I felt it was time to formalize my role with the WABA staff and am pleased to announce my new position as WABA’s Maryland Organizer.
You may be familiar with me as an advocate for WABA, especially from my ten years as a member of the WABA Board of directors. But what many of you might not know is that for the past few years, after I retired from my federal legal career, I have been volunteering with the WABA Advocacy team. I have been active on transportation issues in Montgomery County and in Maryland as a whole.
Leaving the Board, I felt it was time to formalize my role with the WABA staff and am pleased to announce my new position as WABA’s Maryland Organizer. In that role, I will be an unpaid member of the WABA Advocacy team, working on our advocacy for equitable active transportation matters in the region, but focussed on these issues in Montgomery County and at the Maryland State level.
This means I will take my experience in working with elected officials, transportation agency employees, WABA advocates and bike/ped advocates throughout the state of Maryland to help create more equitable and usable networks of biking and walking infrastructure.
My journey as an advocate for people who walk and bike began with my interest in biking as a child in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I discovered that biking was a great way to expand my geographic horizons (ie – get out of the house!), have fun with my friends, and see the city from a different point of view. I renewed my interest in biking decades later when I moved with my family to take a job as a trial attorney for the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division in 1990. I slowly got back into bicycling around my neighborhood near Sligo Creek in Wheaton/Silver Spring and accessing the Georgetown Branch Trail to make a circuitous commute to my downtown DC office. Over 20 years ago, this led to my attending a meeting of the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail to complain about poor trail conditions, which in turn led to my becoming part of the CCCT Board and leading the Coalition as Board Chair for five years. That stint as Chair of the CCCT introduced me to the joys of Montgomery County politics, testifying in front of the County Council and engaging with the great professionals who work for the County’s Planning and Transportation departments.
In 2012, I was pleased to be asked to join the WABA Board and over the past ten years have come to learn and love everything about WABA and its advocacy relating to active transportation and safer streets. More recently, I have been heavily involved in projects like the Bicycle Master Plan, Silver Spring Circle, Fenton Street Cycletrack, and many more trail and protected bike lane projects. I also have been involved in organizing the creation of Montgomery County Families for Safe Streets. I look forward to hearing from all of you who walk, bike, and use all mobility devices to get around Montgomery County. Contact me at peter@waba.org!
