Car-Free? Photo by monceau on Flickr.

[Autoposted while I’m in France]

As I write this, I don’t know how Car-Free Day went. However, (assuming it didn’t get canceled for some reason), we should thank and applaud DC officials for making it happen.

Nevertheless, we can and should do more next year. How about, instead of one small lightly-used block, we close one street (Pennsylvania Avenue? I Street? Some but not all lanes of K?) through downtown during lunch and have a big citywide picnic for office workers, accompanied by music and arts? How about (as suggested by commenter Tom) keeping the rush hour restrictions and setting up temporary street furniture in the parking spaces—like a big Park(ing) Day?

I know some of you will say it’s crazy and will cause too much traffic. But all we need is to get enough people to go car-free, even just for lunch, and knowing that one of the several roads is closed will give people reason to do it. Besides, we close Pennsylvania for inaugurations, the Pope, etc. already.

What should we do next year? Let’s not be afraid to think big.

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Tagged: car dependence, cat:traffic, dc, downtown dc, public spaces, roads, street fairs

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.