The best part of traveling is getting to experience a whole new culture.
But that’s also the hardest part, whether you’re visiting a whole new country or just a city a few train stops south for the first time, as you try to pick up the local etiquette of the city in just a couple days spent there. Rather than flailing to discover what it is that makes Washingtonians tick, use this cheat sheet of D.C. etiquette when you pay your visit to the District.
Scooter at Your Own Risk, But Not at Other’s Annoyance
There’s no shortage of ways to move around the District, with the city’s proliferation of public-use
electric scooters being a top choice for many first time visitors to the city. It makes tons of sense — they’re a fun, easy way to get around quickly and see the sights without exhausting yourself.
Scooters can also be a surefire way to get under the skin of some D.C. locals. The high-speed green transit machines are supposed to only be used on the street, but in the three years I’ve lived here I’ve never once seen someone actually ride their scooters there.
Instead, most choose to cruise along too fast on the sidewalk, repeatedly ringing the vehicle’s bell at pedestrians walking by on the sidewalk, where they’re supposed to be. Few things make Washingtonians quite as irritated as hearing the chime of a bell and the whir of a scooter on the sidewalk, so be considerate of pedestrians as you see the District on two wheels,
Don’t Let Small Talk Center Around the Office
When you’re first meeting someone, as is always common when visiting a new place, there’s a couple questions that always pop up: What’s your name? Where are you from? The District’s highly competitive career-centric culture means you should avoid the classic bar counter question of where someone works, though.
On paper, there’s nothing wrong with the seemingly-ambiguous, oft-asked question about how someone spends each weekday from nine a.m. to five p.m. Yet people in D.C. love asking others about their jobs so they can brag about which politician they’re working for these days and which other politician they met while doing it, meaning half the District is sick of having to answer the query.
(Editor's note: As someone that has lived in DC for almost 20 years, when someone asks these questions I will immediately walk away.)
There’s Neighborhoods Other Than Penn Quarter
The top sight on most lists about what to see in D.C. is the National Mall. The lengthy grassy
expanse contains many of the most iconic sights in the city, from the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial, so it may seem like second nature to stay in Penn Quarter, the largely corporate neighborhood full of hotels right near the Mall.
But Penn Quarter is, well, boring. It’s almost entirely made up of gray business offices which don’t show off the character of D.C. at all. While it may seem great to grab a hotel there for its convenience to the National Mall, to get a true feel for the history and culture of the District try booking a stay in one of these other neighborhoods.
Stand on the Right Side of Escalators, Walk on the Left
People in the District are seemingly always in a rush, shuffling between high stakes political meetings and illuminating walking tours about the Abraham Lincoln assassination. But unless you’re commuting in from the suburbs and thus are forced to, no one really wants to navigate the maze of traffic circles and one way streets making up D.C.
Thankfully, the District’s city planners foresaw such complications and the city contains an expansive metro system sure to carry locals and tourists alike anywhere they may need to go. The most important part of using the metro isn’t knowing where to transfer from the blue to red lines — it’s knowing where to stand when you take the escalators down into the bunker-style stations.
The etiquette is simple: stand on the right, walk on the left. If you’re with others, don’t stand on the same step, and rather accept some potentially awkward height differences while talking to each other. There’s almost nothing worse than missing your train because you were blocked from making it down the seemingly-mile long metro escalators by a person standing on the left — the only outcome that would bum you out more is being late to one of our tours because of it.
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