Several years ago, our household got rid of one of our cars and replaced it with an e-cargo bike that I use to commute with my two girls. They love it, I love it — and it has given me clear insight into the District’s cyclist infrastructure and what we need to do to enhance safety on our streets.

Making our roads work for all users, not just cars, by prioritizing bus and bike lanes and safer crosswalks has long been a focus of mine, since I first took office as your Ward 1 Councilmember, and even before that, as a Ward 1 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner. I have worked with residents and our ANCs during my time on the Council to shepherd many transformational transportation projects centered on that priority, including D.C.’s first 24/7 protected bus and bike lanes and improved pedestrian crossings.

I championed the Adams Morgan Pedestrian Zone and Open Streets on Georgia Avenue, as well as a significant increase in funding for Safe Routes to School interventions.

I led the initiative to fund fourteen 24-hour bus routes across the District. Five of them serve Ward 1.

I have been a vocal advocate for projects in Ward 1, including the 14th and 16th Street bus lanes and express routes, which greatly reduce bus commute times, and I have worked to allocate significant funding each budget season. For fiscal year 2027, those projects will include business grants to support pedestrian activation of 18th Street and the implementation of strategies to improve streets, parks and plazas in Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant.

I am a proud participant in the Week Without Driving, and I look forward to sharing my bus and bike trips during this year’s campaign next week.

And in addition to prioritizing safety measures, I’ve been working on efforts to get the most dangerous drivers off the road. As chair of the Committee that oversees the Department of Public Works, I’ve been working to strengthen parking enforcement and focus it toward those efforts, with stronger authority to boot and tow vehicles, and to better coordinate the use of technology, especially license plate readers.

Council passed my legislation to make a vehicle with an obscured or fake tag eligible for immediate towing. Experience has shown that premeditated reckless driving is often associated with vehicles that have these kinds of tags, presumably because drivers with these tags feel they can’t be held responsible.

I introduced and the Council passed legislation to give the Department of For-Hire Vehicles the authority to regulate food and parcel delivery activities, including by enforcing traffic laws for drivers engaged in these activities.

We know the stakes when we delay the work to keep all road users safe. We need no reminder that words cannot do justice when anyone loses their life to senseless road crashes.

The work is not finished. We are seeing a rise in traffic fatalities from this time last year according to MPD traffic data. I plan to use my remaining months as your Councilmember to continue to lead on road safety. I have a bill moving through the Council now on parking enforcement, and I will soon introduce major legislation to give vehicle-for-hire operators and customers a rational, modern code and fairer marketplace—replacing the hodgepodge of out of date and in many cases irrelevant provisions in our current code.