It Sure Beats the Bus!
On Saturday I decided to test whether or not it would be faster to walk or take transit between Tysons and the Taste of Vienna festival being held on Center Street in Vienna. I know to many that idea may sound like a joke. After all, when most people think of Tysons they think of 495, Route 7, Route 123, and how unfriendly to pedestrians those corridors are. Critics of those roads are right, they’re quite difficult to walk on, but the truth is they aren’t the only options to get around.
I’ve lived in Tysons now for four years, and I have never had to walk on Route 123 or Route 7; I hardly ever even drive on them. As a local I know how to avoid the disasters of planning past. So faced with getting between the intersection of Route 7/International Drive and Center Street in Vienna, the first place I looked was smaller roads like Gallows, Old Courthouse, Niblick Drive, etc.
It was just over 3 miles, which I knew I could I do in less than the Google estimated one hour. I also knew that I had just missed my opportunity to grab the 2T, which was half mile away across a non-pedestrian interchange of Route 7 and Route 123. To have taken it would have meant waiting at least another hour, and, disappointingly, it’s the only option that connects Tysons and Vienna on the weekends. So I started walking.
Crossing Route 7 was the first (and biggest) obstacle I faced. Between the construction vehicles, mall traffic, and lack of fellow pedestrians it felt a bit dangerous. People are so used to having unabated right turns despite the pedestrian signal, that I knew I’d need to make eye contact with any approaching vehicles before trying to cross in front of them.
After crossing Route 7, my walk actually became pretty easy, if not bucolic. Heading down Gallows, I noticed an art installation I had never seen before by YMM Art Space. There were sidewalks and crosswalks the entire length of George Washington Road, as there should be considering the adjacency to Freedom Hill Elementary. Turning onto Wolftrap Road there was either a sidewalk or asphalt trail at all times. In fact, I only lacked a pedestrian walk path for the brief moment I had to walk through the parking lot of Our Lady of Good Council.
The rest of the way I had nicely maintained asphalt trails and of course, eventually, the W&OD trail.
I ended up getting to the Taste of Vienna only 43 minutes after having left, beating the 2T. When I got to the Taste of Vienna, the ATM was acting up so I walked to Maple Avenue (a relatively short third of a mile walk) to get cash. After getting cash from the ATM and walking back to the festival, what did I see? The 2T bus, completely empty and completely useless.
So what was the point of this experiment?
Well 1), I knew I was going to be consuming mass quantities of delicious food so the exercise wasn’t going to hurt. 2), I wanted to see how safe it was and if it was possible help people find that same path if they ever need to do the same.
Lastly, I wanted to point to the inefficiency of the current system we have in place, between two well populated and highly active zones in Fairfax. Vienna and Tysons aren’t necessarily the middle of nowhere. Between the two of them there are tens of thousands of residents. Between the two of them there are over 5,000 businesses. Between the two of them there are over 200 restaurants, three major music venues, and one of the most heavily visited malls in the world.
Yet, on a Saturday afternoon, when a major festival was occurring, I was able to walk faster than any form of transit, and absence of bikeshare, available.
No wonder the 2T bus runs so empty. Expanded service can’t be provided on a more frequent basis, because current statistics, caused by it’s headways being massive, show that no one except those in the most dire of needs and the exact right location would ever take it.
The Silver Line bus routes being proposed are a great start, they get more circulators, more coverage, on a more frequent basis, but only during rush hour on weekdays. Unfortunately, on weekends, it will basically be the same old status quo.
Why?
Save money and shut down the 2T service on weekends as well, because it serves absolutely no purpose in the current arrangement.
If real and useful bus service on the weekends isn’t possible, why isn’t there a bikeshare program for this part of the county?
Everyone will say Tysons is auto-centric and it isn’t there yet. That’s the tail wagging the dog isn’t it? How can you stop being auto-centric if your answer to every question on the issue is to say that it is auto-centric. Would a bikeshare system be profitable between Tysons and Vienna? No, I’d go out on a pretty sturdy limb and say it will take a loss, but probably less than a pointless empty bus system like the 2T, which runs infrequently in areas where people don’t live. It’s one of those inefficient “coverage” routes that WMATA tells us makes sense but really could be better spent elsewhere improving transit corridors. No one benefits from one hour headways, no one. For the same cost improve the Transit Access programs, or Bikeshare, or heaven forbid actually improve the headways so the route does make sense.
I walked between Tysons and Vienna in 43 minutes, faster than the bus service because of headways, not because of how long it actually takes a bus to go the three miles between the two major destinations.
On a bike I could have made the trip in less than 15 minutes without even breaking a sweat. One could argue, everyone should get a bike if that is the case, and a lot of residents of Vienna are doing just that, but how do you encourage first time bike users to purchase a $400+ bike and do it unless they know its feasible and have tried it first? That’s really the best part about Bikeshare, and why Tysons, Vienna, Falls Church, and yes, even McLean, should receive stations sooner rather than later.
