Tysons Central 123 Pedestrian Improvements Mounting

When most people think of Tysons they think of the super blocks of the malls, the impassible obstacles of Route 7 and Route 123, and endless parking lots. Many would try to attack the lack of walkability by focusing on these massive hurdles, but the reality is that these obstacles are in the least populated areas of Tysons. Most offices and apartments in Tysons are located far away from Route 7 and 123.

Focusing on walkability of Route 7 and 123 deprioritizes easier fixes that could be near immediately implemented. Many of these changes could make real impacts to the commutes and safety of thousands of office workers and residents in town with, relative to most municipal funding, no cost and few impediments.

We’ve broken down the most effective and easiest to implement improvements needed for walkability in the Central 123 district. This information will be passed along to Tytran via the Tysons Partnership as a collaborative effort to increase VDOT and FCDOT awareness on existing gaps.

– Tysons Boulevard and Park Run Drive
– Tysons Boulevard and Westbranch Drive
– Tysons Boulevard and Galleria Drive
– Galleria Drive and Tysons II access drive
– Westpark Drive and Westpark Bridge
– Route 123 and International Drive
– Route 7 and International Drive
– Old Gallows Road Bridge

Westpark Drive and Westbranch Drive intersection lacks cross walks on one side, as well as proper traffic calming. Vehicles routinely ignore yield to pedestrian signs despite signage warning of fines due to high posted speed of Westpark Drive.

Tysons Boulevard at Galleria Drive lacks crosswalks on two sides and is impeded by a double right turn lane.

The above list is focused on improvements that can be made with limited construction on short time frames, largely involving reappropriation and striping of roadways. Most involve adding crosswalks for a missing segment of an intersection as well as improved pedestrian lighting for illuminating crosswalks, rather than the current VDOT standard highway lighting. One exception is our recommendation for sharrow striping on the Old Gallows Road bridge to connect the bike lanes on Gallows Road to the bike lanes on Shop Tysons boulevard.

We will be working to provide an equivalent analysis for each district in Tysons, and have already received lots of input from readers. Any additional input is welcomed and will help form a more well rounded analysis of where smaller projects could be effective in Tysons.