FABB Blog

Meet & Greet with WABA's New Executive Director
October 7, 6:00 PM
REI Community Space at Wunder Garten, 150 M St NE, Washington, DC.

Stop by, grab a beer or a snack, and say hello to our new Executive Director, Greg Billing. Nothing too formal, just a nice fun after-work gathering with our friends from REI.
RSVP Here

The man responsible for coordinating the District Department of Transportation’s bike plans says he fell into the city’s bike culture out of necessity. “My story is not that much different from a lot of people’s stories in D.C. who discover bicycling,” Jim Sebastian says. “They discover it’s quicker, it’s more convenient, it’s cheaper and it’s more fun than driving or taking the train.”

Sebastian, who is helping coordinate for the first time all of the District’s master transit plans as part of the moveDC project,became the District’s bike program coordinator in 2001 and helped bring bike share to the city, first with a pilot program called SmartBike D.C. in 2008, then partnering with Arlington County to launch the Capital Bikeshare system in 2010.

Under Sebastian’s watch, the District has added more than 50 miles of bike lanes and 2,500 bike racks, and has more than doubled the number of people on the streets biking. But he’s not done yet. In addition to overseeing the growth of Bikeshare, which is managed by the company Alta, he’s also partnering with DDOT to complete the 20-mile Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, now 60 percent done, and the M Street cycle-track.

“He has been a real moving force behind gaining acceptance of bicycles here in the District of Columbia,” Gray says. “We’re very fortunate to have him working with us, because it is not just a job to him, it is a commitment, and that’s a big difference.”

Right now, bikes represent 3.3 percent of total commutes, Sebastian says. But he expects it to hit 5 percent by 2015.

Bike advocates such as Sebastian and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association also insist commuting isn’t their sole focus. Short trips to the grocery or library, or a recreational ride along the water, are the sorts of things they say that Bikeshare can facilitate better than Metro and buses. Indeed, a 2013 member survey showed that seven in 10 users had used Bikeshare for social activities or to run errands.

“Every city’s bike culture is a little bit different,” says Greg Billing, advocacy coordinator at WABA. “I think where we really excel is kind of how commonplace it is.”

WABA has been around since 1972, long before bike sharing captured the imagination of city planners. The organization helped lobby for bikes to be allowed on Metro during non-rush hours and to close Beach Drive to car traffic on the weekends. Now it’s offering adult biking lessons and safety instruction while continuing to lobby for more bike lanes and infrastructure.

I have presented and the Board of Directors has approved a restructuring 
of staff roles at WABA. To meet the need we have added staff capacity to have a full-time Advocacy Coordinator as well as a full-time Outreach Coordinator with responsibility for increasing our grassroots efforts outside the District. (Much of our outreach in the District is paid for through outreach/safety grants we have not been able to secure in Maryland or Virginia.) Greg Billing, who has played an advocacy support role and a communications role at WABA, will become our Advocacy Coordinator and will take the lead in facilitating a coordinated approach to regional advocacy, with the ultimate goal of using political pressure to get improvements from agencies like the National Park Service and the Commission of Fine Arts. Nelle Pierson, who many of you know as our Events Coordinator, will be overseeing our outreach activities and working to grow ridership and membership, as well as managing several of our targeted outreach campaigns in our newly created Outreach Coordinator position. I believe these roles better utilize the skills of Greg and Nellie and I am eager to see what they can deliver for WABA and the region.

To fill the gaps created by these promotions, WABA has hired a new Communications Coordinator and is currently interviewing for a new Events Coordinator. Our new Communications Coordinator will be Alex Baca—a longtime member and intelligent voice of cycling who some of you may have met at this year's 50 States Ride. You may also know her work from the Washington City Paper, where she was an Assistant Editor...

Without adapting we can continue to win the local battles but we would lack the capacity to bring the regional change that is needed. With this change and your support I believe we can win on both levels.

Accidents between vehicles and bicycles in Fairfax County are happening more frequently this year.

There have been 54 collisions between vehicles and bicycles this year with one fatality, up from 44 accidents between bicyclists and vehicles with no fatalities in 2011.

On Nov. 12, Elizabeth P. Shattuck, 58, of Falls Church, was hit by a pickup truck. Police pronounced her dead at the scene, marking the first Fairfax County death resulting from a bicycle-versus-vehicle collision in two years. The incident is still under investigation, and charges have yet to be filed.

Greg Billing, a spokesman for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, said there are an increasing number of people taking to the roads on bicycles across the region.

“We’re definitely seeing an increase in crashes between vehicles and cyclists as more people are getting into cycling,” Billing said. “Enforcement is a huge issue across the region and there are a lot of motorists out there that are distracted and speeding and don’t see the cyclists on the roads.”