FABB Blog

 

WABA bike safety at NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo

Yesterday we volunteered at the WABA bike safety booth at the NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo. It was great to see so many kids having fun on bikes and learning about bike safety. WABA staff laid out a short course using orange cones that included several stations: the ABC (Air, Brakes, Chain and Cranks) Spin Check, weaving around cones, riding straight through parallel lines of cones, stopping at a stop sign and looking both ways, and walking their bike through a crosswalk.

WABA has a trailer filled with bikes of various sizes, including a few with training wheels, and several boxes of helmets. All kids were required to wear "cootie caps", shower caps to keep the helmets clean.

It was a fun but tiring morning and well worth the effort. With so little bicycle education available in the schools, WABA provides a great service to the community with events like this. They also conduct Safe Routes to School programs at several DC schools.

Labels: safety, waba

posted by Bruce Wright at 11:19 AM #

 

WABA Annual Membership Meeting

The WABA Annual Membership Meeting was held last week at the Arlington Central Library. FABB members Douglas Stewart and Hunter McCleary were honored for their service on the WABA Board. Douglas is the outgoing President. Thanks to both Douglas and Hunter for your service to the bicycle community.

I've been elected to serve on the current WABA Board. My main area of interest is advocacy. I want to help strengthen WABA's advocacy role in the region.

Several awards were handed out at the meeting: Jon Morrison of Montgomery County, Phoenix Bikes, Casey Trees, and Greater Greater Washington (I hope that is everyone; I couldn't find a list and my notes are incomplete).

Eric Gilliland (who would leave the next day to spend a week meeting with bike advocates in Helsinki, Finland) gave a summary of WABA's recent accomplishments. He also mentioned that indications are that the Metropolitan Police Department would not file charges against the driver of the truck that killed Alice Swanson last year. We have not been able to find out more details.

As a warning to us all, as we were leaving the meeting it was announced that an attendee's bike was stolen after being left unlocked for a brief period outside the library. There's a reward for the stolen bike.

Labels: waba

posted by Bruce Wright at 9:14 AM #

 

WABA Annual Membership Meeting tonight

All WABA members are invited to attend the Annual Membership Meeting tonight at the Arlington County Public Library in the Auditorium. The library is located just north of the Ballston Metro station and not far from the Custis Trail, at 1015 North Quincy Street Arlington, VA 22201. There is a suggested $5 donation. The evening will feature guest speakers, volunteer and advocacy awards, and the election of the 2009 WABA Board of Directors. Heavy hors d'oeuvres will be served.

Labels: waba

posted by Bruce Wright at 2:00 PM #