New positions at WABA

WABA is creating three new positions and hiring two new staff. The new positions are Advocacy Coordinator, Outreach Coordinator, and Communications Coordinator. Current staff Greg Billing and Nelle Pierson will fill the Advocacy (Greg) and Outreach (Nelle) positions. Alex Baca was hired as the Communications Coordinator and a new Events Coordinator is being hired.

These changes are described in the article Reorganizing and Regrouping for a Regional Approach in the Winter Ride On newsletter. The newsletter is not yet available online:

I have presented and the Board of Directors has approved a restructuring 
of staff roles at WABA. To meet the need we have added staff capacity to have a full-time Advocacy Coordinator as well as a full-time Outreach Coordinator with responsibility for increasing our grassroots efforts outside the District. (Much of our outreach in the District is paid for through outreach/safety grants we have not been able to secure in Maryland or Virginia.) Greg Billing, who has played an advocacy support role and a communications role at WABA, will become our Advocacy Coordinator and will take the lead in facilitating a coordinated approach to regional advocacy, with the ultimate goal of using political pressure to get improvements from agencies like the National Park Service and the Commission of Fine Arts. Nelle Pierson, who many of you know as our Events Coordinator, will be overseeing our outreach activities and working to grow ridership and membership, as well as managing several of our targeted outreach campaigns in our newly created Outreach Coordinator position. I believe these roles better utilize the skills of Greg and Nellie and I am eager to see what they can deliver for WABA and the region.

To fill the gaps created by these promotions, WABA has hired a new Communications Coordinator and is currently interviewing for a new Events Coordinator. Our new Communications Coordinator will be Alex Baca—a longtime member and intelligent voice of cycling who some of you may have met at this year's 50 States Ride. You may also know her work from the Washington City Paper, where she was an Assistant Editor...

Without adapting we can continue to win the local battles but we would lack the capacity to bring the regional change that is needed. With this change and your support I believe we can win on both levels.

As a WABA board member I strongly supported this restructuring. I think it bodes well for Fairfax.

Article on Fairfax bike crashes and county bike plan

See the Lorton Patch article Vehicle, Bicycle Collisions Up in Fairfax County: Officials hopeful bicycle master plan will make roads safer for Fairfax County cyclists:

Accidents between vehicles and bicycles in Fairfax County are happening more frequently this year.

There have been 54 collisions between vehicles and bicycles this year with one fatality, up from 44 accidents between bicyclists and vehicles with no fatalities in 2011.

On Nov. 12, Elizabeth P. Shattuck, 58, of Falls Church, was hit by a pickup truck. Police pronounced her dead at the scene, marking the first Fairfax County death resulting from a bicycle-versus-vehicle collision in two years. The incident is still under investigation, and charges have yet to be filed.

Greg Billing, a spokesman for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, said there are an increasing number of people taking to the roads on bicycles across the region.

“We’re definitely seeing an increase in crashes between vehicles and cyclists as more people are getting into cycling,” Billing said. “Enforcement is a huge issue across the region and there are a lot of motorists out there that are distracted and speeding and don’t see the cyclists on the roads.”

Update: See the ABC7 report on increased crashes in Fairfax. Floyd Alveraz of Spokes, Etc. in Vienna was interviewed. He sums up the situation well: "We're all trying to get somewhere and we all have different ways to get there, but we all need to share the road."