World Car-Free Day is September 22. Folks in the DC Council and DDOT want to do something good for Car-Free Day. What should DC do?

Many cities close whole streets for multiple blocks and create a festival atmosphere around walking, biking, and transit. The Car-Free Day site writes,

“We do not want just one day of celebration and then a return to “normal” life. When people get out of their cars, they should stay out of their cars. It is up to us, it is up to our cities, and our governments to help create permanent change to benefit pedestrians, cyclists, and other people who do not drive cars.

This is only the second Car-Free Day in DC, so we need to start small. Good projects would impact a lot of people in positive ways and help them realize the value of allocating more of our public space to people instead of to cars. We could close some streets right next to Metro stations to give more room for walkers. We could reclaim some parking spots for pedestrians, hanging out, bike parking, or eating lunch.

The ideal project(s) would minimize the frustration imposed on drivers. A car-free day activity that angers many drivers and creates new opponents of car-free activity doesn’t help the movement. So closing all of K Street at lunch would be great, but not really practical (yet). Create a plaza on a block or two around Gallery Place? Close 18th Street in Adams Morgan for the evening? What would you suggest?

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Tagged: bicycling, pedestrians

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.