Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth, getting bike infrastructure of any kind in Tysons is novel, and understandably an evolving study, but this week I couldn’t help but notice the deficiency of the current layout of bike lockers at the Silver Line’s Tysons Corner station.
The station, like others in Tysons, has 20 bike lockers. That is terrific, the more the merrier, these are low cost, high demand elements that can help cyclists reduce their reliance on park and ride. Unfortunately, on review of their locations there appears to be an unnecessary split of 10 bike lockers for each side of Route 123. Of course, at the other metro stations of the Silver Line, it makes sense to cover both sides of the road, as there is as much likelihood a rider will come from one side as the other (with residential presence on each side).
However, Tysons Corner station is different. The superblock of the Tysons Corner mall pretty much means that bike lockers currently located on the south side of Route 123, are in extremely low demand, where as those on the north side of Route 123 are in greater demand. That is because the vast majority of prospective users will be coming from the North Tysons neighborhood. The closest neighborhood on the south side of Route 123 is several miles away and would require cross onramps of I495, Route 7, Route 123, or all three.
One could argue the bike racks are for future residents on the South side of 123, however these are all being clustered at the mall, the superblock that would prohibit those coming from further away. Any future residents at VITA, the highrise apartment directly at the mall, would simply walk to the metro across the 100′ long walkway bridge, and therefore would not be users of the bike lockers.
The reason this is currently an issue? If you are a resident of North Tysons, and receive a bike locker, you run a 50/50 chance that it becomes a complete nuisance and obstruction to use, if you must bike to the station, take it up an escalator, then down an escalator, in order to place it in the bike locker across the road… and then take the escalator back up, bridge, then ride on your way.
I’m not sure how much work it would take to relocate Lockers 1 through 10 at Tysons Corner Station, but it should happen. In the future, if by some manner of development a large potential residential population becomes apparent on the South side of 123, then additional lockers would only be icing on the cake.
In case you are in the market for a bike locker at Tysons Corner station, make sure you know that lockers 1 through 10 are going to defeat the point of bike and ride if you live on the north side of 123.