Walk Everywhere in Washington DC

Thanks to a successful urban planning campaign at its founding, Washington DC is one of the most pedestrian-friendly cities on the East Coast. Many of the city’s top attractions are located in clusters in nearby neighborhoods, meaning that visitors can easily walk from one to another.

Alternatively, you can also use the D.C. Circulator bus to get around the city on fixed routes for $1 a ride. It operates about every 10 minutes and offers a dedicated National Mall route on weekends.

The District’s sidewalks are mostly wide and mostly level, but they aren’t always that wide. In some neighborhoods, sidewalks are so narrow that people have to walk on the roads to avoid getting hit by cars.

D.C.’s streets run east-west, north-south, and diagonally. Lettered streets run east-west, numbered streets run north-south, and diagonal streets have state names that go along the axes radiating from the Capitol building.

This grid design gives pedestrians the space they need to move safely while making it easy to find their way around. It also helps with social distancing, which is important for preventing harassment and other crimes that could occur on the streets.

Several neighbors have been campaigning for a sidewalk on Chestnut Street in Hawthorne, one of the quieter neighborhoods in the District. It’s caused a kerfuffle that’s reminiscent of the 2009 kerfuffle over a sidewalk on K Street in Northwest D.C., where pro- and anti-sidewalk groups have been fighting over the sidewalk for months.

Washington, DC, has a large number of streets that are well-lit. This is especially true in the core of the city, including the commercial District, Capitol Hill, and Foggy Bottom, but also around the Federal buildings in the Southwest near L’Enfant Plaza.

Most of the street lighting in the District is high-pressure sodium, or HPS, which has a very bright orange glow. Fortunately, the city is in the process of replacing these lights with LEDs that use less energy and have longer lifespans.

The new bulbs are expected to cut energy use by half and save 38,000 tons of greenhouse gases annually — about the equivalent of not driving about 87 million miles. Additionally, the bulbs will be targeted at streets and alleyways instead of the sky and will be dimmable from afar. This will help reduce pollution and the appearance of the District in the nighttime sky.

Whether you’re visiting or live in the area, parking can sometimes be frustrating. Fortunately, there are a lot of options for parking in D.C., from garages to metered spots.

As part of a recent city plan, Washington DC’s parking meters will no longer charge a fixed rate (like Uber’s surge pricing) but instead, vary from block to block. This will help ensure that there is enough available parking during busy times.

This is good news for tourists, as it means you’ll have a better chance of finding a spot during rush hour or when it’s too hot to walk. It also means that you’ll save money in the long run.

But it also comes at the cost of a huge chunk of traffic and carbon emissions. That’s why some advocates are urging the city to replace its current system of residential parking zones with neighborhood clusters. This would help reduce parking congestion and make the city’s overall transportation system less car-centric.

The DC metro network consists of six main lines that run from 5 am to midnight or later. Depending on your needs, hop-on-hop-off buses can also be a convenient option.

Taxis are another popular choice, but they can be hard to hail in the middle of the night or if you’re traveling with a large group. Thankfully, there are now a variety of ride-share options in the city, including Uber and Lyft.

If you do decide to use a taxi, make sure you have a valid driver’s license and a smartphone with the company’s number on it. Fares are based on distance, but add-ons for extra stops, airports, or declared snow emergencies will raise the price.

You can walk everywhere in Washington, DC, but if you need to get a little further out of town or want to visit an attraction on the outskirts, you may want to consider using the city’s public transportation system. The Metro trains are clean, easy to navigate, and less expensive than a cab.