Today is the first ever DC Car Free Day. According to the official website,
This is an opportunity to reconnect with the city, exploring new neighborhoods, and take advantage of transportation choices. Going carfree on September 18th will give you the opportunity to join your neighbors from all over the city as well as the metropolitan area who are signing up to leave their cars at home and travel to work by train, bus, bicycle, walking, roller-blading, etc.
Bike the Sites is offering free or discounted bike rentals as well. Considering this is the first ever DC Car Free Day, I suppose this is a step in the right direction. But next year let’s aim for actually barring auto traffic on Car Free Day. I think today “Car Free Day” will be a bit of a misnomer. We could at the very least bar private cars within the Central Business District or ‘Golden Triangle’ for one day.
Cartoon by Andy Singer
Beam Reach 