By now everyone has had their fill of stories about the opening of the Silver Line this week… by the way have you heard the Silver Line is opening this weekend? And as a shout out to the best transportation reporter in our area (Martin DiCaro) #heydidyouhereyoucannotparkattheSilverLinestationsinTysons. Less than a week to go before the Silver Line, and therefore the Silver Line Fairfax Connector bus services, begin and there are still no bus stops installed on the circulator routes in Tysons.
Two weeks ago we informed Fairfax Connector planners that they had a major oversight on their brand new 423 Tysons Circulator route. The route mimics much of the routes that came before it like the 425 and the 427, but there is one big oversight. The former routes used to run on the south side of Westpark Drive, meaning all of the stops were on that side of the road. Now the 423 will run on the north side of Westpark Drive… where there aren’t any signs, any shelters, any anything.
Staff told us that they are installing these stops… but there’s only a few more days left and there still isn’t a single sign installed (terrible for marketing and public information by the way). The real question is, on Saturday when the Silver Line opens and the 423 is running… where am I supposed to stand to get it? I’ve ridden plenty of circulators and buses in my life, and I have found that jumping out in front of a bus to get it to pick you up is a terrible way to run a system.
This is just a single example of much overdue infrastructure. We noted the lack of a crosswalk at the Tysons Boulevard/Park Run intersection, a potentially lethal situation that could be solved over night if someone would take on some leadership. During our 1st ever Tysons Online Town Hall we heard from other residents on several other locations still lacking pedestrian safety and access improvements.
The following map is a small depiction of where small, but important, changes can be implemented immediately. They represent only the missing infrastructure noted in our Online Town Hall, which we are sure is not all inclusive.
Edit: We can confirm that the bus signs for stops along Westpark are now installed. There appear to be 4 total between International Drive and Jones Branch along the North Side of Westpark.