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Despite this week’s late-season snowstorm, spring is swiftly approaching. Why not spend a Saturday with WABA at one of our adult education classes? Below, learn about the classes we offer. Go to the education calendar to register.

Adult Learn to Ride
This 3-hour class is designed to teach adults how to ride a bike. We start by teaching balance. Then, each rider proceeds at their own pace through starting, stopping, pedaling, and turning.

Our technique is fun, intuitive, and very successful, but it takes work! Please wear comfortable clothes and bring along some water, a snack, and weather-appropriate outerwear.

A rental bike and helmet for the day are included with your reservation. Be sure to provide your height so that we can provide you with a bicycle that fits you.

This class is for you if:

• You are at least 18 years old
• You have never tried to learn how to ride a bike
• You have tried to learn and have not been successful

Confident City Cycling
This 3-hour class is meant to be taken twice! After a brief introduction and some fundamental tips, we’ll split the class into two groups. Ideally, new students will take the “Trails” section the first time and join us again for the “Traffic” section. Experienced bicyclists can choose either section.

In the “Trails” group, we will cover basic bicycling information and on-bike skills. We’ll finish with a ride on a nearby trail and demonstrate proper passing, communication and trail etiquette. In the “Traffic” group, we will explore riding a bike on the roads with cars. We’ll cover on-road techniques and teach hazard avoidance maneuvers. We’ll finish with a ride on the roads and demonstrate techniques, highlight bike infrastructure, and put everything we’ve learned into practice. Both groups come back together for a demonstration of changing a flat tire.

Online study is required prior to arriving at class. Please complete the material on www.bikeed.org. This material is free, but is very thorough and can take up to 3 hours to complete. Don’t wait until the last minute!

Participants must bring their own bikes, helmets, and water. Clipless/SPD shoes/pedals are not recommended for this class. Participants will be required to sign liability waivers.

Register today! Not sure which class is right for you? Send an email to education@waba.org and we’ll help you find the ideal education experience.

Photo by Flickr user Joe in DC

Though winter is keeping skies gray and temperatures low, the groundhog missed his shadow. Spring is around the corner, and WABA’s education department is getting ready to go. The requests are flooding in for classes and seminars and youth events. Our calendar is filling up fast.

In D.C., the youth education program, aimed at kids in kindergarten through fifth grade, will be in schools across the District starting in March. WABA instructors bring bikes and helmets into classrooms to teach kids about riding well, staying safe on the streets, and to have a little fun while they’re at it. Any school that takes part in the Safe Routes to Schools program through the District Department of Transportation receives WABA’s bike classes for free.

This spring is also shaping up to be a record season for our Adult Education programs. In addition to classes in the District, we’ll have classes in Arlington, Alexandria, Bethesda, and more! Our Adult Learn to Ride classes can help anyone learn to ride a bike in just one afternoon. It may sound too good to be true, but we have a more than 75 percent success rate—and if one class doesn’t do it for you, we’ll put you into a second one for free! If you’re looking to get on a bike for fun or transportation, you should take our Confident City Cycling class for all the tips and techniques you’ll need to ride more comfortably and confidently.

And we’re always looking for organizations who are interested in bringing in WABA instructors for a lunchtime Bike Commuter Seminar. If your coworkers have questions about bike commuting, we’ll bring the answers during a one-hour brown-bag presentation.

Be sure to bookmark our handy education calendar for all the latest updates. As soon as our classes are scheduled, you can be the first to sign up for them. Until then, feel free to drop us a line at education@waba.org and we’ll be happy to answer your questions.

Due to the overwhelming popularity of our Instructor program, and the limited number of scholarships we are able to provide to September’s League Cycling Instructor Seminar, we are closing our scholarship applications early. The last day to submit an application will be this Friday, August 24th.

If you have already submitted an application, or are planning to before Friday, we should be able to announce the scholarship recipients sometime in early September.

For more info on the WABA Instructors, and a detailed description of the process, read this earlier blog post.

To submit an application for a scholarship to the LCI Seminar to be held Sept. 28-30, click here.

Remember, the new deadline for scholarship applications is this Friday, August 24th.

Our Adult Bicycling Education program helps nearly a thousand people each year to become better bicyclists. Our classes give them confidence and skills that make bicycling a part of their daily lives. But none of this would be possible without our enthusiastic and experienced instructors! Many of these men and women are not WABA staff. They are bicyclists just like you who want to give back by becoming certified as League Cycling Instructors and helping us teach. (And we should mention, these instructors are paid $50/hr for time spent teaching.)

To keep pace with the demand for our classes we need to grow our team of instructors, so if you are an enthusiastic and outgoing bicyclist, we want you! All it takes to get certified is a couple of your weekends this fall and a willingness to teach folks how to be better, more confident bicyclists. Additionally, for the first time ever, we’re offering you the chance to get certified for FREE.

Becoming a WABA Instructor

We hold our teachers to a high standard, both on bikes and in the classroom. So we’re committed to having every class on our schedule taught by instructors certified by the League of American Bicyclists. The League has been at the forefront of bicycle education for over a century, and the foundation of the program are the League Cycling Instructors. WABA requires that all of its education classes be taught by certified LCIs. Once you’ve been certified as an LCI, you’re not confined to the DC area though, you can teach the League’s Adult Bicycle Education curricula across the country.

We want to make becoming an LCI easy for you. Here are the basic steps:

1. Learn the content.  By completing our full Confident City Cycling course suite, you will experience WABA’s classes & learn the content you will be responsible for communicating to your future students.  The Confident City Cycling suite consists of three distinct sessions:
• Confident City Cycling (I): Trails.
• Confident City Cycling (II): Traffic.
• Confident City Cycling (III): Evaluation.
2. Join the group that created the content and the program. The LCI program was developed and is administered through the League of American Bicyclists.  To be certified, you must join the League.
3. Learn how to teach the content.  Attend our League Cycling Instructor training Seminar the weekend of September 28-30, at the WABA office.
• The training seminar is led by an experienced LCI Coach, assisted by WABA’s Adult Bicycle Education staff. Over the course of the weekend, you’ll learn to teach the League’s classes and be evaluated as a rider and as an instructor.

If you have already taken one or more of WABA’s Confident City Cycling classes, you only need to take those you have not already taken to be prepared for the Seminar.  To make it easy for everyone to get all the components necessary, we will be offering a one-day session of all three on September 8th.  So you can start from scratch, or you can finish what you’ve already started.  More details on the September 8th session can be found here (CCC) and here (CCC: Evaluation).

And if all of this sequencing seems a little confusing: we know.  Give us a call at 202-518-0524 ext. 212, or email safetyed@waba.org and we’ll talk you through it and figure out what you need to do to become an instructor.

WABA’s LCI Scholarships

For the first time ever, we are proud to announce that we are offering a limited number of full scholarships to our LCI Seminar on September 28-30. This is a unique opportunity to become certified to teach Adult Bike Education anywhere in the country, host your own classes as an independent instructor, or teach WABA’s classes at our standard instructor rate ($50/hour).

Our Scholarships include:

• The $300 fee for the LCI seminar itself.
• A guaranteed spot at the LCI seminar on Sept. 28-30.

Our Scholarships DO NOT include:

• The cost of joining the League of American Bicyclists.
• The cost of any CCC courses.
• Transportation, lodging, meals, or any other incidental expenses.

Additionally, by accepting a WABA Scholarship, you agree to teach  5 hours’ worth of our classes in the first year of your LCI certification.  After your 5 hours are completed, you will be entitled to our regular WABA Instructor rate ($50/hour).

Scholarship applications are due by Friday, September 14th, and recipients will be notified the week of September 17th.

You can apply for an LCI Scholarship here.

Register now for the next Confident City Cycling class, this Saturday, July 28th!

If you’re a fan of WABA’s Bike Education program, you may have noticed that our calendar has been pretty empty this summer. Well, that’s all about to change.

We’re excited to announce a new Confident City Cycling class this Saturday, July 28th, at 10:00 AM right in the heart of downtown DC. If you haven’t experienced our Confident City Cycling class, this is a fantastic opportunity to learn some skills and practice your riding technique with our team of top-notch bike educators and instructors.

And if you enjoyed our Confident City Cycling class earlier this year, why not tell a friend to come out and join us?

But we’re not stopping with just one new class…many more classes are coming for the fall 2012 season! You should probably subscribe to our google calendar to stay up-to-date!

Want to get the latest class schedule by email? Sign up for Event Hub here, the latest calendar is at the end of every email.

Class details:

Date: July 28th
Time: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Location: The Ellipse, 15th St. & Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20230

You can reserve a spot in the class for just $10, or you can take your chances and show up on Saturday for FREE as a walk-on. Walk-ons are limited to the first 10 people who arrive for a class and are not on the official attendee list.

You are responsible for providing your own bike and helmet, and you might want to consider water, sunscreen, and maybe a snack.

If you have any questions, please email safetyed@waba.org or call 202-518-0524 x212

What is a Confident City Cycling class?

Confident City Cycling (CCC) classes have options for riders of any experience or skill level, and are designed to teach the techniques and knowledge critical to riding safely on city streets.

After a short introduction/review of basic concepts, the class will be divided into two groups: a beginner or “Trails” group, and an intermediate or “Traffic” group.

The “Trails” group will discover basic bicycling concepts and on-bike skills such as: bike sizing and fit, helmet fit, pre-ride bike check, and bike vocabulary. On the bikes, drills will focus on bike handling basics: starting and stopping, riding in a straight line, scanning, shifting gears, and use of hand signals. This group will end with a short ride on a nearby trail to put everything into practice and to learn trail etiquette such as passing, signaling, and communication. The focus throughout is on control.

If you’ve already taken the “Trails” section of a Confident City Cycling class, please come back and join us again for the “Traffic” section!

The “Traffic” group will explore more involved bicycling concepts such as: vehicular cycling principles, roadway positioning, lane changes, turns, and communication with other road users. On-bike, the parking lot drills are a series of hazard avoidance maneuvers: rock dodge, quick stop, avoidance weave, and instant turn. This group will end with a short ride on local roads to put everything into practice and to experience truly confident city cycling. The focus throughout is on visibility & predictability.

On-line study is strongly recommended prior to arriving at class by registering and completing the material on www.bikeed.org.

Participants must bring their own bikes, helmets, and water. Clipless/SPD shoes/pedals are not recommended for this class. Participants will be required to sign liability waivers.

Sound fun? It is! Come out and join us this Saturday!

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’s Women on Bikes campaign is pleased to present the Tour de Bells, an inaugural ride open to all women and celebrating confident, fun and accessible bicycling for women of all levels of experience. The goal of this summer bike ride is to provide an easy and safe riding opportunity to women and to further encourage more women to simply go out and get on a bike!  The Tour de Bells is a leisurely, slow paced ride where no woman will be left behind.

On June 2nd, Tour de Bells women will ride together for ten miles around the city stopping at various famous (and not-so-famous) bell towers. Bring along a friend to help them gain confidence and knowledge about riding in the city in a comfortable setting. You can ride your own bike or you can also rent a bike through Bike and Roll’s Downtown location at the Old Post Office Pavilion. We’ll be starting and ending the ride at this location as well.

Click here to register for the Tour de Bells!

Tour de Bells

Date
June 2nd. Rain or Shine

Time
Meet-up begins at 9:30 AM to allow time to rent bikes.
Ride leaves promptly at 10:00 AM.

Start/End Location
Old Post Office Pavilion
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue

Distance
10 miles (approx.)

Please Note
All riders are required to wear helmets and sign a waiver (available on site) to participate.
Bring along a bike lock if you would like to go to the top of the Old Post Office bell tower (free).

Women on Bikes is dedicated to helping women ride bikes more often and more enjoyably, and so this ride is designed to be women only.

Click here to Register!

Click here to receive Women on Bikes emails!

Bike Rental Information

Rental bikes and helmets are available from our friends at Bike and Roll. Please note that we do not guarantee the availability of bikes on the day of the event, and it is up to you to ensure that you reserve a bike.

Bike and Roll, Downtown @ The Old Post Office Pavilion
1100 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
In the rear plaza, entrance off of 12th St. NW
202-842-2453

Saturday Hours: 9am – 9pm

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.

This post is part of the WABA Women Bicycling Project, 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, check out Quick Release, the WABA blog. To learn more and sign up to receive emails about this project, click here.

At long last, we are proud to present the audio recording of our Regional Women’s Forum, held last December.

WABA’s Women’s Forum Audio – December 12, 2011

This is the uncut audio from the event, and to help you identify the speakers, here is a list of the women who were on the panel:

Panel moderator

Jesse Cohn, WABA’s Women’s Bicycling  Advocacy & Outreach Intern

Panelists

Veronica Davis, Black Women Bike DC
Heather Deutsch, DDOT
Tracy Hadden-Loh, Rails-To-Trails
Ellen Jones, DC Bicycle Advisory Council
Katie Knight, Revolution Cycles
Finnuola Quinn, Alta Planning & Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling
Kate Ryan, WTOP news
Elizabeth Sherwood, BicycleSPACE
Katie Sihler, goDCgo

Sign up to receive emails about this project here.

Here at WABA, we are still thinking very much about this topic and the bigger questions it raises, as well as how it relates to the ideas that WABA talked about at our Regional Bike Summit in November. We will have some new projects here soon that will help further the conversation and keep the wheels turning. With that in mind, we would like to introduce our new Women’s Bicycling Advocacy & Outreach Interns: Keira Zitelman and Laura Jean Shane! We are very happy to have them both and we will have more details on their projects for the spring in the coming weeks.

One idea that came up again and again during the planning for the forum and afterwards was that this is not a gender-based problem. There is a large proportion of the general public (as high as 60%) who define themselves as “interested in cycling” but with significant reservations–about safety, about buying a bike, about infrastructure, about sweatiness and showers–and this group includes men and women, the old and the young, and people of every description and demographic.

These are the people who are on the cusp of taking up cycling for transportation, and at the core of our Women’s Bicycling Advocacy & Outreach project is the desire to determine what an organization with WABA’s reach and resources can do to convince women (and men) to take the plunge.

You can join the conversation by signing up to receive emails about our Women’s Bicycling Advocacy & Outreach project and by posting on this thread on the Washington Area Bike Forum.

WABA’s Workshop Series brings FREE bike education workshops to your neighborhood! You can read more about our Workshop Series here. Want to bring a WABA Workshop to your local bike shop? Just call them and ask them to request one! You can use our list of local bike shops in the region. Questions? Comments? Email daniel@waba.org or call 202-518-0524 x200.

Interested in finding out more about commuting by bicycle? The Washington Area Bicyclist Association and Spokes Etc. Bicycles in Alexandria are teaming up to bring you the Bike Commuter Clinic! This is the perfect opportunity to interest your friends and coworkers in bike commuting. Don’t forget, National Bike to Work Day is right around the corner! Sign up for the Bike Commuter Clinic  here.

Date
2/29/12

Time
6:30pm

Location
Spokes Etc. Alexandria
1545 N. Quaker Lane
Alexandria VA 22302

Join Daniel Hoagland, WABA’s DC Bike Ambassador Coordinator as he presents tips, tricks, and essential knowledge for commuting by bicycle in the Washington DC area. Daniel is a League Cycling Instructor, has taught many different cycling classes, and is heavily involved in community cycling resources throughout the area.

The clinic will address safe bicycle commuting techniques and equipment, riding in traffic, safe routes for commuting, preparing for your ride, and more. Plus, we’ll show you a wide variety of bikes and accessories you can use to get you ready to ride. We’ll even have a couple of commuter bikes set up and ready to roll.

Refreshments will be served. Due to space constraints, you must register beforehand here. For more information, call Spokes Etc Alexandria at 703-820-2200 or email Nate Graham, Communications Manager, at ngraham@spokesetc.com Thank you!

This winter, we’re looking for the brave, the bold, and those willing to get cold. We’re having a bike education class for our committed Bike Ambassador volunteers on Saturday, January 21st. While this class is primarily for the Bike Ambassador volunteers, it is also open to the general public.

The class will be our Confident City Cycling 1 curriculum, which covers basic bicycling information and on-bike skills. Half of this class will be in the WABA classroom and half will be on-bike practicing bike handling skills.

Please register by clicking here.

You might be asking “Who are the Bike Ambassador volunteers?”

The Bike Ambassador program is our way of outsourcing our bike outreach and education. Bike Ambassador volunteers are just like you–people who love bikes and bicycling. We give them tools and resources to go back into their own communities and workplaces and help WABA spread the word about bicycling. They answer questions, attend events, and generally act as one-stop mobile information booths for all things bike-related. It’s a lot of fun, and we’re always looking for more volunteers.

You can fill out this form, and our Bike Ambassador Program Coordinator will let you know how you can join the Ambassadors!

Last Thursday, The Bike Rack offered a new educational opportunity to its customers and we were happy to help out. Our Bike Commuting Seminar has been one of the services that we offer to are employers looking to show the benefits of biking and physical activity to their employees.  Traditionally, we have held the class as a “brown bag” lunchtime education session for employees, complete with a slideshow, folding bike demonstration, free maps and guides for attendees, and a discounted WABA membership offer.

But The Bike Rack wanted to offer the class not to its employees but to its customers–giving non-commuter cyclists a chance to ask questions and current bike commuters an opportunity to expose their friends to the idea in comfortable environment. We worked with them to be able to provide the class for free, and as a result, we may have created some new bike commuters! More than 20 curious bicyclists packed the bike shop and helped themselves to free wine and pizza provided by local pizzeria Pizza No. 17.

We want to thank Chuck and the rest of The Bike Rack staff for inviting us out to the shop and for giving us the opportunity to expand our bike education offerings, and for providing such a great event space!

But one class isn’t enough…we want to extend this opportunity to other bike shops throughout the region. We want to give you the opportunity to bring your friends out so they can learn about bike commuting in a fun, easy way. So let your local bike shop know that you would be happy to see a class offered there. Let them know that they can get in touch with us to set it up.

And of course, our Bike Commuter Seminars are still available to employers as a great way to encourage bicycle commuting, provide a little education to your employees and make some headway on that “Bicycle Friendly Business” application…

Contact info for Bike Commuter Seminars:
Daniel Hoagland
202-518-0524 x200
daniel@waba.org