature… it was HOT! Despite the heat, we welcomed our biggest crowd yet—700 registrants—to a fun and challenging ride throughout DC’s 8 Wards. This year, we hosted riders from California, Alabama, Texas, Ohio, and many other far-flung places! -Nick October 2016: WABA in the Wild Overnight C&O Tour

In a matter of days, the 11 strangers who came together for WABA in the Wild became fast friends.

Everyone celebrated in the warm autumn sunshine at mile marker 0 in Georgetown at the end of the ride.

WABA in the Wild was the highlight of my year for sure. It was a feat of an event to pull off: the first time WABA has ever done an original peer-to-peer fundraising event, the first time we’ve ever done a multi-day bike tour, the first time we’ve ever organized a group camping trip. But we pulled it off and it was a tremendous success. We bicycled through rain and mud with smile on our faces. We saw beauty in the trees along the canal and the shimmering sunshine on the Potomac. There was whiskey, laughter, games, camaraderie, and so. many. snacks. And we can’t wait to do it again with more people in 2017! -Michelle
November 2016: The Cider Ride

Photo credit: Mr.TinDC

This year’s Cider Ride was the biggest ever, with over 700 people riding their bikes along the beautiful trails and farm roads of Prince George’s county, the Patuxent Research Refuge, and the new (and old) sections of the Anacostia River Trail. Riders also helped to advance our campaign to finish the Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail in Hyattsville — we collected over 300 signatures at an advocacy pit stop along the course! -Nick December 2016: The Holiday Party

Many, many bikes outside Boundary Stone for the WABA Holiday Party. Photo credit: Jeremiah Lowery

One of our ‘accomplishments scrapboards’ from the party

We hosted our year-end Holiday Party at Boundary Stone and had an awesome time chatting with members about all the things we accomplished together in 2016 and what we’re looking forward to working on in 2017. It was great to hang out with so many of our members and enjoy some holiday cheer! -Nick
We hope you enjoyed being part of the bike community as much as we did this year. Happy New Year and here’s to more awesome WABA events — and a few awesome event surprises — in 2017! Cheers, WABA Events Team

Announcing WABA’s Strategic Plan: The Nuts & Bolts

| Nelle Pierson
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Last night more than 200 members of the WABA family joined us to celebrate biking wins in 2015 and launch WABA’s 5-year Strategic Plan. The evening was full of merriment and abuzz with excitement and we want to pass it along to you. Because it’s a major undertaking and because it represents the shared vision of you and 5,500+ WABA members, we want you to be informed and proud of our plan, and hold us accountable to our commitments. And, like all of our advocacy work – to carry it out we need your support. Last year you helped us raise $85,000 for WABA’s people power. Please show your support for better biking in 2016!

Donate Now!

This document is a synthesis of all of the things we need to achieve in order to truly make our region a world-class place to ride a bike. Our Board of Directors, our staff and our members and volunteers have been working on this for more than a year. We are committed to better representing the people who bike in the region and the diversity of their needs: people who use bikes for their work, people who bike to work, and people who want to figure out how to make biking work. We all know that in order to make biking safe, popular, and normal we need to get more people biking. As biking mode-share (the percentage of people who bike compared to other forms of transportation) increases, so does our safety. It’s simple. It’s power in numbers. Our goal is to triple the number who bike by 2020.

Triple our mode-share!

But there are obvious limits to growing the number of bicyclists in our roadways. Bike lanes, if present, are concentrated in dense areas. They often don’t connect. They are often poorly maintained. And only a fraction are protected from vehicular traffic. To make biking accessible to more people we need a network of connected, low-stress places to bike. Our goal is that all residents be within one mile of dedicated space for biking and a connection to the broader bicycling network By 2035.

Connect the network!

The success of our overarching goals relies on our ability to:
  1. Improve our bike network to enhance mobility, connectivity, and ease.
  2. Advocate for increased bike education efforts across the region and expand WABA’s role from service provider to program developer.
  3. Commit to practices and programs that ensure equity, diversity, and inclusion throughout our work.
  4. Attain effective laws and enforcement of our laws to protect people who bike.
  5. Empower local advocates.
  6. Secure WABA’s organizational future.
We encourage you to read our plan and see the aspirational targets tied to each goal. That’s where it gets interesting, that’s where we need you to hold us accountable, and that’s where we need your contributions. This document does not help our region’s bike movement if we let it gather dust on a shelf. And this document does not have people power without your support. Please consider donating $10, $25, $2,500 to help us meet our $85,000 goal and fund our 2016 advocacy targets.

Make a contribution

Save the date: WABA Holiday Party

| Michelle Cleveland
When: Thursday, December 17th from 6:00-10:00pm Where: Johnny Pistolas, 2333 18th St NW,Washington, DC, 20009 (Adams Morgan) Who: WABA Members and your family and friends RSVP: Join the Holiday Party event on Facebook and invite your WABA friends All WABA members are invited to join the WABA Staff, Board of Directors, and your fellow WABA Members on Thursday, December 17th at Johnny Pistolas in Adams Morgan for an evening of bicycle cheer. Come eat and drink with us in celebration of this year’s advocacy successes and mingle with fellow WABA members. WABA will also be releasing our new organizational Strategic Plan! The party is free and there will be food and drink specials available at the bar. WABA’s Executive Director Greg Billing will give a brief presentation about WABA’s five-year Strategic Plan and the exciting things it means for bicycling in DC, MD and VA. *Please note this party is for WABA Members and their close friends and family. WABA is a member supported non-profit organization and your yearly membership dues fund our ongoing advocacy and outreach work. If you have friends that are not WABA Members, bring them and they can join WABA at the party!*

WABA Holiday Party

| Michelle Cleveland
holiday-party-poster-horizontal All WABA members are invited to join us on Monday, December 15th at Smith Public Trust in Brookland for an evening of holiday tidings and bicycle cheer. Smith Public Trust is near the Brookland Metro/just off the Met Branch Trail. Come eat and drink with us in celebration of this year’s advocacy successes and mingle with fellow WABA members. The party is free, and we’ll be accepting donations (a $5 suggested donation) to WABA at the door. The Holiday Party Raffle is back again!! We’ll be raffling off some really cool prizes (see all the prizes we’re raffling off below – we’ll update the list as we get more prized in) throughout the evening. Every WABA member will get a raffle ticket when they arrive (auto-renewing members get 2 tickets!) and we’ll have additional raffle tickets available for donations. All proceeds from the raffle will benefit WABA’s ongoing advocacy work. Plus, as a way of saying “Thanks” for supporting WABA this year, the first 100 WABA members to come out to the party will get a craft beer on us. Interested in lending a helping hand? We’re looking for a few more volunteers to help make the holiday party magic happen, greet WABA members, and help out at the WABA table. Sign up here to volunteer. When: Monday, December 15th from 6:00-10:00pm Where: Smith Public Trust, 3514 12th St NE (in DC’s Brookland neighborhood) Who: WABA Members RSVP: Join the Holiday Party event on Facebook and invite your WABA member friends (or those who you can convince to join) *Please note this party is for members only. WABA is a member supported non-profit organization and your yearly membership dues fund our ongoing advocacy and outreach work.* Not yet a member? No problem! Join today, or join at the door. We’ll be running a membership special at the door, so you can join for the first time (or renew your membership) for only $25 (a ten dollar discount)! beer and cheer with waba

What can you win at the WABA Holiday Party Raffle?!

  • A pair of passes to the bike-themed holiday light show at Dominion GardenFest of Lights near Richmond, VA  — a fun roadtrip for you and that special someone or your BBF (best bike friend) — donated by the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
  • Hand-crafted jewelry – a pair of earrings and a bracelet made from cleaned, reused and hand-painted bike chains accented with beads – made by Molly Fitzgerald (a WABA member!)
  • A bike themed and hand painted decorative storage tin – also hand crafted by Molly Fitzgerald
  • A pair of entries to WABA’s next ride event: the Vasa Ride at the Swedish Embassy in March 2015
  • A City Bikes tune up for your bicycle, valued at $100
  • Two tickets to the upcoming Matisyahu show at 9:30 Club on December 22
  • A BicycleSPACE $50 gift certificate and a brand new BicycleSPACE t-shirt
  • More prizes to be announced soon!
Thank you so much to each and every one of the raffle donors for their generous support of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.
     

The WABA Holiday Party, in Photos

| Alex Baca
WABA Holiday 2013 (35 of 43) On Dec. 12, WABA members filled up the Bier Baron in Dupont for a holiday celebration. Our yearly holiday party is a great way for our members to mingle with each other, and we loved welcoming new and old supporters alike. Your membership dollars directly support our advocacy, education, and outreach efforts. If you aren’t a member, join today! Some photos from the holiday party made their way to Flickr. Did you take photos at the WABA holiday party? Add them to our Flickr group! WABA Holiday 2013 (41 of 43) WABA Holiday 2013 (32 of 43) Continue reading →

WABA Holiday Party 2013

| Michelle Cleveland

WABA-holiday2013-web

Are you ready for bikes, beer, and holiday cheer? Come celebrate the holidays and a year of great bike advocacy work at our annual party! Every year, we convene our members, area bike lovers, WABA staff and board members, and anyone else interested in what we do to enjoy each other’s company (and give cheers to living in a region that’s becoming increasingly bike-friendly). EVENT DETAILS When: Thurs., Dec. 12, 2013 from 7-11 p.m. Where: Bier Baron, 1523 22nd St. NW, Washington, D.C. Price: Please bring a $5 donation—it’ll help fund another year of advocacy, education, and outreach. RSVP: See the Facebook page Who: WABA members! If you aren’t a member, join today or join at the door next week. VOLUNTEER! Lend a hand with the party and work your way toward a WABA membership (volunteer three times, and you’re a member). Sign up here to volunteer. WHAT TO EXPECT Getting There: We’ll set up temporary bike parking in the park across 22nd Street from Bier Baron. Please bring your own u-lock. Bier Baron is a short walk from the Dupont Circle Metro and Bikeshare stations. Food and Drink: Bier Baron has over 500 beers available as well as food. Raffle: We’ve got three prizes to raffle off: a tune-up at a local bike shop, a gift certificate for a full-day bike rental or guided tour for two from Bike and Roll, and dinner for two at Beau Thai. All attendees will receive one raffle ticket at the door, and additional tickets can be purchased for $1. Costumes: We’ll give you an extra raffle ticket if you’re in a holiday costume, or your holiday best.  

WABA’s 2012 Holiday Party, in Photos

| Alex Baca
Many thanks to all who came out for WABA’s 2012 holiday party on Wednesday night. Staff, board members, and new and old members alike indulged in drink specials generously provided by Smith Commons and chattered about riding bikes in the D.C. area. Attendees made holiday party-specific buttons, and we raffled off WABA and otherwise bike-related swag, including a messenger bag and a sweatshirt. We also announced some recent staff changes, which some of you may have read about on this blog, on Twitter, or on this season’s issue of RideOn. Former events coordinator Nelle Pierson will become WABA’s new outreach coordinator and focus on the forthcoming Women and Bicycles initiative, while Greg Billing will become the full-time advocacy coordinator. I’ve been hired as communications coordinator, and we’ll soon be hiring an events coordinator to replace Nelle. You can see our updated staff page here. The holiday party was a great chance for WABA members to meet each other and the organization’s staff. We’re so glad that those of you that could make it attended! Also, we’d like to thank our newest members who signed up at the door (and received a discounted yearly membership for $25). We look forward to seeing you at future WABA events! WABA board member Randall Myers snapped the photos below; see the rest here. If you took photos at the party and would like them posted on our blog, let us know in the comments or on Twitter! Happy holidays, and safe riding through the winter months!

We’re Having a Holiday Party Tonight!

| Alex Baca

This evening at 7 p.m. at Smith Commons, join WABA staff and bike-friendly fellows for a festive celebration (RSVP on Facebook here). There will be drink and appetizer specials, a raffle, and sweet seasonal tunes. Smith Commons is located at 1245 H St. NE, and you can park your bike (bring a u-lock!) in the neighboring parking lot. There’s a $5 suggested donation for WABA members. If you’re not a member, become one for the year for the discounted price of $25. You can sign up here or register at the door. Need a ride over to Smith Commons? The Assembly will be leading a group there, beginning at 6 p.m. at BicycleSpace at 1019 7th Street NW. If you’re not insofar convinced of the merits of partying with people who like bikes, let would’ve-been State Department cultural ambassador Andrew W.K. talk to you about it. See you tonight! Flyer by LA Johnson