The 2024 DC Council pre-election season is off to a relatively quiet start. With little formidable opposition from newcomers to almost any of the incumbent Councilmembers, the race to fill the Ward 8 seat has offered DC politicos the familiar respite of observing the sweet, sweet chaos that can define a multilateral brawl. While an initial seven candidates mounted bids for the seat representing the District’s Southeast quadrant, only four remain. On the left, we have progressive Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (ANC) Salim Adofo, running on a platform of progressive semi-urbanism; moving towards the center, we have incumbent Councilmember Trayon White, hoping to hold onto his seat amid potentially ruinous campaign finance violations; and then former Ballou High School Principal Rahman Branch, who has brandished his local business acumen as his weapon. The lone Republican ranger is second-time Ward 8 candidate, Nate Derenge, running on a platform of “if it’s broke, get MPD on it. If it ain’t broke, let the private sector exploit it.” 

So far, major missteps in CM T. White’s campaign financing are setting the stage for a surprisingly competitive primary. REDBUG will be here to document it all throughout the election, but for now, let’s take a look at where Ward 8’s candidates stand on transportation. In Wards 7 and 8, more than half of traffic collisions took place in 2022. Bus service in Ward 8 is insufficient and its metro stations are few and far between. Residents have been calling out pedestrian- and cyclist-unfriendly traffic infrastructure for years while their counterparts in other quadrants saw a boom in protected bike lane development. Put simply, Ward 8 candidates’ stances on transportation matter.

Last month, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA), the Anacostia Parks and Community Collaborative (APACC), the Ward 8 Bike Alliance, the Historic Anacostia Block Association and the Anacostia Coordinating Council hosted a virtual candidate forum on transportation issues in the ward. The roundup below reflects the responses by the only remaining candidates to attend, Derenge and Adofo, though REDBUG has compiled relevant data from the other remaining candidates. But before diving into that, what's up with T. White?

TRAYON WHITE HOSTILE TO INFRASTRUCTURE CHANGES IN THE WARD

Over T. White’s two terms as the Ward 8 Council Member, he has attracted the ire of community cycling advocates over his intransigence on numerous cycling infrastructure developments proposed by the District Department of Transportation (DDOT). Ward 8 cycling advocates have tried several times, unsuccessfully, over the past few years to engage Councilmember T. White on protected bike lanes and traffic calming measures. Critics have remarked that former DDOT Director, Everett Lott corroborated the CM’s unwillingness to engage with bike/traffic safety measures, dissuading DDOT from adamantly pushing for these measures. A few years prior, the DC Line portended DDOT’s difficulty in working with Ward 8 elected leaders -- both ANCs and CM T. White -- claiming the ward’s representatives rarely reply to DDOT’s correspondence during the planning and community outreach stages of development.

Notably, in CM T. White’s first term, he decried the installment of protected bike lanes on Alabama Avenue SE between MLK, Jr. Avenue SE and Southern Avenue SE. This Vision Zero initiative was sanctioned after multiple public meetings and conference with the ward’s commissions, after three fatalities occurred in 2018 on that stretch. 

While the incumbent’s bike lane vendetta has been less pronounced in recent years, his reelection website does not paint a picture of a shift to alternative transit enthusiasm: the only transportation related victories highlighted are two pieces of legislation from 2017 that provide amnesty for motorists’ ticket fine accrual.

The Councilmember has not prioritized public transportation in campaigning as of yet, though his answers on a Greater Greater Washington candidate questionnaire in 2022 demonstrate a propensity for maintaining the status quo of private vehicle (over)use. In this survey, T. White indicated opposition to any type of road pricing, including congestion pricing, increasing the cost to own a car in the District, establishing road diets (reducing the quantity of car lanes) on arterial streets or making certain streets car-free. Additionally, CM T. White opted to underscore the responsibility of cyclists and other two-wheelers on the road when asked about clamping down on dangerous motorist behavior. 

He did, however, respond in favor of a flat rate for metro fare, fare-free bus rides for all users and expanded bus service in Wards 5, 7 and 8.

White's hostility to cycling infrastructure may be one of the Councilmembers biggest blind-spots. Are his competitors able to spot this tailwind?

ADVISORY NEIGHBORHOOD COMMISSIONER SALIM ADOFO COURTS CYCLISTS

Veering into the left lane, we are joined by Adofo. The candidate styles himself as an environmental justice advocate and prided his track record of traffic safety and infrastructure progress, including the installation of speed bumps near each school in his district, introduction of new crosswalks, and successful coordination with DDOT on road repairs and raised sidewalks. As an elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner he has been a legislative force, instituting traffic safety assessments throughout the ward and passing a resolution to support the installation of a bike lane on a popular route to the Congress Heights Metro Station, from Mississippi Avenue SE to Southern Avenue. 

Adofo is resolutely in favor of a number of cycling and traffic calming infrastructure initiatives, including: protecting the bike lanes on MLK Jr. Avenue; building out traffic assessments with DDOT; enforcing stricter penalties for traffic violators, especially from out of state and ensuring routes to schools in the ward be clean, safe and accessible for students with disabilities. 

He emphasized the importance of community input, from residents, cyclist associations and faith groups, especially on citywide programs like Vision Zero. He assured viewers he has the history of collaboration within the community and the city’s government agencies to back up his plans. And he is running on a plan to form a Ward 8 Environmental Task Force, among other ideas for activating people power. 

Adofo has lines though: he is not particularly jazzed about the idea of sacrificing road or parking space for bike lanes. A more significant priority, he claims, is protecting existing bike lanes in the ward rather than adding new ones. 

When it comes to public transit, Adofo’s resolution is to electrify the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) bus fleet to reduce the emission from the current vehicles’ traditional petroleum combustion.

While he hesitated to opine on specific transit system needs for the ward before reviewing a budget, he maintained the importance of multimodal transit especially for Ward 8, in which there is the fewest amount of cars in the District.

LOCAL VIGILANTE, NATE DERENGE, DISMISSES CYCLIST CONCERNS

Shifting gears: rightward. WABA’s excellent forum host, Director of Advocacy, Jeremiah Lowery, might as well have looked directly into his webcam and asked, “Now, how about a fun one?” Derenge’s answers comprised an interesting assortment of an unabashed preference for laissez-faire governance and what seemed like a deep disdain for the very constituency he is now trying, again, to represent.

On the issue of bike lanes -- whether to install, protect, invest, etc. -- he couldn’t be bothered. Send those decisions down to the ANCs. When the issue continued to come up, to everyone’s shock at a forum hosted by an organization with the word “bicyclists” in the title, he finally privileged viewers with his takes: he does not support reducing car lanes or parking space on streets. Encourage cycling as an emissions-free alternative, he believes, is a fool's errand due to the exorbitant quantity of China and India’s emissions.

Know that this is coming from a “power rider” who rides more than any other candidate (Why install a bikelane on Southern Ave -- “I survived”?). Has your disbelief been suspended? 

On traffic: he agrees on enforcing reciprocity from out of state violators, and that is about it. Derenge supports lowering commercial taxes, slashing government programs and addressing the most salient root cause of Ward 8’s underdevelopment: crime -- even when the question really did not call for it.

On Adofo’s concern for students getting to school safely? Entirely missing the point, which of course, is that Ward 8 students would be truant little hooligans no matter how many traffic calming measures the CM and DDOT weaseled into some of the most accident riddled passages in the city. Investment in Vision Zero, a program aimed at addressing DC’s pedestrian death rate which is far higher than the national average? A gross misallocation of energy and resources considering the homicide rate dwarfs pedestrian fatalities. 

To Derenge, the preeminent solution to public transit woes in DC is penalizing fare evasion. (His passion project is documenting jumpers, or metro users who avoid paying their fare, usually by hopping over entry/exist turnstiles). His solution to this widespread desecration of our social contract is ambitious: forcing evaders to pay up would not cover the budget deficit WMATA faces, but charging them all an additional $50 fine would surely help! Punishing jumpers for “flexing their criminal muscles on Metro so they can go onto commit bigger crimes” is how we start building a safer Ward 8.

Scapegoating crime as the cause of Ward 8’s underdevelopment is a throughline for Derenge. According to him, the reason bus shelters are in disrepair has nothing to do with weather events or dilapidation, but rather a tragedy of the commons wrought by miscreant, vandal behavior. (This is also his explanation for the unlivable conditions found in public housing complexs across the Ward, by the way.) 

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Community planning for involved projects like bike lane installation and traffic pattern changes can be encumbered by bureaucracy, but the people of Ward 8 have demonstrated a real desire for transportation equity -- otherwise, events like these wouldn’t have an audience. Their candidates would do well to remember that. Keep REDBUG in the passenger seat to stay on the right path.

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(NOTE: Until March 2024, Branch’s positions on alternative transportation have been hard to find. Last Fall, the Washington Informer attempted to interview him on the subject twice to no avail. The cyclists hosted another in-person candidate forum on April 8, in which Rahman Branch participated. REDBUG to follow up with an article covering the event soon.)