DC Driving Is Hell, and I Suspect That’s Intentional

I love my children and I love my job, but I dread driving to work and school every morning and every afternoon. Why? Because the roads in Washington, D.C., are hell, and they don’t have to be this way.

D.C. driving is already bad—the district is built on two intersecting grids, so roads don’t just turn the city into blocks but also into confusing triangular pizza slices—but Mayor Muriel Bowser and the city council have instituted a series of “reforms” that make driving 100 times worse than it already was.

Furthermore, I suspect that the city council is intentionally making things worse for drivers, in an effort at social manipulation. If bureaucrats mistakenly believe that carbon emissions are dooming the planet, they might justify making life miserable in order to force people to take public transit.

Here’s just a taste of the horrible experiences I and my fellow drivers face on the streets of the city I affectionately refer to as “Mordor.”

I have seen emergency vehicles stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic because D.C. shut down miles of roads for “Open Streets DC.” It is no exaggeration to say that people may have died because of this unnecessary bottleneck.

I have seen a major six-lane road that gets heavy traffic converted into a four-lane road, with the right lanes blocked off for buses. The speed limit on this major arterial is 25 miles per hour, and D.C. installed a speed camera to collect revenue from unsuspecting drivers in the name of “keeping people safe.” On this road, I saw one frustrated driver in the right lane cross in front of two lanes of traffic to turn left immediately when the light turned green—a dangerous maneuver but one the driver must have thought necessary because congestion was so bad.

I have waited at a light for 10 minutes because D.C. effectively made it illegal to turn right on red, creating unnecessary bottlenecks throughout the city.

This policy is particularly infuriating because the district did it in the name of “protecting pedestrians.” The problem is, when you prevent drivers from turning right on red, you force them to wait until the cycle when the light turns green. This also happens to be the time when the walk light turns green.

So, instead of allowing cars to turn right at the time when pedestrians have to wait—which is safer for both parties—you force them to go when pedestrians are most likely to be crossing the road, and you create a bottleneck so the other cars behind the car turning right get angry and honk, so the front car is less likely to take appropriate care.

I’ve sat at a red light where at least 20 cars wanted to turn right. No one was coming in the cross traffic, and there were no pedestrians, so it was 100% safe to turn right on red, yet D.C. law prevented it. During the short light cycle, the cars all rushed to turn right, using two lanes and thus making it more dangerous. The mad rush also increases drivers’ blood pressure and makes it less likely that they will stop if a pedestrian does emerge on the road.

Unfortunately, D.C. isn’t the only city actively considering banning right turns on red. According to CBS News, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s transition plan called for “restricting right turns on red,” while the college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, prevents right turns on red in the downtown area. San Francisco leaders voted to urge their transportation agency to ban right turns on red, and Los Angeles, Seattle, and Denver have considered bans, as well. New York City has long banned the practice.

Since 2023, when that CBS News article came out, it seems these cities have not taken action to crack down on red-light right turns, but that shouldn’t lull us into a false sense of security.

The anti-right turn activists who spoke to CBS News unintentionally revealed why banning right turns on red isn’t the solution—they complained that drivers don’t actually stop at the red lights when turning right. Perhaps, instead of banning the practice outright, cities should enforce the full stop, which would address the only real issue without unnecessarily making life hell for drivers.

Jay Beeber, executive director for policy at the National Motorists Association, a drivers’ advocacy group, said his team analyzed California crash data from 2011-2019 and found that drivers turning right on red accounted for only about one pedestrian death and one bicyclist death every two years.

“What’s really behind this movement is part of the agenda to make driving as miserable and as difficult as possible so people don’t drive so much,” Beeber told CBS News.

I suspect he’s 100% correct.

I can’t read the minds of the bureaucrats who did this, but I wouldn’t doubt they did it intentionally, to try to force people to give up their cars in the name of protecting the environment. Climate alarmists preach that the burning of fossil fuels is going to bring about disaster, even though their predictions of doom have failed, time and time again.

The hatred of cars isn’t just based in questionable science—it’s also impractical. The public transit system in D.C. leaves a great deal to be desired, and cars simply are the most reliable way of getting from A to B on your own timetable.

D.C.’s unnecessary anti-driver policies cost drivers a great deal of stress, and they actually make the roads more dangerous for pedestrians, because a frustrated driver is a less careful driver.

As President Donald Trump is ordering federal workers to return to the office in person, D.C. traffic is only likely to get more congested, not less.

Luckily, the American people just sent a deafening rebuke to the anti-car ideology of climate alarmism in the last election. Republicans in Congress have the ability to block D.C. laws, and they need to use it.

House Republicans have rightly raised alarms about D.C. banning right turns on red and instituting traffic cameras, and they should bring up these issues anew. Trump has also rightly called for the federal government to take the power away from the D.C. City Council.

It’s long past time for Congress to stop the anti-driver insanity. Let’s Make D.C. Driveable Again.