A group of GW bicycle enthusiasts has emerged as a prominent advocate for officials to prioritize cyclists’ safety in campus development following a series of collisions in recent years.
As officials devise their 2027 campus plan — an outline of how officials will develop the campus for the next 20 years — and implement the newly launched strategic framework, GW Biking has urged club members to attend planning meetings to advocate for improved safety measures for cyclists around campus and throughout D.C. The organization, whose usual activities include organizing recreational bike rides around the DMV, is advocating for GW and D.C. officials to construct infrastructure to protect pedestrians and cyclists to make the campus and city safer.
The advocacy follows two fatal bike crashes near Foggy Bottom in recent years, including the death of a GW graduate student Nijad Huseynov in 2023 and cyclist Shawn O’Donnell in 2022.
Avery Kane, the advocacy chair of GW Biking, said to prevent future collisions GW and D.C. officials must implement infrastructure developments, like curb extensions on crosswalks and measures to slow cars down, like pedestrian refuge islands in the center of larger avenues where pedestrians can seek refuge while crossing bustling streets.
“One of the things that I would like to see is some combination of wider sidewalks, typically through the use of curb extensions, especially along H Street, to make the street more comfortable for walking as well as for cycling, because they can vastly improve safety outcomes at intersections,” Kane said.
Kane said the GW Biking members have attended two campus planning meetings this semester, hoping to lay out the club’s vision for a safer campus, which includes making the campus largely “car free” to prioritize pedestrian and cyclist safety. While he said officials have not yet made specific changes because of their advocacy, the group is hoping their attendance at meetings can grant them a seat at the table of planning these campus changes.
GW’s campus plan — which officials designed in 2007 and is set to expire in 2027 — lays out the framework for campus development for the next 20 years. An October presentation on the campus plan notes the campus has “limited protected bike lanes” and said the plan will aim to “enhance pedestrian safety.”
Officials have also worked to ensure the campus plan aligns with the strategic framework, launched in October, which defines the University’s priorities for the next seven to 10 years, including commitments to create a “vibrant and welcoming” campus environment through sustainability initiatives.
Gianluca Carboni, the president of GW Biking, said the club has worked on creating a “united front” this semester to push the University to make changes to the strategic framework, specifically hoping to create new bike lanes and pedestrian walkways in busy areas around campus, like H Street and I Street.
“There’s lots of people who walk around and are dependent on bicycles around the area, and it’s good to really encourage people to have that freedom of movement, that extra flexibility to go wherever they are,” Carboni said.
Carboni said the club often works with WABA and the Department of Transportation via email and through attending meetings to advocate for issues like ensuring cars and trucks don’t stop and unload in the middle of bike lanes. They hope to fix this by widening bike lanes at GW, though they haven’t seen any specific progress just yet.
“A safe campus would be one without too many accidents,” Carboni said. “Of course, there always is some accident that happens just throughout day to day actions, but making sure that there’s as little of those as possible, that people are wearing those helmets.”
Gabi Susoiu, the events co-chair for GW Biking, said making cyclists feel safe while riding on campus will increase students’ comfort level in using cycling as a reliable mode of transportation. She said the club aims to do this through education on cyclist safety, emphasizing the importance of helmets and increasing the number of safe bike lanes around the city without obstacles in the way.
“If we advocate more for bike safety measures, then more people will feel compelled to bike around the DMV area and see how it’s a very reliable transport and also environmentally friendly,” Susoiu said.
