A few thoughts I’ve had since then, many inspired by a 2018 article in the Minnesota Star Tribune (Otárola 2018) indicating that the city of Minneapolis was beefing up shoveling enforcement and “considering whether to take responsibility for plowing its nearly 2,000 miles of sidewalks.”

@online{swiderski2026,
  author = {Swiderski, J. I.},
  title = {On Walkability in Winter, {Part} {II}},
  date = {2026-02-14},
  url = {https://jski.net/posts/on-winter-walkability.html},
  langid = {en}
}

This year, I even managed to write to 10 members of DC Council¹ (and their Schedulers and/or Chiefs of Staff) to invite them to join us in early January — this is the time of year when usually I start thinking about the thing, but figure four months out is still way too early to expect anyone else to. This year, I just went for it the evening of Monday, January 5… and by the end of Wednesday had received responses from almost half:

• Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto’s scheduler wrote back to say “Thank you for the invitation and greatly appreciate the advanced notice! I will circle back closer to the ride to let you know if the Councilmember and any of our team members are available to join.”

• Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker’s Deputy Chief of Staff said, “Thanks for the early reminder to get this on the calendar!”

• Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen’s Chief of Staff replied “Thanks so much…. We’ll hold that date on the Councilmember’s calendar.”

• Ward 7 Councilmember Wendell Felder’s Office Manager & Scheduler replied that “Unfortunately, the Councilmember will be out of town on this date, but I will pass the invite along to the rest of our staff.”

• As of February 7, the offices of Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, Ward 3 Councilmember Matt Frumin, Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, At-Large Councilmembers Christina Henderson and Robert White, and Council Chair Phil Mendelson have not responded.

May is Bike Month — in much of the US, anyway — a time for longtime riders to shake off the winter’s hibernation and to welcome new riders to the roads with Bike & Roll to School Day and Bike to Work Day. The Ride of Silence is an opportunity to pause during the great joy of Bike Month to honor and remember those who cannot be here to celebrate with us.

As the national Ride of Silence site puts it, “Although cyclists have a legal right to be on the road with motorists, [drivers] often [aren’t] aware of these rights, and sometimes not aware of the cyclists themselves.” So, this ride is a combination of a funeral procession and a statement: People on bikes are here, where we have every right to be. These are our streets, too; we are not going anywhere. See us.

I have led DC’s edition of the Ride each year since 2019. As a friend of mine once wrote, “Vision Zero isn’t a cycling program. It looks like that [in DC] because [the cycling community] is vocal about it, but the tens of thousands of people a year who die in car crashes all deserved better laws, practices, and designs.” So each year the DC Ride of Silence honors Dave, and all those killed on our streets, by bringing the ride to those with the power over our laws, practices, and designs.

• We meet at Freedom Plaza, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the Wilson Building, DC’s city hall and statehouse, and we pass by the US Capitol, because we need better laws from both our local and national leaders.
• We pass through Judiciary Square, home of our local and federal police, courts, and prosecutors, because we need better practices from those who are supposed to enforce those laws—which doesn’t have to require putting people in cages, but does require taking their vehicles and driving privileges away when they misuse them.
• We end in Navy Yard, outside the headquarters of the District and US Departments of Transportation, and the offices of many of my colleagues in private transportation firms, because we need better designs from our local, national, and consulting planners and engineers, designs that make spaces for people, not just the cars some drive.

Please mark your calendars and plan to join us on May 20, 2026. Please wear white if you can; wear red if you would like to signify you were injured or a family member killed while riding. If you would like to join us but don’t have a bike, there are a couple bikeshare stations near Freedom Plaza—see the Capital Bikeshare map for details. (If you aren’t able to ride, you are still welcome to come to Freedom Plaza and see us off!)

Watch our listing at RideOfSilence.org, this page, and Bluesky and/or Mastodon for updates. Email dcros@fastmail.us with any questions.

I am writing you as members of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board to ask that you vote to keep the flawed I-495 Southside Express Lanes project out of the long-range plan Visualize 2050.

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has ignored the concerns of local communities like Prince George’s County, the City of Alexandria, and impacted neighborhoods in Fairfax County, and likewise ignored regional calls to study alternatives to highway widening. Over a year ago, the TPB board allowed VDOT more time to address these concerns (induced traffic on connecting roads, risks to future Metro, failure to study alternatives) but VDOT has chosen not to do this and simply wants to plow ahead.

Frankly, even if VDOT had meaningfully engaged with Prince George’s, Alexandria, and Fairfax communities and gotten them on board with the project, widening 495 would still be a bad idea. As with nearly every other road widening project ever studied, widening 495 will do nothing long-term to reduce congestion; it will simply induce further use of the road and “necessitate” further expansion at a future date. If VDOT is truly interested in providing additional travel choices, reducing congestion and improving travel reliability, or improving safety, it will stop widening highways and instead work to bolster and improve transit, safe cycling, and transit-oriented development.

This project may be claimed to be serving the many people who (for example) currently have no viable alternative to living and working on opposite sides of the Wilson Bridge and driving between them. However, they should be provided the ability to choose between continuing to drive, taking transit or biking to their destination, or moving to new housing that reduces their need to drive. Widening 495 will do only one of those things, and the increased air, water, and soil pollution, congestion, collisions, lost work and family time, and myriad other environmental and social impacts will vastly outweigh any positive benefits realized by this project.

Please reject VDOT’s preferred alternative, keep it out of Visualize 2050, and ensure that VDOT works with the Maryland DOT to develop alternatives consistent with our region’s vision for transit-friendly, sustainable communities.

@online{swiderski2025,
  author = {Swiderski, J. I.},
  title = {To {NCRTPB:} Please Reject {I-495} {Southside} Beltway
    Expansion and Demand Better Alternatives},
  date = {2025-10-10},
  url = {https://jski.net/posts/csg-tpb-495.html},
  langid = {en}
}

Good evening.

For those who are not familiar, the Ride of Silence is an annual, worldwide event, held at 7pm local time on the third Wednesday of May in cities across the country and around the world—over 170, in 38 states and nine countries this year. In (most of) the US, at least, May is Bike Month, and last week is Bike Week—hopefully there are still some extra t-shirts around if you missed your shot last week. (It’s a lot nicer this year!)

But tonight is an opportunity to pause during the great joy of Bike Month, to honor and remember those who cannot be here to celebrate with us.

Tonight we honor those killed while riding bikes and scooters in DC—over 20 in the last ten years, including Alexander Nikolenko, Michael Goldstone, Edwin Morales-Martinez, Peter Black, Nijad Huseynov, Carlos Aguiar, Samuel Kesselman, Shawn O’Donnell, Michael Gordon, Michael Hawkins Randall, Allison Hart, Jim Pagels, Armando Martinez-Ramos, Michael Williams, David Farewell, Dave Salovesh, Tom Hollowell, Carlos Sanchez Martin, Jeffrey Hammond Long, Dominique Antonio Lewis, Malik Habib, Burgess Johnson, Dan Neidhardt, Jerrel Robert Elliott, Christopher Brewer, Tonya Reaves, Andre Brands, and others whose names were never released—and the hundreds killed while riding in the United States each and every year. As the national Ride of Silence coordinating site puts it, ``Although cyclists have a legal right to be on the road with motorists, [drivers] often [aren’t] aware of these rights, and sometimes not aware of the cyclists themselves.’’ So, this ride is a combination of a funeral procession and a statement: People on bikes are here, where we have every right to be. We are here and these are our streets, too; we are not going anywhere. See us.

But, as a friend of mine wrote a few years ago, “Vision Zero isn’t a cycling program. It looks like that here because [the cycling community] is vocal about it, but the tens of thousands of people a year who die in car crashes all deserved better laws, practices, and designs.”

And so tonight we also honor the 330 people killed on DC roads in the last decade—39 just since this ride last May, three every month, 16 of them walking, biking, scootering, or simply sitting or standing near the street. We honor too the nine hundred people killed on Virginia roads last year, the over 500 people killed on Maryland roads last year, and the nearly 40 thousand people killed, and the many, many more gravely injured, on US roads each and every year. Whether biking in a street, motorcycling on a road, driving on a highway, walking along an avenue, or just sitting in a roadside park, restaurant patio, or bus shelter, they all—we all—deserve better.

We begin tonight here, across from the Wilson Building, DC’s city hall and statehouse, and we’ll pass by the US Capitol, because we need better laws from both our local and national leaders. We will pass through Judiciary Square, home of our local and federal police and courts, because we need better practices from those who are supposed to enforce those laws—which doesn’t have to require putting people in cages, but does require taking their vehicles and driving privileges away when they misuse them. And our ride tonight will end in Navy Yard, outside the headquarters of our District and US Departments of Transportation, and the offices of many of my colleagues in private transportation firms, because we need better designs from our local, national, and consulting planners and engineers, designs that make spaces for people, not just the cars some drive.

We will ride slowly and silently, as in a funeral procession. Please turn on your lights, at their low and steady setting if you can. Much like a funeral procession, if the front of the ride reaches a yellow or red light, we will stop; if the light changes while we are crossing, we will continue, as a mass. However, if we do get separated or stretched out, we will pause and regroup.

Please keep alert and aware of the people and pavement around you! While we have tried to avoid known construction areas and bad roads, you may encounter plates, utility cuts, and other hazards. Be aware of who’s around you if you need to dodge a pothole, and use hand signals to point out problems to the riders behind you.

“Thank you for supporting DC Statehood – Please reject the Republicans’ destructive CR”

As a native Michigander, born in Lansing and raised in Ann Arbor, who has lived in the District of Columbia since 2017, I want to say thank you to Senator Peters for being one of the first original cosponsors of S.51, the DC Statehood bill. Since I and my 700,000 neighbors in DC have no voice in the Senate, I also want to ask my parents’ senators to be that voice and to stand up to the House Republicans’ latest effort to not only destroy what limited home-rule we are afforded, but our already-approved current-year budget as well.

As a resident of the District for nearly 8 years, I am well aware that our city has issues. Summarily cutting our city’s budget by nearly 1/6—while also imposing massive new costs by cutting our largest employment center off at the knees and suddenly thrusting tens of thousands of our residents onto unemployment—will do nothing to resolve them and will in fact make them much worse.

I used to work in state government, until the agency I worked for had its budget cut by 27% two months after the fiscal year started. I have also lived through multiple shutdowns of Federal government since I’ve been in DC. I can honestly say that it would be better for the government to be shut down than to pass this reckless, hurtful CR that will only make the problems of the District, and the entire nation, worse.

@online{swiderski2025,
  author = {Swiderski, J. I.},
  title = {Letters to {Senators}},
  date = {2025-03-10},
  url = {https://jski.net/posts/senators.html},
  langid = {en}
}

• Never forget that when people talk about “shrinking government” those are real people—with families, rent, and student loans—they want to discard.

• Not for nothing, those real people and their families (and, yes, their landlords and loan payments, too) are also a major part of the economy, not just in & around DC but across the entire country. The US Federal Government is the largest single employer in the world, and state and/or local governments are the largest employers in many areas. Those employees buy things, from eggs to washing machines to houses.

  I’m no economist—honestly, I took ECON 101 25 years ago and that’s about it—but it doesn’t seem like it takes a PhD to realize shrinking government, in a very real way, will shrink our economy.

(Also, a reminder that government employees get to go on unemployment just like anyone else who gets laid off…which means this mess is about to be flooding not only job markets but unemployment lines, again.)

@online{swiderski2025,
  author = {Swiderski, J. I.},
  title = {On Shrinking Government},
  date = {2025-02-14},
  url = {https://jski.net/posts/on-shrinking-govt.html},
  langid = {en}
}

Endorsements!

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

I received two big endorsements last week!

First, DC YIMBYs, the local chapter of the campaign to make it possible to build more housing in more places, released their list of endorsements on September 9. It was a bee-utiful thing.

Then, at the end of the week, Greater Greater Washington, the local blog and advocates for safer streets, more housing, and better public policy, released their endorsements for Ward 1 ANC races, in which they said,

voters have a top-notch choice in J. Swiderski, who is without a doubt the most qualified. They have a deep knowledge of how DC agencies work (and importantly, the specific ways they don’t work), currently serve on the Pedestrian Advisory Council, and have been an effective expert and advocate for road safety projects for the better part of a decade. We look forward to J. bolstering ANC 1B’s decisionmaking, especially on zoning cases on and around U Street.

That last one’s so good, I put it on my signs.

It also happens to be a pretty good summation of my priorities: Collaborating for safer streets, abundant housing, and better public transportation, all of which should be for everyone. I also have worked and will continue to work for better, more responsive government services.

5. Where in your Advisory Neighborhood Commission, not just your SMD, do you think density should be increased to accommodate the construction of new housing?

   All of it, and not just ANC 1B but all of Ward 1. Not only is DC in a housing crisis, we are in a climate crisis and a traffic safety crisis, and for all of these reasons, places well-served by transit like the U Street corridor, the Georgia Ave corridor, and the 16th Street corridor must make more space for more neighbors.

   First of all, we need to create more homes for the people who are here, and then we need to make more homes for the people who are coming. DC and the region continue to grow, and will continue to grow–and if we want to do anything about our high and rising prices, we need to make more homes for those people.

   But beyond that, we are in a climate crisis. Our world is burning—DC has set records for heat this summer, and, as a recent US DOT report states, “America cannot meet its [climate change] goals…without reducing how much Americans drive” [https://usa.streetsblog.org/2024/07/29/feds-warns-congress-that-americans-need-to-drive-less-to-survive-climate-change]. It is imperative that we make more housing, and make housing more affordable, in places where people can take the bus, ride a bike, and walk for most commuting, errands, and exercise.

   Further, we are in a road safety crisis. 2023 saw the most traffic fatalities in DC since 2007, and as August dawns we are on pace to meet or exceed last year’s total [https://mpdc.dc.gov/node/208742]. We must make our roads safer, and again part of doing that is giving people the ability to live where they don’t need to drive.

6. I consider affordable housing to be (check all that, in your opinion, apply):
   • Costing no more than 30 percent of one’s household income
7. I consider market-rate housing to be (check all that, in your opinion, apply):
   • Not means-tested or income-restricted

8. The District’s inclusionary zoning law "requires that eight to 10 percent of the residential floor area be set-aside for affordable units in most new residential development projects of 10 or more units." The cost of doing so is paid by a project’s developer, and IZ units are income-restricted. Because the number of IZ units is tied to floor-area ratio, the larger a building is, the more IZ units will be built. Conversely, if the initial density proposed by a developer is reduced during the approvals process, rather than maintained or increased, fewer IZ units will be built.

   ANC commissioners are likely to hear from some constituents concerned by a project’s potential impact—real or assumed—on traffic, parking, views, and property values and rents, and whether it fits the character of the neighborhood. While it is not a guarantee that a development proposal including IZ units will come before your ANC, if one does, what would you do, given the likelihood of at least some pushback?

   • I would encourage developers to maximize the height and density of the project.

9. Planned unit developments are projects in which developers are able to exceed the height and density allowed by the District’s zoning code up to the density allowed by its Future Land Use Map (typically a modest increase in scale) in exchange for a community benefits agreement. While it is not a guarantee that a PUD will be proposed in your ANC, if one is, the commission is likely to be the party negotiating that community benefits agreement with a developer.

   The following are examples of benefits that an ANC might push for in such an agreement. Please rank them in the order in which you would prioritize them.

   1. More income-restricted, subsidized units than are required by District law
   2. Income-restricted, subsidized units restricted to lower income levels than initially proposed by the developer
   3. Income-restricted, subsidized units with more than one bedroom
   4. Parks, landscaping, and/or public art
   5. Improvements or repairs to, or replacement of, streets and sidewalks
   6. A Capital Bikeshare station
   7. Direct cash payments to local schools and youth programs
   8. Direct cash payments to local organizations, such as civic associations and ANCs
10. Check any of the below combinations of features that you would consider social housing.
    • District-owned housing on District-owned land, built by a District agency and managed by a District agency
    • District-owned housing on District-owned land, built by a District agency and managed by a private property-management company
    • District-owned housing on District-owned land, built by a private construction company and managed by a District agency
    • District-owned housing on District-owned land, built by a private construction company and managed by a private property-management company
11. Should apartments be legal to build District-wide?
    • Yes.
12. Which statement do you agree with most?
    • New housing should be built both along major corridors and throughout existing residential neighborhoods, in buildings of all sizes.
13. Which of these statements best describes your feelings about historic districts in the District?
    • Historic districts are important, but they are also problematic. We have the right number of historic districts and landmarks and shouldn’t be adding more.
14. The District is likely to begin a rewrite of its Comprehensive Plan, its foundational land-use document, in 2025. In a rewrite of the Comprehensive Plan, which of these three options would be your top priority?
    • Creating opportunities for new housing in my commission’s area
15. My ANC, not just my SMD, has:
    • Just the right amount [of bars and restaurants]

Transportation

16. Do you think there are not enough cars, enough cars, or too many cars in the District?
    • Too many cars
17. The Sustainable D.C. 2.0 plan includes a target of reducing commuter trips made by car to 25 percent. Do you agree that incentivizing residents and visitors to drive less should be an explicit policy goal of the District?
    • Yes
18. Incentives for people to drive less and nudges to make them drive safely can prevent drivers from killing other people, but research shows such "carrots" won’t be enough to curb the public health crisis of increasing traffic fatalities. Keeping people alive and safe on District roads requires policies that actively reshape our transportation systems and built environment to decrease single-occupancy vehicle trips, and to slow down drivers when they do make those trips. Please rank the following policies in the order that you would like to see the District government pursue them.
    1. Building more housing and affordable housing in the District proximate to transit and job centers
    2. Removing minimum parking requirements in new developments near transit
    3. Implementing road diets on arterial streets
    4. Regularly removing travel lanes for bus lanes
    5. Regularly removing travel lanes for bike lanes
    6. Increasing the cost to own a car in the District, including RPP and parking registration
    7. Regularly removing parking lanes for bus lanes
    8. Regularly removing parking lanes for bike lanes
    9. Making some streets, especially residential streets, car-free
    10. Regional reciprocity for automated traffic enforcement
    11. Implementing a road-pricing program
19. The above question asks about systemic policies to reduce trips by car that the District?s executive and legislative branches would need to initiate. As a commissioner, your powers are only advisory, but the intensely local nature of the role means that you can direct your attention to shepherding improvements to the built environment in your neighborhood that, while smaller in scale than changing District law or instituting a new citywide program, are no less important to making all road users safer. Please rank the following initiatives in the order you would be most enthusiastic about your ANC considering a resolution concerning them.
    1. The removal of parking spaces near crosswalks to increase the visibility of pedestrians to drivers, referred to as “daylighting”
    2. The installation of raised crosswalks with high-visibility signage to alert drivers to pedestrians
    3. The removal of parking spaces as part of a project to widen sidewalks
    4. The removal of residential parking spaces to enable short-term parking for delivery drivers
    5. The removal of parking spaces as part of a project to build a bus-priority lane
    6. The removal of parking spaces as part of a project to build a protected bike lane
    7. The installation of speed bumps to slow down drivers
    8. The temporary or permanent closure of certain streets to single-occupancy vehicles to create zones for pedestrians
    9. The installation of more automated traffic enforcement cameras to ticket drivers for speeding or running red lights and stop signs
20. On-street parking occurs in public space. This means that an on-street parking spot does not belong to a specific individual, and people park in different places at different times. What do you consider a reasonable rule of thumb for deciding if a neighborhood has enough street parking?
    • A resident is able to find an available public street parking space within two to three blocks, in any direction of their residence (about a five- to seven-minute walk), most of the time

21. The District’s goal to be carbon-free by 2050 requires most of the reduction of its transportation emissions to come from residents turning existing single-occupancy vehicle trips into transit, walking, and biking trips. Please describe at least one trip you currently take by car (even if you, yourself, are not driving) that you can commit to taking on foot, by bus, by train, via a mobility device, or by bike instead.

    I already minimize my driving within the city—I commute, socialize, and run nearly all errands on transit, bike, or foot. Nearly all of my current car use is to go with my partner to visit our families, who live in places that are not (yet) accessible by Amtrak within a reasonable span of time or at a reasonable hour.

    I fully support the District’s goals to reduce trips by car, and already work professionally to help communities across the Mid-Atlantic become easier to get around on foot and by bike. I look forward to working as a Commissioner to make it easier for neighbors in ANC 1B and across DC to reduce their car use, both by supporting more transit, biking, and walking infrastructure, and by supporting bringing more housing, jobs, groceries and so forth within walking and biking distance of each other.

22. What do you feel is the biggest issue in your neighborhood, and what is your position on it? And, given the limited scope of commissioners’ and commissions’ authority, what would you, most realistically, do about that issue if you are elected?

    I feel the biggest issue in my neighborhood is, and my position on it is:

    I feel the biggest issues in my neighborhood are housing costs, traffic violence, and climate change, which, as I have already described, are interlinked.

    But I think the biggest issue not already addressed is the seeming inability of DC Government agencies to function under this administration. DDOT is unable to make repairs to sidewalks and bikeways in a timely manner, and can’t or won’t enforce or provide Safe Accommodations at construction sites, including its own. DPW doesn’t have the resources to ticket or tow scofflaw drivers, but also doesn’t focus its resources on those who do the most harn, spending its staff time instead on easy targets like overstayed meters and people without residential parking permits. DPW also would rather remove “abused” public trash cans than empty them frequently enough (or investigate why residents, particularly of multifamily buildings, put their trash in them rather than their home cans and dumpsters). And OUC, particularly 9-1-1, is melting down.

    If elected, I would:

    I look forward to working with fellow Commissioners and our colleagues across the Ward and across the District to push agencies to be more responsive to our constituents, and to working with our Councilmembers to hold agency leaders responsible, find the systemic issues causing these problems, and create solutions and the oversight to ensure they are implemented, both during Performance Oversight/Budget in the spring and throughout the year.

23. ANC commissioners represent about 2,000 constituents and, when sworn in, commit to upholding the District of Columbia’s interests, not solely your commission’s or single-member district’s. With the understanding that you are not going hear from every single one of your constituents during your term, and that commissioners are sworn to act in the interest of the entire District, describe how you might make decisions as an elected representative.

I intend to invite people to email me, and will consider having a periodic ‘office-hours’ for people to come meet me in person and putting out newsletters, but even those efforts will never reach every single constituent.

I will make decisions based on what I believe is best for the District and its residents, particularly what is most likely to reduce traffic violence, housing prices and homelessness, and the impacts of climate change, and to improve transit service, walking, and biking and create increased housing and tree canopy.

24. Why do you think you are the right person to serve as an ANC commissioner for your SMD?

I am a transportation planner by profession, and as mentioned above work across the region to improve public spaces and places for people walking and biking. I’m also a member of DC’s Pedestrian Advisory Council, and was recently enthusiastically reappointed to my second three-year term as Ward 1 Representative. I’ve testified at Council both on behalf of the PAC and for myself, including about Safe Accommodations, DPW priorities, and problems at OUC.

I’ve held board positions both in professional organizations (DC chapters of Young Professionals in Transportation, Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals) and community organizations (Reed-Cooke Neighborhood Asssoc., Better Streets Lawrenceville [Pittsburgh]), have organized DC’s edition of the Ride of Silence memorial bike ride for victims of traffic violence since 2019, and was recently appointed as a Member at Large of the board of Ex Lapide, Virginia Tech’s Society for queer alumni and allies.

I am deeply curious and collaborative, so I have both knowledge of and connections throughout the District and its agencies, and look forward to working with my colleagues on the Commission, at Council, and across the District, rather than against them.

@online{swiderski2024,
  author = {Swiderski, J. I.},
  title = {GGW {Endorsement} {Questionnaire} {Answers}},
  date = {2024-08-11},
  url = {https://jski.net/posts/GGWANC.html},
  langid = {en}
}

Good evening.

For those who are not familiar, the Ride of Silence is an annual, worldwide event, held at 7pm local time on the third Wednesday of May in cities across the country and around the world—over 230, in 40 states and a dozen countries this year. In (most of) the US, at least, May is Bike Month, and this week is Bike Week—as you may have heard, Friday is Bike-to-Work Day, and even if you still aren’t going in to an office to work, I encourage you to go out for a spin Friday morning and get that t-shirt. (It’s orange this year!)

But tonight is an opportunity to pause during the great joy of Bike Week and Bike Month and honor and remember those who cannot be here to celebrate with us.

Tonight we honor those killed while riding bikes and scooters in DC—over 20 in the last ten years, including Michael Goldstone, Edwin R. Morales-Martinez, Peter Black, Nijad Huseynov, Carlos Aguiar, Samuel Kesselman, Shawn O’Donnell, Michael Gordon, Michael Hawkins Randall, Allison Hart, Jim Pagels, Armando Martinez-Ramos, Michael Williams, David Farewell, Dave Salovesh, Tom Hollowell, Carlos Sanchez Martin, Jeffrey Hammond Long, Dominique Antonio Lewis, Malik Habib, Burgess Johnson, Dan Neidhardt, Jerrel Robert Elliott, Christopher Brewer, Tonya Reaves, Andre Brands, and others whose names were never released—and the hundreds killed while riding in the United States each and every year. As the national Ride of Silence coordinating site puts it, ``Although cyclists have a legal right to be on the road with motorists, [drivers] often [aren’t] aware of these rights, and sometimes not aware of the cyclists themselves.’’ So, this ride is a combination of a funeral procession and a statement: People on bikes are here, where we have every right to be. We are here and these are our streets, too; we are not going anywhere. See us.

But, as a friend of mine wrote a few years ago, “Vision Zero isn’t a cycling program. It looks like that here because [the cycling community] is vocal about it, but the tens of thousands of people a year who die in car crashes all deserved better laws, practices, and designs.”

And so tonight we also honor the 330 people killed on DC roads in the last decade—53 just since this ride last May, one every week, 28 of them walking, biking, scootering, or simply sitting or standing near the street. We honor too the nine hundred people killed on Virginia roads last year, the over 600 people killed on Maryland roads last year, and the over 40 thousand people killed, and the many, many more gravely injured, on US roads each and every year. Whether biking in a street, motorcycling on a road, driving on a highway, walking along an avenue, or just sitting in a roadside park, restaurant patio, or bus shelter, they all—we all—deserve better.

We begin tonight here, across from the Wilson Building, DC’s city hall and statehouse, and we’ll pass by the US Capitol, because we need better laws from both our local and national leaders. We will pass through Judiciary Square, home of our local and federal police and courts, because we need better practices from those who are supposed to enforce those laws—which doesn’t have to require putting people in cages, but does require taking their vehicles and driving privileges away when they misuse them. And our ride tonight will end in Navy Yard, outside the headquarters of our District and US Departments of Transportation, and the offices of many of my colleagues in private transportation firms, because we need better designs from our local, national, and consulting planners and engineers, designs that make spaces for people, not just the cars some drive.

We will ride slowly and silently, as in a funeral procession. Please turn on your lights, at their low and steady setting if you can. Much like a funeral procession, if the front of the ride reaches a yellow or red light, we will stop; if the light changes while we are crossing, we will continue, as a mass. However, if we do get separated or stretched out, we will pause and regroup.

Please keep alert and aware of the people and pavement around you! While we have tried to avoid known construction areas and bad roads, you may encounter plates, utility cuts, and other hazards. Be aware of who’s around you if you need to dodge a pothole, and use hand signals to point out problems to the riders behind you.

2024 is the year the Mayor designated as the year DC gets to zero traffic deaths and serious injuries. We’re nowhere close, and now is not the time to scale back funding for key transportation bills or cut public transit. Yet that’s exactly what the mayor’s proposed budget does—eliminate the Vision Zero revenue set-aside created in the budget two years ago and put money gleaned from automated enforcement cameras back into the general fund, and cut half of the Circulator’s existing routes (and the Ward 7 route scheduled to start this year).

There are a number of reasons why this is a bad idea; I refer you to the testimony of the Pedestrian Advisory Council to last week’s Transportation Committee hearing for several of them, such as reinforcing the popular trope that automated enforcement is a money grab rather than a safety measure. But the bottom line is, we need to make it safe to be on our streets, and make sure that we have safe, accessible ways for people to get around that aren’t in individual private cars. Repealing the Vision Zero funding set-aside, eliminating half of Circulator’s routes, and failing to fund Metro for DC and the ebike rebate program will take us backwards, not advance Vision Zero.

I am asking you to ensure the dedicated funding source in the FY24 budget for the Vision Zero Omnibus bill is not repealed, and to also fully fund the “Electric Bicycle Rebate Program Amendment Act of 2023” and “Metro For D.C. Amendment Act of 2020”.

Combined, these bills will save lives and make our transportation system more equitable. Please reverse the Mayor’s cuts, and fully fund them in the FY24 budget. Thank you!

@online{swiderski2023,
  author = {Swiderski, J. I.},
  title = {To {DC} {Council:} {Please} Reject the {Mayor’s} Street
    Safety Cuts},
  date = {2023-04-04},
  url = {https://jski.net/posts/reject-the-mayors-street-safety-cuts.html},
  langid = {en}
}

Every two years DC Council members move to new comittees as former members depart and new folks come in. By Council Rule—or the Chairman’s fiat—new members don’t get to chair a committee in their first half-term, but everyone else does. Conveniently, in 2023 as in 2021 we have just two new members, so the number of Committees stays at 10. (Everybody’s a member of the Committee of the Whole, which is chaired by the Chairman.)

It’s hard to keep track of who’s on which committee, so here’s my attempt to sort things out. For what agency is under which committee—which also changes every two years—see the companion post.

Committee members who dropped in the next Council Period—either because they left Council, or just moved to another Committee—are marked thusly, while new members will appear like this.

The Education Committee remains eliminated (cough excuse me, merged into the Committee of the Whole) and a bunch more agencies appear to have shuffled around; for now, the current responsibilities of the outgoing committees can be seen on each old committee’s page linked above, and when that information comes out for next year, hopefully this time I’ll remember to link them on the right side.

@online{swiderski2022,
  author = {Swiderski, J. I.},
  title = {DC {Council} Committees~Comparison, 2023 Edition},
  date = {2022-12-25},
  url = {https://jski.net/posts/dc-council-2023.html},
  langid = {en}
}

The first two years I lived in DC, I was on 16th St NW at Longfellow, around the corner from the Morrow Drive entrance to the Park. However, if I ever wanted to get from the Carter Barron area down to Beach Drive, I could walk in the road on Morrow Drive, or walk in the road along Military and Joyce, or I could…..fly, I guess?

You write that “This [pandemic-era] closure has … increased the creation of informal, unofficial trails, which can cause natural resource damage.” First of all, this conclusion suffers from mistaking correlation for causation: The closure didn’t induce the creation of informal unofficial trails, the pandemic itself and the rapidly and vastly increased need for safe, outdoor recreation spaces away from other potentially-infectious people did! There was a critical need, and NPS largely failed to meet it, so people met it any way they could.

Moreover, the solution to informal and unsanctioned trails isn’t to reintroduce cars and scare off the people and others cutting new trails any more than it would be in one of the great Western parks. The solution to people making bad trails is to provide good ones! NPS should work with PARC, WABA, or other Park neighbors to create more official trails so folks east of the Park can get to it safely and without harming the environment.

Similarly, as at other parks NPS “manages” elsewhere in DC, the failure to provide space for people to exercise their dogs, combined with a failure to enforce leash laws and other regulations, has allowed some bad actors to run their dogs freely in the Park. Again, the solution is not to bring back commuter through-traffic, it’s to provide a dog exercise area and get people to use it.

I am a transportation planner, not an ecologist, but I can virtually guarantee that reintroducing through traffic, with cars’ exhaust and rubber particles from eroding tires and brake dust, not to mention drivers’ propensity to hit animals, people, and each other, will cause far greater harm to the Park’s environment than limiting drivers to accessing picnic areas from one end or the other.

The offer to provide car-free access to Beach Drive from Memorial Day to Labor Day is almost an insult. As the last week has shown, high summer is the worst part of the year to be outside in DC. Just as the outside becomes tolerable again, NPS proposes to push joggers, bike riders, walkers, and others to the side so people in their climate-controlled boxes can drive the length of Beach Drive in peace. If anything, the fall and spring are when it’s most pleasant to be outside — and winter, when bike lanes and sidewalks are often treacherous to downright impassible (especially on NPS properties affiliated with Rock Creek Park, from 16th & Morrow to W Street below Malcolm X/Meridian Hill Park, where it is often necessary to get DDOT or Congresswoman Norton’s office involved to have sidewalks cleared…), is when it is most important to have safe, car-free routes to commute and exercise.

Going forward with this plan would not achieve the Park Service’s goals to “improve recreational opportunities, minimize impacts to natural and historic resources, and address the needs of people who drive and those who use non-motorized transportation”, and in fact would diminish all of them.

@online{swiderski2022,
  author = {Swiderski, J. I.},
  title = {On {Beach} {Drive}},
  date = {2022-08-11},
  url = {https://jski.net/posts/On_Beach.html},
  langid = {en}
}

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

For those who are not familiar, the Ride of Silence is an annual, worldwide event, held at 7pm local time on the third Wednesday of May in hundreds of cities, in dozens of countries around the world. In the US, at least, May is Bike Month, and this week is Bike Week—as you may have heard, Friday is Bike-to-Work Day, and even if this year you aren’t going in to an office to work, I encourage you to go out for a spin Friday morning and get that t-shirt.

But tonight is an opportunity to pause during the great joy of Bike Week and Bike Month and honor and remember those who cannot be here to celebrate with us.

We weren’t able to ride together this time last year, so tonight we honor the 4 people killed while riding bikes in DC in the last two years—Jim Pagels, Armando Martinez-Ramos, Michael Williams, and one unnamed neighbor—and the over 800 killed while riding in the United States each and every year. As the national Ride of Silence coordinating site puts it, “Although cyclists have a legal right to be on the road with motorists, [drivers] often [aren’t] aware of these rights, and sometimes not aware of the cyclists themselves.” This ride is a combination of funeral procession and a statement: People on bikes are here, where we have every right to be. We are here and these are our streets, too; we are not going anywhere. See us.

But, as a friend of mine wrote a couple years ago, “Vision Zero isn’t a cycling program. It looks like that here because [the cycling community] is vocal about it, but the tens of thousands of people a year who die in car crashes all deserved better laws, practices, and designs.”

And so tonight we also honor the roughly seventy people killed on DC roads in the last two years, the approximately a thousand people killed on Maryland roads, the 1500 or so people killed on Virginia roads, the over seventy five thousand people killed, and the many, many more gravely injured, on American roads in the last two years. Whether biking in a street, motorcycling on a road, driving on a highway, walking along an avenue, or just sitting on a bench in a roadside park, they all—we all—deserve better.

We begin tonight here, across from the Wilson Building, DC’s city hall and statehouse, and we’ll pass by the US Capitol, because we need better laws from both our local and national leaders. Our ride tonight will end in Navy Yard, outside the headquarters of our District and US Departments of Transportation, because we need better designs from both our local and national engineers.

<Congressman Mike Thompson joined us and was invited to speak.>

We will ride slowly and silently, as in a funeral procession. Please turn on your lights, at their low and steady setting if you can. Much like a funeral procession, if the front of the ride reaches a yellow or red light, we will stop; if the light changes while we are crossing, we will continue, as a mass. However, if we do get separated or stretched out, we will pause and regroup. Please keep alert and aware of the people and pavement around you! While we have tried to avoid known construction areas and bad roads, you may encounter plates, utility cuts, and other hazards. Be aware of who’s around you if you need to dodge a pothole, and use hand signals to point out problems to the riders behind you.

About 40 people joined the four-mile Ride of Silence in honor of the four riders killed in DC since 2019’s Ride. Special thanks to Rep. Thompson and his staff, to Michael Kaercher for bringing us together, to the ride marshals for keeping us safe and together, and especially to Rachel Maisler for all your help and support.

@online{swiderski2021,
  author = {Swiderski, J. I.},
  title = {On the {Ride} of {Silence} (2021)},
  date = {2021-05-19},
  url = {https://jski.net/posts/RideOfSilence21.html},
  langid = {en}
}

Chair Mendelson et al.,

I am writing as a Ward 1 resident—and, particularly, as a resident of the U Street corridor less than a block away from Engine 9/MPD District 3—to say again that I strongly support increasing the FLUM density designations on the public sites in the corridor, including the Engine 9/D3 site, Garnet-Patterson School, and the Housing Finance Agency HQ site.

DC desperately needs more housing, and DC especially desperately needs more affordable housing.  Public sites provide our greatest opportunity not only to build more housing, but to ensure that as much as possible of the housing that gets built is affordable.   As I wrote in my previous testimony on the Comp Plan bill B23-736 in December, I support higher density designations for most of Ward 1, and I strongly support CM Nadeau’s amendment to increase the FLUM designations for the public sites in the U Street Corridor.

Again, as the National Capital Region continues to grow, not only does DC as the core of the region need most of the people moving here to actually locate within the District for economic and tax reasons, we need most of the people moving here to live as close as manageable to work, their groceries and shopping areas, and so forth for climate reasons.  We are in an emergency, the world is burning, and we cannot keep driving hour after hour, day after day to work and school and errands and home again.  As our traffic violence statistics spiral out of control—as of May 1st, we’re on track to lose 48 people on DC streets this year, the most since Adrian Fenty’s first year as Mayor a decade and a half ago—they again reinforce the critical need to reduce DC’s reliance on private automobiles and enable people to live where they do not feel the need to use or even own cars.  Sites like these, which are close to schools, grocery stores and shopping areas, and high-frequency, high-capacity transit lines, are especially critical to make accessible to as many potential future residents as possible.  Please enable this accessibility and allow more density, especially on the public sites in the U Street Corridor.

Thank you,

@online{swiderski2021,
  author = {Swiderski, J. I.},
  title = {Supporting Increased Density on {U} {Street} {NW}},
  date = {2021-05-03},
  url = {https://jski.net/posts/supporting-increased-density-on-u-street-nw.html},
  langid = {en}
}