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Posts Tagged ‘women & bicycles’

Tomorrow night, noted bike activist Elly Blue, author of Taking the Lane zine, will present Dinner & Bikes along with Joshua Ploeg and Joe Biel. This is the first time that Dinner & Bikes, a somewhat regular touring event, will visit Washington, D.C. Dinner & Bikes is on Tues., May 21 at All Souls Unitarian Church. Tickets are $20.

Attendees will enjoy a gourmet vegan and gluten-free buffet by Joshua Ploeg while participating in an interactive presentation about transportation equity by Elly Blue—followed by a near-complete excerpt from Joe Biel’s forthcoming documentary Aftermass, a history of bicycle activism in Portland. After, we’ll have some time to purchase books and get them signed at the Tour’s traveling food- and bicycle-themed pop-up bookstore.

This year’s stop in D.C. is sponsored by the Capital Spokeswomen and WABA’s Women & Bicycles program, who are the beneficiaries of the evening.

For more information and to purchase tickets, go here.

Last Sunday, WABA’s Women & Bicycles outreach program hosted a Mother’s Day ride in affiliation with BikeArlington and Black Women Bike DC. Convoys beginning in Silver Spring, Rosslyn, and D.C. met at Hains Point for a picnic and a few easy laps. The ride coincided with Cyclofemme‘s Global Women’s Cycling Day.

See more photos here. Did you take photos on Sunday? Add them to our Flickr pool!

 

 

Ride with us in celebration of Mothers of the world and women who bike throughout the world. This Sunday our Women & Bicycles program is joining  BikeArlington and Black Women Bike DC to commemorate Mother’s Day and CycloFemme, the global celebration of women bicycling.

The Mother’s Day Picnic Ride begins in three locations throughout the region and we’ll all meet up at Hains Point for celebratory laps and picnic snacks. To get a better look at the ride routes check out our event map. This is a family-friendly, co-ed “sun dress” ride. We’re inviting the whole family to share the bike love and for the men out there, we encourage you to show your support by wearing your favorite sun dress!

To learn more and share with friends, visit our event page.

Ride with the Marlyand group
Please join WABA at the Silver Spring Metro Station at 12pm. We’ll go for an hour-long leisure ride through the city and meet up at Hains Point. After the picnic, you’ll have the choice to take the Metro home, or return to Silver Spring around 3:30pm.

Ride with the DC group
Meet up with the Silver Spring convoy at 12:45pm at the Columbia Heights Civic Plaza (14th St NW and Park St Nw)

Ride with the Virginia group
Please join BikeArlington at the Ballston Metro Station at 12pm. We’ll go for an hour-long ride on some of Arlington’s off street trails and bike lanes through the city, and we will end the ride at Hains point. After the picnic, you’ll have the choice to take the Metro home, or ride home with us.

New to bicycling?
Fantastic! We’re so glad you can join us. Group rides are great opportunities to hone your bike skills through experience and through conversation. We will start and end the ride with a quick skillshare on bicycling and city streets.

What to bring
Your bicycle and helmet are required for this ride. We also suggest bringing water, sunscreen, a picnic item to enjoy by yourself or share, clothing (your sun dress!) that will keep you comfortable depending on the weather, and bring your friends and family. We will have a bike pump, and basic repair tools at the start of all the rides.

 

 

What is Cyclofemme?  They’re a socially-driven grass-roots celebration of women on bikes, “We are of a growing community, for a growing community, and 100% volunteer-based. Our annual Mother’s Day ride unites riders, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity or bicycle preference to share in the joy of cycling.”  CycloFemme is a day of action, a day to follow through with our pledge to get more women on bikes, and a day to hail the growth of the bicycle movement.  In just one year CycloFemme has gone from 163 registered group rides throughout the world, to 227 rides, and we’re so happy to join in on the celebration. #WeRideTogether

Sandy Frank is one of the Women & Bicycles program’s Roll Models. Her experience with biking in D.C. was jumpstarted when she won a free bike in a WABA giveaway. Part of her story is included in the Women & Bicycles booklet, which we’ll debut at the program’s open house tomorrow. We’re running the entirety of Sandy’s personal testimony below.

It was a year and a half ago when I received an email about a free bike giveaway contest that WABA was hosting in wards 7 and 8. I thought to myself,  ”Who and what is a WABA?” but knew I would enter.

So at 2 a.m., after night out bowling with friends, I wrote a short essay about why I should win the bike. To be honest, I wasn’t sure that everything I wrote would actually come true (such as discovering new parts of D.C., riding into the sunset, riding into the sunrise, riding for no reason at all, pushing my body beyond its physical limits, making a meaningful impact on the environment and encouraging others to ride as well), but I hadn’t owned a bicycle since I was a kid and I desperately wanted one. I thought, “What could I lose?” and entered.

About a month after entering, I found out that I was a finalist and shortly thereafter that I had won. I won! From the day I received that phone call from WABA Outreach Coordinator Nelle Pierson telling me she was on her way to drop off my new baby, to the dance I did when she presented me with it, to right now, I am proud to say that I have logged many, many miles (only falling once!). I’ve cycled in the heat, in the cold, early mornings, very late nights, and even in the rain, might I add. I’ve met new friends, discovered a strength I didn’t know I had, encouraged friends to get bikes, and convinced a few to ride a bike after many years of not being on one. I have a few friends who are now interested in learning to ride.

Most of all,  I’ve discovered a passion that has been lost since childhood. While I’m still learning how to be a respectful, safe, and confident city bike rider, I can truthfully say that my life has been enriched and forever changed due to WABA, Black Women Bike DC, BicycleSpace, and Dandies and Quaintrelles.

I’ll end with a quote I love and couldn’t agree with more. It says, “You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy a bike and that’s pretty close.”

Thank you to everyone at WABA!

Stay up-to-date with the Women & Bicycles program through its Facebook page or subscribe to the email list. 

After officially launching our Women & Bicycles Program, we’re ready to unveil the program’s 10 Roll Models! You likely already know this program is a season of workshops, rides, and meetups for women who already ride bikes to join together with women who are interested in bicycling.

The Roll Models provide a critical link between these two parties, so we’re incredibly fortunate to have 10 women who are dedicating their time and energy to getting their peers on bikes. Mentorship is the core aspect of Women & Bicycles: Throughout May and June, Roll Models will host friendly, facilitated roundtable discussions with the help of the Women & Bicycles workbook. Throughout the season they’ll follow-up with these soon-t0-be bicyclists to the best of their abilities, and be the resource to keep them rolling.

But our official Roll Models aren’t the program’s only mentors. We encourage all WABA supporters to reach out to women in their lives who might be interested in the program and encourage them to participate. The best way to do this is to get them signed up for the Women & Bicycles Bulletin to find out about upcoming events.

Check out short profiles of all the Roll Models below the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Following a successful match-grant fundraiser and a generous grant from the League of American Bicyclists, WABA’s Women & Bicycles program officially launched on Sun., March 3 at Busboys & Poets. The party followed a group ride hosted by Black Women Bike and preceded the League’s Women’s Cycling Forum, a kickoff to its yearly National Bike Summit.

Over 150 people filled Busboys’ Langston Room: Women who ride bikes in the D.C. area had the chance to hang out with attendees of the National Bike Summit and talk about what other communities are doing to get more ladies on bikes.

WABA’s Women & Bicycles program has been in the making for several years. A December 2011 Women’s Forum hosted by WABA clarified a number of issues that have kept some area women from cycling as much as they might like to; from there, Women & Bicycles began to take shape.

The program will run from April to October and is based on the involvement of 10 “Roll Models.” Those role models, who we’ll introduce here soon, have been asked to pull from their personal networks women who are hesitant to bike in D.C. and its suburbs. Through a series of private small-group events and public rides and workshops, the Roll Models and Women & Bicycles coordinator Nelle Pierson will teach the basic skills needed for cycling from point A to point B.

At Sunday’s kickoff, Portland, Ore.-based author and activist Elly Blue spoke of the importance of community and why it matters. Blue noted that when she first attended the National Bike Summit, its attendees were largely male; the increasing inclusion and presence of women at local and national levels indicates that their interests as cyclists are being taken seriously. Veronica Davis, of Black Women Bike, reiterated the necessity of inclusivity in bike advocacy.

We can’t wait to share with you the progression of Women & Bicycles. Its first event is on March 30. For more information, visit the Women & Bicycles page on our website and watch our blog for updates on how you can get involved. If you’d like to interact with other D.C.-area women who bike for fun and transportation, check out the Women & Bicycles Facebook page.

See photos of the ride and the party below the jump (there’s more on Flickr!). Did you take any photos of either event? Add them to our Flickr pool!

Read the rest of this entry »

Shane Farthing, WABA’s executive director, will be on the first hour of WAMU’s The Kojo Nnamdi Show today at noon. He and Bike Arlington’s program manager, Chris Eatough, will discuss bike safety, rules of the road, and our own Women & Bicycles program.

We’ve been talking about it forever, so we’re excited to announce that WABA’s Women & Bicycles program will officially launch this Sunday evening.

The sold-out launch party, at the City Vista Busboys & Poets, precedes the first event of the League of American Bicyclists’ National Bike Summit, the Women’s Bicycling Forum, which will feature Janette Sadik-Khan, Tammy Duckworth, and Georgena Terry.

Other bike-world luminaries will be present at our launch party, including Taking the Lane Media founder and Everyday Bicycling author Elly Blue, Director of Women Bike Carolyn Szczepanski, and co-founder of Black Women Bike:DC Veronica Davis. Women from across the country who have made cycling a part of their lifestyle will be in town, so it’s a great opportunity to show off a program we’ve spent years developing.

Before the party, Black Women Bike DC will lead a ladies-only, hour-long bike ride around the city. Click here for more information on the launch party and the ride.

If you weren’t able to reserve your spot, we still encourage you to attend. Even though the room we rented will be at capacity, there is plenty of room to come hang out with other bike advocates and supporters  in the Loft.

Women & Bicycles is fully funded, thanks to a $15,000 grant from the League of American Bicyclists’ Women Bike initiative, a national effort to get more women on bikes through local programs like ours, and thanks to your generous support. We couldn’t have done it without you, and we can’t wait to celebrate what will be a great season of events, activities, and educational experiences for D.C.-area women.

If you were can’t attend Sunday’s party, please join us for future Women & Bicycles events! We’ll keep you updated on our blog, or you can sign up to receive updates here.

 

The face of bicycling is changing in cities across the country, and nowhere is that more evident than in the nation’s capital. Since 2004, Washington, D.C., has seen a 175 percent increase in cycling and a 300 percent increase in its bike lane network. Despite these incredible gains, the number of women on bikes has remained steady at 23 percent.

With a $15,000 grant from the League of American Bicyclists, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association is launching an initiative that will further elevate the D.C. region as a national leader in encouraging more women to ride.

WABA’S Women & Bicycles program will kick off on Sun., March 3, with a launch party from 8 to 11:30 p.m. at Busboys and Poets (1025 5th St. NW). Featured speakers will include Nelle Pierson, WABA’s outreach coordinator, and Elly Blue, founder of Taking the Lane Media and author of Everyday Bicycling, an accessible, easy-to-read guide to cycling for transportation.

WABA’s program is the result of several years of discussion and feedback, which concluded that a strong community is essential to getting more women on bikes. Women & Bicycles is encouragement-based: 10 Roll Models will be identified, then asked to tap into their personal networks to loop in women who might be hesitant to ride a bike for transportation. A series of small social gatherings hosted by Roll Models and practical-skill workshops and group rides run by WABA will engage Women & Bicycles participants and provide them with all the resources they’ll need to bike confidently in the D.C. area. WABA is in the process of selecting Roll Models, and the program will be underway by late March.

“Generally speaking, women admit to being more intimidated by the perceived risk of bicycling, maintaining appearances, and the responsibilities of being a primary caretaker in the household,” says Pierson. “So we’re going to tackle these issues together at meetups, workshops, and group rides, and we’re going to have a lot of fun in the process.”

Supporting such innovative efforts is a key aspect of the League’s new Women Bike initiative, the first national advocacy campaign aimed at engaging, empowering, and elevating women in all aspects of the bicycle movement.

“One of our primary goals is to seed, support, and spread new campaigns and ideas that are getting more women on bikes,” say Carolyn Szczepanski, the League’s director of communications and Women Bike. “WABA has been at the forefront of women’s outreach for years and we’re excited to partner with them on a pilot project that could be a model for communities nationwide.”

On the heels of WABA’s launch party, the League will bring together hundreds of leaders from across the country at the second annual National Women’s Bicycling Forum. On March 4 at the Renaissance Washington (999 9th St. NW), more than 25 diverse female leaders from bike advocacy, industry, policy and racing will present at the all-day forum. Keynote speakers will include Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, and industry trailblazer Georgena Terry.

Registration for the public is $85 and media is invited to attend. Learn more about the Women’s Forum here. Learn more and get involved with WABA’s Women & Bicycles campaign here.

In addition to this fantastic news, we’d like to thank our members and friends who have so generously given to Women & Bicycles. Were it not for you, we wouldn’t have met and exceeded last December’s match grant or continued to receive donations well into the new year. Your support continues to be critical in raising funds and raising awareness for WABA’s work, and we can’t wait to show you the progress of the Women & Bicycles program.

 

It feels like we’ve been talking about our Women & Bicycles program forever. We’re preparing to finally, finally launch it officially in March—and we’ve got a lot to do before then. We sent out the first Women & Bicycles Bulletin to those who signed up for our email list today, and we’re reposting the information here. If you’d like to receive these updates (they’re bi-weekly notices about what’s going on in the program) in your inbox, sign up here if you haven’t already. Otherwise, read on!

A brief review of the Women & Bicycles philosophy: This program is designed to create opportunities for helpful exchanges between two different groups, women who already bicycle and women who are interested in bicycling. To do this, we’re sponsoring a season of workshops, rides, and meetups, all of which will encourage skillsharing. This type of community-based guidance has worked for ages, but it’s a new approach to getting more people on bicycles; WABA’s program is the first of its kind in the country.

Here’s some news and ways you can get involved:

Become a Roll Model
We are looking for 10 women to serve as the program’s bicycling mentors, known as Roll Models. For more information on the role of Roll Models, expectations, time commitments, and the many benefits of getting involved, click here to visit our Roll Model Application. Take a look, pass it along, and apply! (Please submit by Friday, Feb. 22nd.)

Our Logo
We released our logo a few weeks ago. Some people love it, some don’t heart the hearts, and some have questioned the utility of the logo-bike’s wheels. We appreciate the feedback! Women & Bicycles is intended to initiate a regional discussion about perceptions of gender and bicycling. We’re keeping the logo: It originated from a doodle that program coordinator Nelle has drawn on notebooks, dry-erase boards, and thank-you notes since she started biking.

Interact With Us
We’ve set up a Facebook page that we hope will become a consistent resource for all women who bike. It will serve as a place to ask questions, post ideas, upcoming events, new discoveries, and share general bicycling cheer. Click here to join. It’s a private group, but we encourage you to invite your friends.

And we’re on Instagram! Check us out, follow our account (“womenandbicycles”), and tag your women-and-bikey photos with #womenbikeDC. Your photos will be posted directly to our website to show the program in action.

Women & Bicycles Launch Party, Presented by the League of American Bicyclists
We’re throwing a party with Women Bike, the League of American Bicyclists’ National women’s outreach program. It’s also the kick-off to the second annual National Women’s Cycling Forum, part of the National Bike Summit. Join us for drinks, hear updates on the program, learn about what the League’s doing, and interact with women from all across the U.S. who bike for transportation. Click here to learn more and register for the Launch Party.

Register for the National Women’s Bicycling Forum
The day after the launch party is the National Women’s Bicycling Forum, the opening event of the National Bike Summit. The Forum hosts groups and individuals who work throughout the country to get more women on bikes. Check out the program and you’ll notice there are many D.C.-area bike advocacy stars in the line-up. Click here to learn more and register for the Women’s Bicycling forum.

We hope to see you online and in real life soon!