If you've driven along Wisconsin Avenue N.W., especially through Georgetown, you know you are not alone. That major thoroughfare is jammed most hours of most days.
Now there’s a citizen movement of sorts to secure support for the return of streetcars to Wisconsin Avenue.
Georgetown Metropolitan says it "would love to see streetcars head up Wisconsin Avenue and replicate the original 32 streetcar line that once traversed the whole city the way the 32 bus series does now." The blog says that bus line has "a string of vibrant yet transit-starved districts," arguing that streetcars would persuade more people to give up their cars than buses ever will.
Georgetown Metropolitan is urging people to join the Wisconsin Streetcar Coalition, which has a page on Facebook.
Currently, the District of Columbia is embarking on a plan to bring back streetcars to the Nation's Capital. The District Department of Transportation is building a 1.5-mile line in Anacostia that is expected to be up and running by the fall of 2012.
D-DOT has plans to build a total of 37 miles of streetcar tracks, comprised of eight separate lines built in three phases.
A streetcar line up and down Wisconsin Avenue, though, is described only as a "possible future route."
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The Streetcar Coalition wants to remove "possible" from that description and is asking visitors to its Facebook page to support the effort, so that it "develops into a transportation alternative that helps reduce traffic and pollution for residents along the Wisconsin Avenue corridor."
In the meantime, see you all at the next red light.
