D.C.’s lobbyists aren’t leaving town, but K Street could look very different in the coming years if the vision of planning officials is carried out. The AP, via WTOP, reports that the National Capital Planning Commission is looking at a plan to reconfigure the thoroughfare to accommodate a transit-way. That would mean the service lanes, along with parking would be eliminated. Additionally, portions of the reconfigured K Street would cut into parks at Farragut, McPherson and Franklin squares. There are many details left to be worked out.

Could the transit-way, which would accommodate bus-only lanes, be an improvement to the architecturally drab and traffic congested corridor? Pierre L’Enfant envisioned K Street has a grand crosstown street and it once was, when K Street was a distinguished residential street. New streetscaping could spruce up, but probably couldn’t transform the steel-and-glass corridor into the avenue it was meant to be.

K Street currently hosts the 38B, D6, D1 and 80 bus routes, but could have one of the proposed Downtown Circulator routes run along the transit-way.

WMATA on the K Street transit-way.
DDOT’s K Street study.
HBO on “K Street“, where this image was taken from.