GEORGETOWN: Sunday Parkers

ONE OF THE MORE INTERESTING SITUATIONS to see on any given Sunday in the nation's capital are the countless cars that are double and triple parked near churches, particularly in Shaw, where suburban worshipers battle for parking spots near the many churches. The double parking has been going on for years and years and DCist details the conflict with neighbors and the lack of police enforcement.

ADDING MY VOICE TO THE SUNDAY PARKING debate, I say turn your heads toward Q Street NW in Georgetown, to one particular church (the Church of Two Worlds, if I remember correctly, near 31st Street). If you look at the parking signs, it clearly says that parking is allowed on Sunday between certain hours on the north side of the street. That is unfortunately in the westbound lane, leaving only one lane for eastbound and westbound traffic to share.

Smaller cars can handle the situation sort of OK. But not WMATA's D-route buses. Once last year, the Sunday parking situation caused a westbound D6 bus challenge an eastbound D2 bus in a game of chicken. Traffic backed up behind each bus and it took nearly 20 minutes to clear the backed up cars so the D2 bus could go into reverse and let the D6 go through. Why the District would ever allow such special parking rules on a major east-west crosstown bus route perplexes me.