Ride for Your Life

Sunday, November 17, 2024 - 9:30am
Wood Acres Elementary

Ride for Your Life

For the third year running, we are joining forces with others across America to raise our voices on World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.

Ride for Your Life 2024 is a 10-mile slow ride and separate one-mile walk (register here) to the Lincoln Memorial that will send a clear message about roadway safety to our leaders as a new Congress and presidential administration takes shape. The more people show up, the more attention we will get, and the safer the roads will become.

Our is the only walk/ride in the nation’s capitol aimed specifically at reducing the record numbers of people walking, biking, and driving being killed in vehicle traffic in America. We hope you will come out to represent a nation of citizens wanting to turn the tide on this crisis. Ours will be one of — and we hope the largest — of more than 100 events across the country held in commemoration of World Day of Remembrance.

The ride will retrace the route that mother and U.S. diplomat Sarah Debbink Langenkamp took in Bethesda the day she died riding her bike in 2022, continuing to the Lincoln Memorial where we will hold a rally to press for change on our roadways. Because we represent all of those on our roads, we will also hold a walk (register here) Freedom Plaza down the Mall.

Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, other members of Congress, and a range of elected and civil society leaders from across the country will be present. We hope you will be, too.

We aim to press the new administration and the new Congress to implement concrete measures to make sure everyone using our roads can be safe. Measures such as freeing up federal funds to build or redesign infrastructure that is safe for all, requiring technologies in vehicles that reduce deaths, and more.

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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 Vision Zero

Done right, Vision Zero is a transformative approach to traffic safety and transportation planning. Developed in Sweden, it is built on two core principles: crashes are preventable, and the only acceptable number of deaths from traffic violence is Zero. It provides a clear framework for decision-making that prioritizes safety for everyone over speed and convenience for drivers.

DC launched a Vision Zero initiative in 2015, with surrounding jurisdictions following suit over the next few years.

While there have been laudable projects launched under the Vision Zero banner across the region, the adoption of Vision Zero programs have not been the transformational shift required to reverse the increase in deadly traffic violence.

WABA's Vision Zero advocacy focuses on using legislation and policy to permanently change they way decisions are made: requiring that transportation planning and engineering put safety over driver convenience in every decision.

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.