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This post is part of WABA’s Women on Bikes program, an ongoing campaign to create a community, share resources, and develop strategies for getting more women on bikes. To read about the project so far, click here to check out the WABA blog. To learn more and sign up to receive emails about this project, click here.

By Kiera Zitelman & Laura Jean Shane, WABA’s Women’s Bicycling Interns 

WABA is proud to introduce our new Women’s Bicycling Outreach and Advocacy campaign, Women on Bikes.

It’s a fact: Women in our region bike less than men. We learned from the Women’s Forum last winter that WABA needs to step up and do something about it. So we’ve been hard at work developing a plan. With spring in the air and bike month on the way, now is the time to get moving. Now is the time to bring together the women in your life that say, “I’m interested in biking , but…”

Women on Bikes is WABA’s new approach to women’s bike outreach and for this to work we need your help. Our goal is to help women who bike for recreation/fitness to become transportational bicyclists and we plan to do it by bringing women together. We want to reach out to you, your best friend, your aunt, your co-worker, your favorite women of all ages and experience levels–whether they already bike or have only thought about biking.  We’re asking you to become our Bike SpokesWomen. To us, a Bike SpokesWoman is a bicyclist who sees the benefits of more women on bikes and wants to step up and help make it happen.

This campaign will truly be only as successful as our ability to get new faces in the room or in the bike lanes! That’s where Bike SpokesWomen come in. You can be a bike buddy and mentor, and you can turn a recreational rider into a city rider by bringing her along for the ride to our events and to bike rides and outings throughout the region.

How to Get Involved

So we’re asking two favors of you, our Bike SpokesWomen:

1. We need you to sign up for our email updates. You can do that here.
2. And we need you to bring one woman–just one!–to a Women on Bikes event. You can use our handy Tell-A-Friend tool to start the conversation.

The Women on Bikes campaign consists of educational meet-ups, bike classes, and friendly rides that will seek to address the concerns of new transportational bicyclists. These FREE events will present opportunities to turn the interested but concerned riders in your life into confident, effective street riders.

Women on Bikes Events

The action begins this weekend:

On Saturday, April 7th, we are hosting our first Women on Bikes Meet-up, a conversation about bikes. We want you—our friends and cyclists—to bring along a woman you know who wants to ride and who has questions and concerns. The event is designed to present useful information in a fun and social setting.

Sign up for Women on Bikes email updates to learn how to register for this and future events.

Become a BikeSpokesWomen now!

Then pass along the invitation.

Laura Jean Shane is a spring 2012 Women’s Bicycle Outreach & Advocacy Intern. She  came to WABA as a former sports medicine professional and current Masters of Public Health student at GWU. A devotee of RAGBRAI, she moved to DC last year and cannot imagine getting around any other way.

Kiera Zitelman is a spring 2012 Women’s Bicycle Outreach & Advocacy Intern. She has gotten around the DC area by bike for years since growing up in Silver Spring. As an environmental science and policy student at UMD, she uses her bike to navigate campus every day and ride the Anacostia Tributary trails near College Park on the weekends.

Thursday, September 9 6:30-8:30pm
Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church

Join WABA staff and Board of Directors as we take time to look back on the past year and look forward towards the year ahead. The evening will include elections for the Board of Directors, presentations by WABA staff, and awards for local advocates and volunteers. Light food and drinks will be served.

Please note this event is for WABA members only.  Please RSVP!

DDOT has revised the bike lane plans for Pennsylvania Avenue. The new design protects bicyclists from motorists by moving the lanes into the median, helping to keep cars out the bike lanes. It also returns the left lanes to motor vehicle use, helping to ease traffic congestion.  Users should familiarize themselves proper usage of  this new type of bicycling infrastructure.  Download complete instructions for safe usage in PDF.  Download now.

On Tuesday, June 20th, DDOT announced the official locations of 100 bike sharing locations in all 8 Wards throughout the District of Columbia.  DDOT used population density, employment density, proximity to transit and the bike-to-work rate in addition to an online poll  to determine the locations of the bikesharing stations.  Installation of the first 30 stations should begin in August with the system launching in September.

View Capital Bikeshare in a larger map

A couple years in the future…the streets of DC are ruled by velo gangs who have turned the asphalt into a battleground as they loot lycra and cripple cranksets. Join DC cyclists for WABA’s post-apocalyptic Bike Prom on June 26th at the Black Cat. This fun evening will feature local DJs spinning tunes all night, all the dancing you can handle, ample bike parking, raffle prizes, photo booth, and crowning of the Bike Prom King and Queen.

INFO:

When: Saturday, June 26th, 9pm-curfew
Where: Black Cat Nightclub, mainstage - Map here>>
*WABA will be setting up additional bike racks out front of the Black Cat for the event
How Much: $10 for sale now online or at the door

RSVP on Facebook >>

FUN:

DJ’s:
DJ Natty Boom
DJ Jennder
DJ Tanner

Dress Up:
Dressing up for Bike Prom is strongly encouraged.  Here is your chance to sport your best post-apocalyptic prom attire.

King and Queen:
Want to be crowned King or Queen? Dress up according to the theme mentioned above and stop by the WABA table in the beginning of the night to sign up to compete for the crown. We will give you a ribbon that identifies you as a competitor and our judges will be walking around searching for the best dressed.

Raffle Prizes:
WABA will have a bunch of great raffle prizes from local and national sponsors. Raffle tickets will be sold the night of the event.BRING YOUR WABA MEMBER CARD AND GET A 1 FREE RAFFLE TICKET!

Membership:
You don’t have to be a WABA member to attend the Bike Prom, but it will probably help you get more raffle tickets and maybe even a free drink! Join WABA Today>>

Photos:
WABA will once again have a FREE photo booth and photographer ready to take your prom picture! The photo booth will be open from 9:00pm-11:00pm. All pictures are digital and will be posted to ourWABA Flickr Page following the event.

**Did you get a Prom photo taken last year? Relive last year’s fun and get pumped for this year’s party~

go to the WABA Flickr site>>

Prom Poster:
Download and print the poster for the 2010 Bike Prom.  Put up a poster at work, on your refrigerator, at your favorite hang out spot or on random bikes.

Download Poster (PDF) >>