Hi. I’m J. Swiderski. I’m a transportation advocate and transportation planner, a Hokie motivated by the spirit of Ut Prosim — “That I may serve” — long before I began my graduate studies at Virginia Tech’s Planning program, and a Columbia Heights resident running for Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for SMD 1B03.
I worked in libraries throughout high school and college, and for many years afterward considered going to library school, because I wanted to help make information and resources more accessible to people. A similar spirit motivates my interest in ‘active’ transportation and public transit advocacy — making not just information, but the entire world, more accessible to more people.
A bit more about me
Transportation advocate
I grew up walking and taking the bus, and occasionally riding a bike, around Ann Arbor, Michigan. (A small part of me still remembers the feeling of betrayal when, age 12, I no longer qualified for the 35-cent kid’s fare…)
I biked off and on through high school and college, but it was in about 2006, when, having transferred to Pitt and moved to the East End of Pittsburgh, that I started riding regularly. As a Pitt student, the bus was free, but the bike was faster, and I didn’t have to wait for it and wonder if it was going to come or if I was going to get to class on time.
A few years and a few moves later, I got involved with several neighborhood livable-streets advocacy organizations around Pittsburgh—from attending meetings of the North Side Bike & Pedestrian Committee, Bloomfield Livable Streets, and Oakland Green Team to helping start South Side Safe Streets. I was on the board of Better Streets Lawrenceville as social media manager for a couple years.
Transportation planner…and transportation advocate.
Eventually, I decided that I didn’t want to just go to meetings and give comment on projects that had already been planned and proposed — I wanted to be a part of the planning and proposing. So, in 2017 I left my job and Pittsburgh and moved to DC for Planning school. I received my Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Tech in 2020.
Now I work at Toole Design Group in Silver Spring, Maryland, where I have worked on Planning projects across the Mid-Atlantic. My primary projects have focused on Safe Routes to School — developing both program and infrastructure recommendations to make it safer and easier for children to walk and bike to school — as well as best-practice and policy research and guidance development and trail/shared-use path planning.
I also represent Ward 1 on DC’s Pedestrian Advisory Council; you can read several of the testimonies I’ve written and delivered to DC Council on my previous site. I also serve as Co-Chair of the National Capital Region Chapter of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals and as an At-Large Member of the Leadership of Ex Lapide Society of Virginia Tech, the Virginia Tech Society for LGBTQIA+ alumni and allies.1
I organize bike rides, too!
I’m also an organizer of bike rides: In about 2013, a friend said they wanted to go up to Mount Washington, the bluff overlooking Downtown Pittsburgh, to take pictures of the sunrise. I said, I’m not going anywhere at dawn, but I can show you how to get there safely….. We recruited a few friends to come with us, and I plotted a route up that avoided the worst, most heavily-trafficked roads. Then we decided to do it again the next week….eventually Weekend Hills was born: A very casual—no-drop, “tourist-pace”—ride to tackle some of the steepest hills and best views in Pittsburgh. I also routed and led rides for 412 Flock, Pittsburgh’s family- and new rider-friendly monthly group ride, for several years.
Since 2019, I’ve organized, routed, and led DC’s annual Ride of Silence memorial ride for bike riders (and others) killed by motor vehicle drivers. In 2022, I also helped organize and route a Tour de Ward 1 for ANC candidates and friends across Ward 1 — look for the return of that ride this fall!
Footnotes
This is also on the front page, but it bears repeating: All content reflects my personal opinions and, except where explicitly noted, nothing written here should be construed as approved, endorsed, or supported by my employer or any other organization.↩︎