Tuesday is the final day of service for the decade-old DC Streetcar in Washington. I rode it for the first time last week, and it was fun. The 2.2-mile ride along H Street and Benning Road from the back of the Union Station parking garage to the end of the line next to the historic Langston Golf Course took 17 minutes and cost me nothing. I got out there and watched the golfers while waiting for the streetcar to switch over to the westbound track and take me to lunch at the H Street Ben’s Chili Bowl, after which I caught another streetcar back to Union Station.

My fellow riders had lots of wheeled accessories — walkers, strollers, suitcases, a bike, a shopping cart — that thanks to the raised platforms at stops were easy to bring aboard. Many appeared to be regulars and knew one another. At one point, the streetcar operator leaned out the window while stopped at an intersection to chat with the driver of the car next to us. The DC Streetcar is infamous for getting blocked by double-parked cars, but apart from about 15 seconds stuck behind an Amazon van while the driver delivered a package, we didn’t encounter problems with that. We were, however, passed several times by buses traveling the same route.

© Bloomberg