Transit Diary: Trouble in walkers’ paradise? A GGWash staffer’s week on mostly two legs and two wheels

Transit Diaries is a series in which residents of Greater Washington track how they get around the region for a week, shedding light on what’s working well and not so well with our transportation systems. Read past Transit Diaries.

I moved to Capitol Hill ten years ago from London with my family. I spend most of my waking hours working at Greater Greater Washington as Deputy Executive Director, or with my spouse and two kids, aged six and nine. I like to read, swim, camp, and travel. I usually get around on Capital BikeShare, foot, or by bus. Once or twice a week, I take Metrorail, drive, or carpool. I kept this diary while I participated in the National Week Without Driving.

Day 1: Monday, October 2

On Monday I didn’t need to leave my neighborhood, so it was a straightforward decision to walk in my “very walkable” area of Capitol Hill. In the morning, I walked with my kids to their school, chatting along the way. 0.3 miles.

After dropping them off, I walked to the Capitol to get some movement and breathing space after a hectic weekend, and before I had to sit down to work. Some manure had been put down around the Supreme Court so it smelled awful, which made me laugh given that day’s WaPo top headline (see below). Would I have picked up on this in a car? No. 1.8 miles.

In the evening, my daughter asked me to walk to Lincoln Park to play soccer. Three to four lanes of traffic and parking surround the park, which makes me feel uncertain about sending my kids there to play by themselves, though some local families do. I was reminded of when we brought a new babysitter to Lincoln Park a couple years ago. Me: “This is Capitol Hill’s biggest…” Babysitter: “Traffic circle?” Me: “Uh, no; park.” 0.7 miles

Total distance traveled: 2.8 miles

• Walking: 2.8 miles

Highlights: I’m one of many Americans who deal with chronic injuries or pain, and have to plan my activities accordingly. One long-term injury I’m dealing with causes me pain in my right knee when I sit for too long (in a car or at a desk, for example). So I try to walk multiple times a day to manage that pain, and luckily I live in a place that affords lots of opportunities to walk to daily needs.

Hitches: Despite the walkable design of my neighborhood, walking’s become an increasingly dangerous prospect in recent years, thanks to lawless driving and DC’s failures in addressing it. I noticed a few spots where drivers had parked partly on the sidewalk because their driveways aren’t long enough for their large vehicles, and other spots where the bricks were very uneven, which can be a tripping hazard, especially for disabled and older people. As I documented these issues, I had no idea that one of our walking routes to school would be the site of a terrible crash later this week.

Day 2: Tuesday, October 3

I walked with my kids to school and then back on my own. We pointed out Halloween decorations, which are a fun and often innovative highlight of October in Capitol Hill. Walk: 0.6 miles.

I intended to walk to our office in Navy Yard today, but I left home late and had to jump on a shared bike. To my disgruntlement and surprise, there were no bikes at the three CaBi stations closest to me, and when I finally reached one with two bikes in it, I got red lights/error beeps for both. So it was onto a Lime bike, which I don’t love paying for when I have a CaBi membership. Walk: 0.8 miles, bike: 0.9 miles.

Following a few meetings in the office, I rode an e-bike back home so I could be there in time to meet my kids, who are trying out walking home from school together. This is a big step for our family: I don’t worry that they’ll get kidnapped or lost, but I do worry about careless drivers (with good reason). I wait for a few nervous minutes in front of my house, but the kids make it! Yes. They get a cookie; I get back to work. Bike: 1.7 miles.

After work, my carpool partner Carol picks me up to head to our DC Masters swim practice (or as I lovingly call it, middle-aged swim team) in Petworth. Transit takes too long for me to make it to the pool in time after work, and I haven’t found a bike route I consider safe, especially coming back after dark. Carpool: 11.4 miles.

Highlights: I love talking to my septuagenarian carpool partner, who’s lived a fascinating life, during our journeys. As Carol says, traffic is less annoying when you have someone to talk to. (Yes, as my nine year old is fond of reminding me, we aren’t in traffic; we are traffic.) Hooray for carpools!

Hitches: When I can’t find an e-CaBi, I appreciate that I can usually find a Lime Bike or scooter, but they’ve become uncomfortably expensive for me, and prohibitively expensive for some. My “protected” bike lane to Navy Yard was blocked by a FedEx driver using the bike lane to unload, which happens every single day on every bike lane that isn’t protected by bollards, concrete, or parked cars

Total distance traveled: 15.3 miles

• Walking: 1.5 miles
• Biking: 2.6 miles
• Carpool: 11.4 miles

Day 3: Wednesday, October 4

Walk to School Day! The big annual event at Lincoln Park is always inspiring and exciting, bringing together our diverse community to celebrate the benefits of walking to school and call for decisionmakers to support more kids being able to do so. Councilmember Charles Allen (a fellow National Week Without Driving participant), US DOT and Safe Routes to School representatives spoke, Wendy the Water Drop was handing out hugs, and we finished off with a fabulous performance from Eastern High School’s Blue and White Marching Machine.

On the walk home and away from the fanfare and borrowed police, I spotted several drivers failing to drive and park safely near the school. What it would take to ensure that drivers drive safely in school zones at a minimum, I wondered. (Walking: 0.8 miles RT)

I was still thinking about that when I logged on to that week’s hearing on four traffic safety bills, run by Councilmember Allen and Councilmember Brianne Nadeau. At lunch, I walked to a bagel shop at Eastern Market, biking home so I wouldn’t miss much of the hearing (got back just in time to catch a witness proposing mandatory birth control [just noting that I’ve been called a sociopath at a hearing for wanting to study road pricing!]).

In the evening, I used a shared scooter to accompany my daughter to soccer practice in Kingman Park. Go Green Eggs & Hammers! I scooted back home to walk my son to DPR swim practice, walked a block to Trader Joe’s at Eastern Market, and CaBi’d back up to Kingman Park with two bags of groceries, just in time to pick up my little Harry Kane.

Highlights: For working parents in cities, shared micromobility is a valuable tool. I often have to get to and from different activities quickly, and the same mode isn’t always appropriate for every leg (I used to, for example, take my kids to daycare downtown on Metro or the bus, then bike to work after dropoff). The capacity to switch between “parent gear” and “working gear” makes each day more cohesive and efficient.

Hitches: Several delivery drivers, parents and other drivers broke the law around the school this morning with no fear of enforcement, which made Walk to School Day even more reflective for me than usual. While it’s meant to be celebratory, I appreciate Councilmember Allen reminding us all (which he does every year at this event) that it’s adults’ responsibility to make it safe for all kids to walk to school. Unfortunately, we’re failing, because we have priorities that take precedence over kids’ lives and health: mainly driver convenience, which also happens to mean adult convenience.

Day 4: Thursday, October 5

After walking the kids to school, I worked from home. I hopped on another Lime bike (ahhh, the money!) to get across town to meet Tracy Loh at Rakuya in Dupont Circle. Few things will make me brave the absurdly inconvenient Capitol Hill-anywhere west of Downtown journey, but Tracy and the District’s best, inexpensive Japanese fare are two of those things. My fear at having to cross North Capitol Street, the River Styx of DC, was soon soothed by the prospect of the fabulous 9th St NW bike lane. But dangers awaited me there, too (see Hitches). My CaBi ride home was uneventful, except for thoughtlessly routing myself through the nightmare that is Dave Thomas Circle.

Highlights: I had actually intended to take Metro back after lunch. I guess it’s second nature to reach for a bike these days; a big change from five years ago, when I was too scared of city biking to do it.

Hitches: The east-west breakdown of our transportation system is real. Many things that people living on the east side of the District need on a daily basis are now available in NE or SE, so there’s little incentive to take an awkward (transit) or unsafe (bike or scooter) journey if we don’t absolutely have to (hello, Return to Office proponents!). More and enforced dedicated bus lanes and protected bike lanes would create better options. I’d definitely use them.

More specifically, the 9th Street bike lane was blocked near the convention center by a number of massive delivery trucks, parked there for an event. My throat tightened as I thought of Sarah Langenkamp, another mom who biked and was killed by the driver of a similar truck in Bethesda last year. I struggled to get around one of the trucks; because of one of my injuries, I can’t start on my left foot, so I had to awkwardly walk the bike about six inches from the huge tires.

My beloved CaBi has let me down at a higher rate in recent weeks: whether fewer bikes in the stations, or (more often and more frustratingly) docks that don’t actually let me dock, or low batteries on the e-CaBis, something has changed.

Total distance traveled: 8.3 miles

• Walking: 0.6 miles
• Biking: 7.8 miles

Day 5: Friday, October 6

Today I walked my kids just a block so they could walk the rest of the way to school with their friends. When I got home, I looked for an e-CaBi, but as I couldn’t find one (or any CaBi within a five-block radius of my house), I hopped on another Lime Bike to get to my physical therapy appointment downtown. I took a mostly protected route from north of Union Station on K St heading west (again crossing the River Styx), until I got to the Carnegie Library and slipped into the slip lanes on K St NW.

When I arrived at physical therapy, I groaned at seeing how much the ride had cost me. My physical therapist thinks that one of the causes of my right knee problem is overcompensating for an older issue on my left when I’m biking. I don’t need to stop biking, but I do need to bike more intentionally. A bit dejected but hopeful for my treatment, I took a CaBi home and tried really hard to use my left leg more. My nearest docking station wouldn’t allow me to dock, so I had to bike an extra four blocks to find a dock that worked.

After work, I walked to Trader Joe’s. On exiting, I planned to take the bus home, but my spirits sagged along with my three grocery bags when I saw the 18 minute wait. Oh dear. But wait! I peered down Barracks Row and the 92 was on the way. Yay for buses! Boo to inaccurate bus arrival information! There’s a bus priority project in the works on Barracks Row, getting some unfortunate but predictable neighborhood resistance; the project could help a lot with issues like bus reliability and arrival time information accuracy (you should email the bus priority team if you support it).

Highlights: I appreciate the independence that comes with children being able to walk to school without adult supervision. It’s a key determinant of pediatric mental health and development. We live close enough to school for this to be relatively easy for them to do. I was glad, also, that my physical therapist works downtown, rather than further west.

Hitches: Even in that one-block walk with my kids to meet their friends this morning, drivers reminded us again why I worry about them walking without adult supervision. Two drivers blew right through the light at the intersection where I left them to cross on their own, even after the pedestrian signal had activated. At the time I didn’t know about Wednesday’s crash on the next intersection my kids cross on their own when they walk with friends.

Total distance traveled: 9 miles

• Walking: 1.8 miles
• Biking: 6.9 miles
• Bus: 0.9 miles

Day 6: Saturday, October 7

After a drizzly morning, in the early afternoon, my kids and I walked to Solid State Books to pick up a birthday present for a friend. In the afternoon, we walked to a party nearby.

Highlights: I bumped into both DC Families for Safe Streets’ Christy Kwan and NoMa BID Executive Director Maura Brophy on H St NE; one was going to pick up a card and another was going for a coffee. Pedestrian life plus the liveliness of H St (though as a street it’s not massively ped-friendly) made a lovely afternoon like this even better.

Hitches: None, except I was bummed to miss Open Streets for non-transportation reasons.

Total distance traveled: 3 miles

• Walking: 3 miles

Day 7: Sunday, October 8

I broke the streak on the last day. We needed to pick up a bed that my spouse had bought on eBay for my daughter, and while it might have been kind of funny in a horrible way to attempt to transport it from Arlington back to our house via transit, we elected to drive. In the afternoon, I biked to a grocery store in Navy Yard to get a couple vaccinations and pick up groceries.

Total distance traveled: 16.8 miles

• Biking: 3.2 miles
• Driving: 14.8 miles roundtrip to pick up a bed in Arlington.

Highlights: I had multiple options within biking distance to get my vaccinations, and I love that many are co-located with grocery stores and other amenities.

Hitches: This is my third visit to a grocery store this week, whereas I normally go just once in my car. Because I wasn’t driving, I picked up smaller versions of what I normally buy like 6-egg cartons, which isn’t entirely convenient. On the way to Navy Yard, the bike seat adjuster didn’t work and I had to bike with tiny little leg revolutions. On the way back, not only did my CaBi seat adjuster work, it also had the type of adjustment mechanism that’s much easier on an elbow injury. (By now, you may share my suspicion that my genes are evolutionarily non-viable to have this many injuries).

Final tally: 18 trips

Mode	Number of Trips	% of the total number of trips (rounded to the nearest whole number)
Walking	10	55%
Biking	6	33%
Bus	1	1%
Carpool	1	1%
Total	18	100%

My takeaways on land use, pedestrian safety, and choices

Three major themes emerged during my Week Without Driving. The first is land use. My largely walkable life is possible because I live in a place that, while not dense enough for many urban uses such as high volumes of offices or jobs, is still very easy to walk to and from services and amenities. And even with a Metro station 0.9 miles away (we’re in a kind of no-Metro canyon part of Capitol Hill), I can easily bike, or bus, to most places I need to go, with varying degrees of safety. I see lots of neighbors and fellow parents along the way every day when I travel this way instead of in a car, which allows me to keep in touch with my community.

The second theme is what we’re willing to give up to let kids be safe navigating their own neighborhoods. My children aren’t babies anymore: they’re old enough to manage their journeys to and from daily needs like school, and I feel this is an essential part of their developmental process. But adults don’t do our part. If my kids had followed the signal alone instead of checking on that morning I caught two drivers blowing the light after the ped signal had activated, they’d both have been hit at the high speed of a driver rushing to get through the intersection before another car got in their way. And the child run over by a hit-and-run driver just a block away the day before is a friend of my daughter’s, just six years old. It takes a village to help kids grow and develop safely; it can’t be done without the village. And it’s not just kids: we now have two elderly friends who have been hit by drivers in the last 18 months in Capitol Hill, with devastating consequences.

Finally, my failure to manage the full week without driving weighs on my mind. Folks who don’t drive have fewer options to access awkward goods like furniture: if what you want can be delivered, great, but if it can’t, and with fewer shared car services than we used to have, you don’t have that option at all. There’s an echo of this in the east-west transportation breakdown in the District: if you have to travel west from where I am on any mode at all, you’re in for a frustrating and even unsafe journey, because it’s not been a priority to fix that well-known problem. I reflect too that even on days when I didn’t drive, I benefited from and relied on others driving: a babysitter, a medical professional doing a house call, a delivery driver.

I appreciate the opportunity to participate in this inaugural DC version of National Week Without Driving. I hope next year we’ve got on top of a few of these issues.