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Ride of Silence

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Ride of Silence

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Vision Zero

The Ride of Silence is an annual, worldwide opportunity to pause during the great joy of Bike Month to honor and remember those who cannot be here to celebrate with us. In DC, join us May 20, 2026, at Freedom Plaza.

Jan 3, 2026

An alert sent out by the Coalition for Smarter Growth calls on members of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, which holds its next meeting on…

To NCRTPB: please reject I-495 Southside beltway expansion and demand better alternatives

Advocacy

Letters

transit

walking

DC Council

VDOT

I write letters

CSG

Oct 10, 2025

Introductory remarks before the 2025 DC Ride of Silence. As prepared for delivery, May 15, 2025. Originally written for the 2021 Ride, and updated annually since.

On the Ride of Silence (2025)

Advocacy

Events

#bikeDC

#walkDC

sitDC

DC Council

Congress

Ride of Silence

US DOT

DDOT

Vision Zero

May 21, 2025

Good Molasses Cookies—no exaggeration

food

Molasses cookies just as good as they say they are.

Mar 30, 2025

Letters to other states’ US Senators may not mean much, but sometimes it might help to try. As a DC resident whose grew up, and whose parents still live, in Michigan, when I…

Letters to Senators

Advocacy

Congress

I write letters

Mar 10, 2025

DC Executive Agencies and the Council Committees that oversee them

DC Council

It can be hard to figure out which Committee oversees a given agency. Maybe this’ll help.

Feb 23, 2025

50 min

DC Council committees comparison, 2025 edition

DC Council

New Council term, new committees and new committee members. Who ended up where?

Feb 22, 2025

As a onetime member of [state] government “human workforce” who became a budget cut 15 yrs ago—and spent over 7 months unemployed thereafter—a couple things I think of every…

9 min

On shrinking government

Feb 14, 2025

2024 Endorsements!

ANC

campaign2024

Transit

Bikes

Housing

Update Oct. 19: Two more endorsements! See below.

Sep 18, 2024

In 2023, my partner and I joined Greater Greater Washington’s contingent in the DC Pride march, and unexpectedly ended up getting to carry the banner. Together with the…

More bikes, more homes, more transit, for all!

ANC

Transit

Bikes

Housing

Aug 24, 2024

Greater Greater Washington sends candidates for ANC seats a questionnaire as part of their endorsement process. They warn that Surveymonkey won’t save partial answers, so…

6 min

GGW Endorsement Questionnaire Answers

ANC

campaign2024

Transit

Bikes

Housing

Aug 11, 2024

Introductory remarks before the 2024 DC Ride of Silence. As prepared for delivery, May 15, 2024. Originally written for the 2021 Ride, and updated annually since.

12 min

On the Ride of Silence (2024)

Advocacy

Events

#bikeDC

#walkDC

sitDC

DC Council

Congress

Ride of Silence

US DOT

DDOT

Vision Zero

May 15, 2024

DC Executive Agencies and the Council Committees that oversee them

It can be hard to figure out which Committee oversees a given agency. Maybe this’ll help.

Oct 29, 2023

Last month, the Office of the DC Auditor reported that, as DCist headlined it, Vision Zero Doesn’t Have Enough Funding, Staffing To Succeed. ‘“The Bowser Administration…

463 min

To DC Council: Please reject the Mayor’s street safety cuts

Advocacy

bikes

Letters

transit

walking

#bikeDC

#walkDC

bike lanes

DC Council

DDOT

I write letters

Vision Zero

WABA

Apr 4, 2023

The National Park Service is, through mid-week, accepting comments on a proposed scope for an Environmental Assessment of potential improvements to the Mount Vernon Trail…

On Improving the Mount Vernon Trail

#bikeDC

#bikeNOVA

#bikeVA

#walkDC

Advocacy

Arlington

bikes

I write letters

Mount Vernon Trail

National Park Service

Northern Virginia

Public comment

walking

Jan 16, 2023

7 min

DC Council committees comparison, 2023 edition

DC Council

It’s time for Council’s biennial post-election shuffle. Who ended up where?

Dec 25, 2022

Last month, the National Park Service proposed ending the 28-month experiment with a (nearly) car-free Upper Beach Drive in DC’s Rock Creek Park and, in order to “improve…

5 min

On Beach Drive

Advocacy

bikes

Public comment

walking

#bikeDC

#walkDC

car culture

Congress

covid-19

I write letters

National Park Service

Rock Creek Park

Aug 11, 2022

Introductory remarks before the 2021 DC Ride of Silence. As prepared for delivery, May 19, 2021.

On the Ride of Silence (2021)

Advocacy

Events

May 19, 2021

comment submitted to the Notice of Intent to Install Protected Bike Lanes on Virginia Avenue NW.

Virginia Ave NW bike lane comments

#bikeDC

#walkDC

Advocacy

bike lanes

bikes

bus lanes

DDOT

Foggy Bottom

Public comment

transit

walking

Apr 21, 2021

comment submitted to the Connecticut Avenue NW Reversible Lane Safety and Operations Study meeting on March 30

Comments on Connecticut Ave NW study

#bikeDC

#walkDC

Advocacy

bike lanes

bikes

car culture

Connecticut Ave

DDOT

Forest Hills

Public comment

Tenleytown

walking

Woodley Park

Mar 30, 2021

Text submitted as comment to the Rehabilitation of Massachusetts Avenue NW project meeting; links have been added

Comments on Massachusetts Ave NW reconstruction project plan

Feb 23, 2021

This is an actual post on the LinkedIn page of Caltrans, the California Department of Transportation.

why. why would you do this.

accessibility

jobhunting

Uncategorized

web

Oct 5, 2020

The revised Vision Zero bill, now known as the Vision Zero Enhancement Omnibus Amendment Act of 2020, passed out of DC Council’s Transportation Committee last week. It’s a…

To DC Council, on Yesterday’s Budget “Dumpster Fire”

Advocacy

DC Council

I write letters

JUFJ

Letters

On the Vision Zero Omnibus bill (B23-0288)

Advocacy

bikes

Letters

Jul 16, 2020

Dupont Circle’s ANC 2B, as part of its regular monthly meeting (PDF), will this week discuss (…again…) the question of “should 17th St NW have one or two protected bike…

6 min

On the proposed 17th St NW bike lanes

#bikeDC

Advocacy

bike lanes

bikes

DDOT

Dupont

I write letters

Letters

walking

Jul 7, 2020

So there’s a fair number of resources out there about working from home during the pandemic, and my university among I’m sure many others has also sent out a bunch of stuff…

On Graduating into an Emergency

coronavirus

covid-19

graduation

jobhunting

Uncategorized

Mar 20, 2020

Update, March 2021: They did it!…sort of. DDOT did get a brand new shiny website this winter, but now none of the old project links work. Try searching for U Street…

A (non-Swiftian) modest proposal

DDOT

web

Jan 23, 2020

Finally got around to sending the letter to Council i drafted after Aimee was hit last week….

More blood spilled on DC streets last week—how much will it take?

#bikeDC

Advocacy

bike lanes

bikes

DC Council

I write letters

Letters

Vision Zero

walking

Nov 7, 2019

Comments submitted in response to the Penn Ave West Streetscape Project 2019 initial concept design presentation:

Penn Ave West Streetscape proposal comments

#bikeDC

Advocacy

bike lanes

bikes

DDOT

Foggy Bottom

I write letters

Vision Zero

Jul 16, 2019

Mayor Bowser, Members of Council, and Members of ANCs 4A and 1C,

Vision How Many? (Part II)

#bikeDC

@darsal

Advocacy

bike lanes

bikes

DC Council

for dave

I write letters

Letters

Vision Zero

walking

Apr 22, 2019

Dear Mayor Bowser and Ward 4, Ward 1, and At-Large Members of Council,

Vision How Many?

#bikeDC

@darsal

Advocacy

bike lanes

bikes

DC Council

for dave

I write letters

Vision Zero

walking

Apr 22, 2019

[this was initially written as a comment to a friend’s facebook post, but I decided to make it its own thing…]

7 min

On this week’s Special General Convention of the United Methodist Church

church

GC2019

queer

UMC

Feb 27, 2019

It’s the last day to submit comments on DDOT’s proposals to add peak-hour-and-direction bus lanes on 16th St NW. Here is the District’s page on the project, and here is the…

On the 16th St NW bus lanes proposal

DC, DDOT, Advocacy, CSG,

Oct 3, 2017

Via Bike Pittsburgh, another piece about PA joining the US Bicycle Route System, which was announced by the Adventure Cycling Association a month ago.

US Bike Route System comes to PA. Pittsburgh is still just a spur.

Advocacy

bikes

Great Allegheny Passage

Montour Trail

Pittsburgh

US Bicycle Route 50

Jun 20, 2017

Lying is the worst of all evils. Everything else that is diabolical comes from it. And we have been lied to; public opinion is constantly deceived. Not a page of a…

What cowards we are, thinking ourselves above all this, but letting it happen.

Quote

Dec 31, 2016

Dr. Heinrich Koppers, a German inventor, developed a process to distill and capture the by-products of coal combustion…. Dr. Koppers developed his new process in Germany…

Those Marvellous Mellons

coke

history

Koppers

Mellon

Pittsburgh

Quote

WWI

May 20, 2016

In order for low-income housing to be acceptable to the general public in the US, the buildings must look poor and smell poor. Even a cheap grade of deodorant must be used…

“The poor must be kept in their place and made to grovel.…”

Quote

Mar 11, 2016

If, like me, you’ve ever wondered where some of the Pittsburgh region’s odder town boundary lines came from…

Gerrymandering: Not just for Congressional districts…

Pittsburgh

Quote

Mar 3, 2016

A fun little story about sledding and cars…

On sledding kids and cars

Ann Arbor

car culture

Dec 15, 2015

The questions “who is an American?” and “what is an American?” were central political issues in the first half of the 20th Century. They have reemerged early in the…

What is an “American”, anyway?

Quote

Dec 11, 2015

Today in the PG: “Viewing Oakland through the windshield of a Port Authority bus driver: Bus drivers describe dangerous behavior of pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists”

Windshields are surprisingly effective at deflecting fault

Advocacy

bikes

car culture

Oakland

Pittsburgh

Port Authority

transit

walking

Nov 25, 2015

New York’s “Bike Snob” has an excellent column in Transportation Alternatives’s Reclaim Magazine today on the need to stop using ‘accident’ to refer to traffic crashes.

Our lives are worthy. This is political.

Advocacy

bikes

car culture

drop the A word

Oakland

Pittsburgh

Vision Zero

walking

Oct 27, 2015

Kelly Renee Gissendaner is a mother, a Christian, a student of theology — and the only woman on Georgia’s death row.

5 min

‘For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them.’

#KellyOnMyMind

Sep 29, 2015

Councilman Ricky Burgess recently introduced bill 2015-2001 to Pittsburgh’s Council; you can read the full text on the City’s website, but the gist of it is, community…

On Bill 2015-2001, Historic preservation

Advocacy

Pittsburgh

Sep 22, 2015

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins tonight at sundown. Several years ago, I found this to share with a few friends; now I share it with the rest of y’all…

May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year

Uncategorized

Sep 13, 2015

“Community based. Pedestrian friendly. Transit oriented. Mixed in uses. High density. Sustainable. Livable.

“Are we working out of conventional wisdom or are we trying to think about the world that might be here 10 years from now?”

car culture

North Side

Pittsburgh

Jun 23, 2015

this Court is not only moved by the logic that the fundamental right to marry is a personal right to be exercised by the individual, but also rejects Defendants’ contention…

“We are a better people than what [‘defense of marriage’] laws represent”

Quote

Uncategorized

May 20, 2014

Some things worth reading, with thanks to ‏@emily_wk, who asked for “writing…that talks about cyclists as an oppressed class…. To wit: I wonder if a reason that it’s hard to…

On Cycling and Life: 3 Meditations

bikes

car culture

feminism

rape culture

sexism

Aug 14, 2013

When I was about six years old, we had just gotten cable so that we could get the premium-tier channel that many of our local baseball team’s games were on. When a game…

Mom’s Cookies, or Why I’ve Never Minded Losing Teams Much

food

Apr 13, 2010