How to Get Around Washington

Washington, D.C., is an outstanding city.Bumper-to-bumber traffic on K Street. (Photo by Manuel Bewarder)

And that’s especially true for the thousands that have to stand still every day because of some of the worst traffic in the nation. Drivers in the Washington region stand still due to heavy congestion for an average of 60 hours a year, according to a study by the Texas Transportation Institute.

Yet, Washington can also be considered a capital of public transportation. It is number two in the nation with public transit users making nearly 40 percent of all commuters, the 2007 U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey reported.

And keep in mind that Mayor Adrian Fenty's bike-friendly administration is turning the city’s streets more and more into bike lanes where helmets and pedals rule.

Those are just three ways to get around Washington, D.C. But which is the fastest one? And which one won’t jar on your nerves? Relax, get your hands off the wheel, the American Observer tried it for you, from Dupont Circle to the National Museum of American History.

The Three Routes Through Washington, D.C.

Car
Start: Tuesday, 12:15
Duration: 15 minutes

If you think about the congestion you’ll soon encounter and the scores of red traffic lights, driving around the green, light and fresh-air Dupont Circle can be seen as the last chance to avoid a car driver’s hell.

Yet, in order to drive to the National Museum of American History the direct way, my car driver and I had to enter the traffic underworld, here called Connecticut Avenue. And don’t think access to this street is easy to get: Dupont Circle is like a traffic whirl and it is pretty hard to find the one lane out of it that you planned to take.

And as soon as you find the way out to Connecticut Avenue, an endless, seemingly back and forth from stop-and-go to red light starts. The soundtrack of this bumper-to-bumper orchestra? Probably a car horn’s symphony.

We were forced to slalom in and out of the other traffic participants to pass package deliverers on the right and avoid wrong-way driving bike couriers on the left. After having passed the bottlenecks of K Street and I Street at Farragut Square, the traffic started to flow for the first time.

We turned left, brushed past the White House and turned right and followed 15th Street south. Then we decided not to enter Pennsylvania Avenue on the left but to stay on 15th street, although that meant that we had to cross Constitution Avenue and make a detour because a left-turn straight to the museum was forbidden.

Two more red lights awaited us but finally there we were – warm and safe.

Bike
Start: Monday, 10:41
Duration: 18 minutes

What should have been an uncatchable head start for my little Carolina-blue bike and me, turned out to let us wandering off the course. Not only that, I’m unfamiliar with D.C.’s street system and I was riding a bike on the capital’s streets for the first time – I also chose the track Google map offered me.

Yet it was my fault, since I only looked up the info for pedestrians on the Internet but not the one for cyclists.

This mistake guided me and my bike down New Hampshire Avenue, where I soon found out that 20th Street was a one-way road and therefore no man’s land for us – especially because a police car slowly drove by.

I had to wait and take the next left until I could benefit from my two-wheel vehicle: When all cars had to stop at the intersection at Pennsylvania Avenue, I weaved my way through the line of four wheelers.

My following road toward the White House was paved with – yes – fear. I tried to avoid the other road users and looked straight down at the white lane. But I had to pay attention: To the left, trucks, busses and cars rushed by, hurrying to catch the next green traffic light. To the right, cars backed into a parking space and opened the driver’s door without taking a look back at my fellow cyclists and me.

Yet I escaped Pennsylvania Avenue, turned right, approached a pedestrian who was crossing the street, and then, after another turn to the left, entered a biker’s heaven: the Ellipse, at least one minute of laid-back cruising.

The White House in the back, the Mall in front of me, waiting in the fumes at the traffic light to cross Independence Avenue was like smelling a taste of victory while the goal was coming in sight.

I traversed the last intersection and there I was at the museum.

Metro
Start: Tuesday, 10:32
Duration: 20 minutes

At first sight, the long stairway down to the metro station at Dupont Circle is the lengthiest part of the route. But stop, not that fast. Entering the twilight of the metro underground, I just felt the breath of wind from the train heading downtown.

Five minutes to wait before the next train to Silver Spring, the flattering yellow lines on the display read. My Smartrip card touched the scanner, the gate opened and I stood on the platform, leaning on the grey wall made of concrete. The display counted down 5,4,3,2,1 and again 2 minutes – then my train arrived.

Like every time I take the metro, I wondered about the carpet on the floor: Washingtonians are clean. In Berlin, the cars’ floors are made of plastic and painted gray, black and silver in order to look like granite. But the main purpose of this blurry play of colors is to overshadow all the other dirt on the floor.

I thought about this once again while I took one of the express newspapers lying wadded on the floor. Three minutes later, I arrived at Metro Center, turned right and took the stairway to the exit on 13th street. I decided to walk from there to the museum because the Trip Planner at Metro’s Web site told me to change at Metro Center to the Blue Line just to have a one-minute ride to the next station.

I left the station, breathed in the fresh air, turned left, walked down the street and down the hill and had to stop at the red light at Pennsylvania Avenue for two minutes. Than I walked along the Ronald Reagan Building, crossed Constitution Avenue:

Hello museum!