1983 DC Comprehensive Plan banned cars on F and G downtown

There was a lot more willingness to take space from cars then than I would have thought (Beach Drive north of Joyce was to be car-free by 1985)

Comments

[darren]

F Street in this stretch would still work very well for something like this. Very low traffic, just let buses continue to go through, figure out some way to design/enforce for car access to F Street destinations only

[dcdutchiedude]

I remember DDOT had internal plans to pedestrianize 10th Street, NW between E and F Streets back in 2014 or 2015 to attempt to resolve the Ford's Theatre tourist bus chaos there, but Jack Evans immediately torpedoed that suggestion :(

[Brendan]

I remember that they only managed to pedestrianize the 900 block of F in front of MLK library. What a dismal social experiment that was. It was the city's response to suburban shopping center taking of all downtown's commerce. The idea was to turn the streets into mall-like spaces with sunken courts, fountains and potted trees. It wasn't bicycle friendly, but it was vagrant friendly. Suburban malls won that battle, but they eventually lost the war.