2026 District Office of Unified Communications (OUC) Performance Oversight Hearing Testimony

January 28, 2026

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA), on behalf of its 5,000 members and nearly 23,000 regional supporters, appreciates the opportunity to testify on this occasion.

We will also presume to speak for the 18,000 DC residents who bike to work on a daily basis according to goDCgo, the many thousands of shared mobility users who logged 6,369,376 Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) rides in 2025, and riders of permitted micromobility providers (excluding Capital Bikeshare), who took 12,440,900 trips in 2025.

Our testimony focuses on the DC 311 system, which makes it easy for DC residents and businesses to report issues via an app or the Web or by phone, and to track the resolution of issues they’ve reported. Of course we understand that while the OUC operates DC 311, issue resolution and status updates are up to city departments.

We’re frequent DC 311 users and frequently refer community members to the system, to report vehicles illegally parked in loading zones and bike lanes, traffic signal and pedestrian walk signal outages, sidewalk repair needs, and of course bike lane and trail issues and requests for new public-space bike racks. We frequently refer community members to the Traffic Safety Input category, to report traffic safety concerns.

We’re pleased that the District’s current, FY26 budget included funding for the OUC, working with the Dept. of Public Works, to create a reporting option for obstructions, debris, snow and ice, and leaves in bike lanes. We appreciate that OUC updated other request types this last fall, early in FY26. They included dockless-vehicle parking complaints, TSIs, and roadway markings and pylons. However OUC has not rolled out bike-lane obstruction and debris reporting, which has been in the works for going on a year. We ask OUC to prioritize delivering this new reporting category.

We and others have had a long-standing request that DC 311 allow reporting without a street address, using geolocating. The lack of the feature means reports filed with an inaccurate location. This update will facilitate reporting issues in DC parks and in locations next to parks where there are no buildings and hence no street address. This feature is technically feasible. We are puzzled by the lack of response from OUC to the request for this commonsense improvement, and we ask OUC to prioritize delivering this capability.

Finally, we are concerned about DC 311 tickets closed without action or explanation. We suggest the council task the OUC to report on tickets closed without action or explanation and to propose system revisions to compel, or at least strongly encourage, departments to report actions or provide explanations when closing tickets.

We at WABA envision a just and sustainable region where walking, biking, and transit are the best ways to get around, in concordance with the District of Columbia’s commitments. We ask the OUC, supported by the council, to implement our recommendations in order to meet the city’s commitments and improve city service delivery.