The West Metro Active Transportation Alliance (WMATA), pronounced Wuh-Mat-Tuh, is organizing to challenge car dependency, prioritize sustainable choices, and ensure safe, equitable mobility options in the Twin Cities West Metro.
We send these newsletters out monthly to help keep you up to date on what we’ve been doing and what’s coming up in WMATA events and West Metro transportation advocacy in general.
1. What We’ve Been Up To
Since our last newsletter, we’ve…
- Enjoyed snacks and beverages in the gazebo at Mills Park in Minnetonka for our August social. The park is within walking distance to the Lake Minnetonka LRT Trail and the wonderful adjacent businesses of Abang Yoli, Station Pizzeria, and Dairy Queen, which we patronized during this event!
- Each of our working groups met to continue planning the monthly events, including our events team working on planning the Rosland Park social, our tech team working on fleshing out our westmet.org site, and our discord moderation team adding basic automation and city roles to our discord server.
2. What’s Coming Up
WMATA hosted Events:
- For our September Social on September 9th we’ll be enjoying a beautiful summer evening at Rosland Park in Edina. The park is located a block from France Ave and the E line(closest station is Southdale Hospital), and there will be a group ride down Wooddale Ave starting 5:30 PM from Haggard Barrel. We’ll be at the park from 6:30 pm to 8pm. Our ride down Wooddale is prompted by Edina’s decision to maintain the status quo on the corridor, voting against protected cycling infrastructure. More information via our discord, google calendar, or by emailing info@westmet.org.
- Our September general meeting will be on Friday, September 11th at 4 PM on Google Meet. Our general working meetings are a great way to connect with our team and figure out how you can best support our work! Please RSVP via discord, google calendar, or emailing info@westmet.org if you plan to join.
- WMATA, in collaboration with the Minnesota Cargo Bike Library, will be hosting Cargo Bikes for Everyday Life on Sunday September 13th, 12-2pm at the Thinking Spot in Minnetonka. Come discover how cargo bikes can make everyday trips easier, healthier, and more fun! We’ll have several types of cargo bikes available for viewing. More info available at our site here.
- Save the date: WMATA celebration in the afternoon on Oct 3rd! We’ll be sharing complete details on our social media after the September 11th meeting.
Additional Events:
- Our friends at Our Streets and Streets.mn are hosting a Legislative Look ahead panel discussion at Arbeiter Brewing on September 17th at 6:30 PM.
- Metro Transit is hosting four Network Now Community Conversations centered around the West Metro. We’re excited to learn more about how proposed changes will enhance connecting bus service once the Green Line is running. Dates include September 16th, 21st, 23rd, and 24th.
- Speaking of the Green Line Extension, Metro Transit will announce the opening date on September 26th at 10 AM in a celebration at the Louisiana Avenue Station.
- The 3rd Annual Twin Cities Bike Tour will be on October 10 starting from Wabun Park at 8 AM. Registration is now open and Bike MN is also still recruiting volunteers to support the ride in a variety of ways!
More opportunities to engage are popping up all the time. The best way to stay in the know is by joining our discord server (more info below)! You can also check our calendar for new events that come up after this newsletter is sent.
3. How to Get Involved
- Join a working group! WMATA needs your help to continue our fight for safer streets and better transit in the West Metro. While donations are great, they do not organize our social events and meetings, build relationships with our communities and local leaders, or launch campaigns to slow traffic and increase transit frequency and walkability in the West Metro. The best way to support our work right now is to jump into a working group and help us plan events, manage our discord server, calendar, social media, and send newsletters like this one!
- Join our discord server: Discord is where WMATA members do most of our communications and organize events. If you plan to contribute to WMATA’s work please consider joining. You can request assistance with discord by emailing info@westmet.org. This link expires on 10/05/26. Reply to this email or send an email to info@westmet.org to request a new link. If you are already in discord, but you only have access to the welcome and rules and introductions channels, you may need to post an introduction and/or update your server name to comply with the rules.
- Become a WMATA Member! If you are already a BikeMN member, click here to add WMATA as your chapter. Not a BikeMN member, click here and make sure WMATA or Access Hopkins is selected at the bottom of the form. Not sure? Check your Bike MN Membership status here.
**You can be a member of either or both Access Hopkins and WMATA but you will need to choose either group for your BikeMN affiliation** - Join us at an event: Listed above or in the WMATA calendar
- Social media: Follow us and share our posts! Instagram Facebook
Thanks for reading and we hope to see you soon!
westmet.org
info@westmet.org
A chapter of The Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota
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