An advocate’s guide to working with businesses for safer streets

Earlier this month, DDOT unveiled plans for the second phase of the West Virginia Ave NE protected bike lane project from K St NE to Mt Olivet St NE. The plans presented were largely as watchers of the bike lane proposal expected: removing unrestricted, unzoned parking on the west side of the street and installing protected bike lanes on both sides to match the planned configuration north of Mt Olivet St NE to Montana Ave NE. But DDOT surprised onlookers and bumped up the timeline — now both phases of the project will be completed this summer in conjunction with the repaving, finishing Phase 2 almost a full year ahead of schedule.

A lot of factors could have pushed up DDOT’s timeline, from the need to finalize the 2021 paving schedule, to the rapid pace of bike lane projects in support of the 20 by 2022 initiative, to general support from ANC 5D for street safety projects.

But I suspect that another important factor was the letter that I and 16 Ivy City businesses sent to then-DDOT Director Jeff Marootian, supporting the overall project and asking that DDOT move up Phase 2.

I wrote this letter and organized the businesses to sign onto it. Below, I’ll explain why and how I took this action, in hope that it can serve as a model for future advocates.

Step 1: Take stock of existing advocacy efforts

In recent years, I frequently rode my bicycle north to Ivy City shops and restaurants, but that changed last year after I was nearly struck and then abused by a reckless driver — after my daughter, Hannah, was born, it didn’t seem worth the risk. Still, I kept thinking about those Ivy City businesses and the challenges they are facing during the pandemic. I realized many of them might be in support of protected bike lanes — not only would they boost the number of people who could access those businesses safely, but studies have also found that people using active transportation visit businesses more often and spend more. I set out to get businesses to sign a letter of support for the bike lane project.

Whenever embarking on a new advocacy effort, it’s important to take stock and connect with relevant stakeholders to ensure you aren’t stepping on toes or duplicating efforts.I knew that Ward 5 resident (and GGWash Board Member) Nick Sementelli was keyed in to local bike advocacy, so I reached out to get his take. Nick introduced me to a few Ivy City business owners and recommended I connect with WABA community organizer Garrett Hennigan.

Garrett assured me that my idea was welcome (and wouldn’t step on any toes), and sent me a WABA Ward 5 working group draft letter. The letter had been written earlier in 2020 in support of the entire project, but the onset of the pandemic had waylaid those plans.

With just a few short emails, I had checked in with some key advocacy stakeholders and procured a template to use for my letter. Now, it was time to solicit Ivy City businesses.

Step 2: Figure out the size of the pond and reel in a big fish

When engaging a new stakeholder group, I like to start by getting a sense of the group’s full size and scope. With that in mind,, I fired up Google Maps, and created a spreadsheet of every Ivy City business I could find with all the relevant contact info. I ended up with 30 businesses on my list, and made a goal to get half of them to sign (we ended up with 16).

Next, I needed to figure out which business to solicit first. BicycleSpace may have seemed like an obvious choice, but I wasn’t convinced that would bring in other businesses because of the perceived self-interest. I ultimately chose MOM’s Organic Market because it is one of the primary Ivy City anchors and I knew that MOM’s corporate values were likely in line with this effort.

I connected with Ali DySard, Environmental & Partnership Manager for all MOM’s locations. Ali was immediately on board and connected me with several other Ivy City businesses. MOM’s signing on had great potential for influencing the rest of the Ivy City businesses given that like most businesses in that area, MOM’s is a food retailer.

Step 3: Make it easy for others to sign on

Now that I had an anchor, I started emailing other businesses asking them to sign on as well. It’s important when getting people to sign on to a cause, especially small business owners, to make it as easy as humanly possible. I wrote a short email introducing myself, the West Virginia Avenue Protected Bike Lane Project, and explained why it was vital to expedite it. I also linked to a Google Form that had a copy of the letter and a running list of the businesses that had signed on. The form took a minute or two to fill out.

This approach paid off. Nine Ivy City businesses signed onto the letter within the first 48 hours and the remaining seven signed on a few days later after I sent out a follow up email and set a deadline.

Step 4: Deliver the message, publicly and privately

With many advocacy efforts, publicly broadcasting your intentions can bring awareness to the issue and put pressure on those in power. At the same time, advocates can’t forget to connect directly with those you’re trying to reach: the people with the power to change things.

With a majority of Ivy City businesses signed on to the letter, I was now ready to deliver, and I did so both publicly and privately. I wrote an email to then DDOT Director Jeff Marootian introducing the letter, embedding it, and offering to facilitate a meeting between DDOT and the Ivy City business leaders. At the same time, I published the letter to social media, tagging the businesses and emailing them links so they could amplify the message.

16 Ivy City businesses support prioritizing the WV Ave NE Protected Bike Lanes & sent this letter (part 1) to @DDOTDC:
@BicycleSPACE | @BikramYogaWorks | @CityWineryDC | @CompassCoffeeDC | @douglasdevdc | Dunn Lewis | @greenhatgin | @CFHierarchy | @MOMsOrganicMrkt 1/ pic.twitter.com/JZCEc4Ufj2

— Mark Sussman (@MarkSussman_) December 18, 2020

Director Marootian responded later that same day expressing his thanks for the effort and willingness to meet with the business leaders in the new year. Jeff took a position in the Biden administration soon thereafter and the meeting never happened, but the message was received and the ultimate goal achieved: a fully protected bike lane, expected to be delivered nearly a year ahead of schedule.

Step 5: Keep the coalition engaged

Even though the goals of this initiative have largely been accomplished, there is always work to be done and having a readymade coalition of like-minded businesses already organized is an amazing asset.

It’s important to ensure that the coalition you’ve built is engaged throughout the entire process. So earlier this month when DDOT presented the protected bike lane plans to ANC 5D, I emailed the Ivy City businesses to inform them about the meeting and encouraged them to attend to express their support for the project.

Moving forward, I’ll continue maintaining those relationships and reminding officials why we care about this bike lane project — until hopefully, when the lanes hit the road, we can celebrate.