Park(ing) Day 2013: DC Edition

3:01 PM EDT on September 20, 2013

There's only one reason to be inside on a beautiful day like today, and that is to upload pictures of this beautiful day. More to the point, it's Park(ing) Day, a celebration of better uses for on-street parking spaces. All over this city, and in cities around the country, temporary parklets have sprung up in spaces normally reserved for car storage. They're a real-life illustration of how much more vibrant our cities could be if we let people take up street space instead of cars.

Here are a few scenes from DC's Park(ing) Day this morning. Send in pictures from your own Park(ing) Day!

At the Washington Area Bicyclist Association PARK(ing) Day installation, Bike Ambassadors provided a little education to drivers.

WABA's "photo booth" for bike portraits.

Steve Davis of Transportation for America's cornhole-in-one at the Smart Growth America installation at 17th and M Streets NW.

Cornhole wasn't all the SGA parklet had going for it. Who doesn't love sidewalk chalk and miniature cardboard cityscapes?

Sweden is taking the American parklet idea to a whole new level.

What's a plingo board, you ask? This is a plingo board.

(All photos by yours truly.)

How was your Park(ing) Day? We can't wait to see your pictures.

Tanya Snyder

Tanya became Streetsblog's Capitol Hill editor in September 2010 after covering Congress for Pacifica Radios Washington bureau and for public radio stations around the country. She lives car-free in a transit-oriented and bike-friendly neighborhood of Washington, DC.

Stay in touch

More from Streetsblog USA

Texas

Friday Video: The Largest U.S. City With No Transit

Can communities really keep people moving without fixed-route transit? Find out on this visit to Texas.

Streetsblog

November 21, 2025

Today's Headlines

Friday’s Headlines Tread Carefully

The Washington Post too a deep dive into the epidemic of pedestrian deaths, which rose from 4,300 in 2010 to more than 7,000 in 2023.

Blake Aued

November 21, 2025

High-speed rail

Talking Headways Podcast: Emotional Consumption in China

High-speed rail has completely transformed the country. Think about that sentence: "High-speed rail has completely transformed the country." When was the last time something positive like that happened here?

Jeff Wood

November 20, 2025

Federal Funding

Cutting Federal Transit Funding Won’t Close Budget Gaps — But Will Make Transportation Less Affordable

The Trump administration's proposal to eliminate the mass transit account of the Highway Trust Fund would be short-sighted, ineffective, and ruinous, a new analysis finds.