RSS FeedTourist Alley (pic)
Today we bring your attention to “Tourist Alley”, that one block segment of 10th Street between E and F Streets. The daily scene includes coaches, yellow school buses and the Old Town Trolley (downtown loop and the uptown loop) loading and unloading tourists. Vendors hawking their wares completes the scene.
Economic activity for the surrounding downtown blocks is undeniably positive and having a Ben and Jerry’s nearby is great for the taste buds (but not the waistline). However, we can’t help but notice the buses that idle in the right lanes blocking traffic (sometimes during rush hour) while waiting for their spent charges to come ambling back on board, all the while pumping extra fumes into the atmosphere. Guess we have to chalk it up to the price of tourism. My only question is: Where do all those FBI hats end up?
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From the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations:
900 ENGINE IDLING
900.1 The engine of a gasoline or diesel powered motor vehicle, the engine of public vehicle for hire, including buses with a seating capacity of twelve (12) or more persons, on public or private space shall not idle for more than three (3) minutes while the motor vehicle is parked, stopped, or standing, including for the purpose of operating air conditioning equipment in those vehicles, except as follows:
(a) To operate private passenger vehicles;
(b) To operate power takeoff equipment including dumping, cement mixers, refrigeration systems, content delivery, winches, or shredders; or
(c) To idle the engine for five (5) minutes to operate heating equipment when the ambient air temperature is thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit (32°F) or below.
I’d be remiss without including the following information for Engine Idling Enforcement:
Air Quality Division Contact
If you have questions, comments or complaints please contact DC Air Quality Division, using the telephone number below:
(202) 535-2250
Unless you just dropped from the sky, tour buses and the like do not care about the rules. No Parking, No Idling, No This, No That. And if you think you can call 311 about an idling bus and get the police there … fly back to your planet.
to 2:43 annon…your post gave me a good chuckle. I have to agree with you about the lack of concern regarding idling buses. However, why should they comply, if the rules are not being enforced?
I have seen Park Police telling buses idling in front of the major museums to “move it.” mildly amusing to see the bus drivers scramble back to their hulking machines so they can drive around the block.
there is some enforcement
[…] French and other languages. They all grin when they buy the wacky tourist apparel for sale (see our article on Tourist Alley). What I’d see in Venice Beach is what I see here albeit arranged differently on the neighborhood […]
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from a guy working onsite — they’re repairing the windows.