The District Goes Car-Free

Imagine a Washington, D.C., devoid of the stress and road congestion that typifies rush hour.

That is the vision of Car-Free Day, an annual international event that the Washington area participated in last Tuesday. Over 6,000 D.C. residents pledged online to go leave their cars at home.

“By taking a number of cars off the roads, people are given a chance to consider how their city might look and operate with a lot fewer cars,” said Nick Ramfos, director of Commuter Connections, a regional transportation network, in an online podcast.

Car-Free Day, now in its third year, encourages residents in the Washington area to use means of transportation other than driving alone. Going “car-free” can mean biking, walking or taking the bus, subway or commuter rails. Participants can also choose to go “car-lite” by sharing a ride, possibly using the Commuter Connections Web site, which helps connect drivers to carpools.

To promote the event, the District held a street celebration and closed F Street NW between 7th and 9th Streets to traffic from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Participants enjoyed booths offering free bike rentals, bicycle repairs, tango dancing and yoga. According to Ramfos, event organizers also set up a booth promoting the event at a Washington Nationals game.

Despite the campaign, the number of pledges has once again fallen short of its inaugural goal of 10,000, although this year’s results were higher than last year’s 5,445.

“It hasn’t gone up yet to the level of the European cities,” Ramfos said, comparing D.C.’s performance with the rest of the World Car-Free movement.

But the level of participants was “close to 6,000 participants, [which] is a good starter, and hopefully [we can] build up from there,” Ramfos said.

The relatively low participation was also reflected here at Georgetown.

“At this point, I haven’t heard of any events connected with this happening on campus,” Andy Pino, director of media relations, said.

“It’s not a real issue for us,” said Kristin Ng (COL ’11), president of EcoAction, a student environmental group at Georgetown. “The vast majority of our members don’t have cars.”

Last year, a free breakfast and showers were made available in Yates Memorial Field House to members of the Georgetown community who chose to bike instead of drive to work.