Mission & Vision

WABA empowers people to ride bikes, build connections, and transform places. We envision a just and sustainable transportation system where walking, biking, and transit are the best ways to get around.

Values

To make our vision a reality, we ground our work in five key values:

  • Joy: We celebrate people and share the joy of bicycling.
  • Boldness: We think big and transform passion into action.
  • Integrity: We earn trust through consistency, honesty, and transparency.
  • Justice: We put justice at the heart of our work.
  • Stewardship: We care for people and the environment, conserve resources, and evolve thoughtfully.

Our Theory of Change

WABA acquires, manages, and distributes our limited resources in ways that align to our values and best serve the people and communities in our region. And when we’re successful, our transportation system looks different — easier to use, accessible to everyone, more affordable, and climate-resilient — and more people join us for the ride.

To build public support and encourage more people to become champions for a better transportation system, we know the simple act of bicycling can change everything. Here’s how we think about it:

Riding bikes helps people see the need for safe places to ride: multi-use trails and low-stress protected bike lanes that get them where they want to go. When our cities and counties and states build safer places to ride, more people will get on a bike. And then, when more people ride, demand for better streets and connected trails rises too. 

WABA steps in at two key places along that spectrum: first, we give people the tools and resources to have a great ride, from teaching someone to ride for the very first time to helping them navigate a tricky multi-modal commute. Second, we organize community members who demand better places to ride, and ensure that our region’s leaders respond to our pressure and build better places to bike. We’re simultaneously building demand and the physical space we need to make our region more just and sustainable.

A Just and Sustainable Transportation System

At WABA, when we talk about a just transportation system, we are talking about transportation equity. Transportation equity means that who you are doesn’t limit how you get around. In an equitable transportation system, your identity and experience—your race, gender, or ability; how much money you have, and where you live—don’t affect whether you can use safe, comfortable multimodal transportation options. 

We are not there yet. The work of achieving transportation equity begins with addressing past and present harm. For a century, cities and towns across the country used transportation planning as a tool to divide, exclude and displace communities of color—by underinvesting in basic services like sidewalks and transit, by disconnecting street grids, and by bulldozing neighborhoods to build highways.

That planning is the foundation for the streets, sidewalks and transit systems we still use today. And they don’t do what they’re supposed to do: they don’t keep people safe, and they don’t get people where they need to go. The mobility our transportation network provides and the safety and health burdens it creates are unjustly distributed. Every change to transportation infrastructure, services, and policy must account for these injustices—and repair them. 

At WABA, we know that bicycling is just one piece of our region’s transportation puzzle, and our fight for safer streets is part of a larger fight to make our entire transportation system more just.

And we know that an unjust transportation system is also an unsustainable one. The communities that are often forced into cars because of our historic failures also suffer the greatest impacts of a car-centric culture: disproportionately high rates of traffic crashes and deaths, higher rates of asthma, greater exposure to pollutants, and more. 

Many jurisdictions in the Washington, DC region have visionary climate goals, ahead of many American cities. While it can be difficult to feel optimistic under the very real weight of climate catastrophe, it’s absolutely essential we move away from the culture that single occupancy vehicles are the default way to get around. Building protected bike infrastructure and connected trails make getting out of a car an easy choice, and it’s actionable.