Welcome Our New Community Organizer—Renée Moore

Hello! I’m Renée Moore, the new community organizer focusing on Vision Zero and the former coordinator for WABA’s Women & Bicycles program, a community of 5,400 women working to inspire more women to bike, teach, lead, and advocate in our region. I’m so happy to be (back) here and working to share the power of biking. It’s very important to me—riding my bike is my favorite activity and it all started here in D.C. I was able to get rid of a gym membership, avoid parking tickets, lose 37 pounds, and have fun all while getting places around the city. At 6 years old, I ran into a parked car on my bike and my grandfather took my bicycle away from me- forever. For years I would see others riding and think, “wow, that looks like so much fun.” Finally, when I was 25, a guy asked me on a date and asked me what I wanted to do. I said I wanted to learn to ride a bike. He looked surprised and said cool ok! We went to Georgetown, rented a bike and within 2 hours I was riding along the waterfront all by myself. I was free and I loved it. In 2013, I took my bicycling group to a workshop with Black Women Bike DC, a workshop on how to bike in the city during the winter. I sat in the back the entire time thinking, “ok, there is no way I am riding in DC streets; that is just crazy!” The four or five times we talked about why bicyclists fare best when they ride in the streets I sat there shaking my head. I decided to take the class again in the spring and this time we went on a ride after the workshop.  I found it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought. But in September, my mom had a stroke. Luckily, she caught it in time and I got her in George Washington Hospital. Unfortunately, the parking was $22! I told my mom that I was going to ride my bike to see her rather than spend $154 / week parking the car to come visit her. And I did! I fell in love with riding in DC. I was saving money. I was getting outside. It was therapeutic. It was great riding the streets of DC, but not every street in DC feels safe to ride on. We need better infrastructure and better enforcement to make sure that our streets are safe for everyone to walk and bike. And that’s what I’ll be working on—making sure the District’s Vision Zero plans are implemented and our Vision Zero goals realized. I’ll need your voice and help to make it happen. You can reach me at renee.moore@test.waba.org or on Twitter @girlonbluebike. See you in the bike lanes, Renée

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