Transportation planning is not an easy thing to do. Politics, economics, physical reality, and a dozen other factors can take infrastructure that looks good on paper and render it unfeasible and at times diluted beyond recognition. Case in point, the 423 bus, one of three new circulators that are meant to serve the growing population of Tysons. That used to be four new circulators, but during planning the fourth route was removed, forcing the 423 to take on a role that it should never have.
What looks good for overall political reasons is often devoid of reality and usefulness to those who are meant to be served. In order to get the perception of good coverage by the circulator in Tysons, while not spending the money to run a fourth line, the 423 was spread out and made more serpentine.
So what is wrong with giving more people a chance to take the bus? When you spread infrastructure too thin the time savings it is meant to provide is removed. The 423 is meant to serve the heavily populated North Central Tysons region. As the only populated district of Tysons with a majority of its area outside of the 1/2 mile radius walkability zone, North Central is uniquely dependent on good bus service.
Unfortunately, the majority of district residents who would rely on the 423 would see an approximate 8 to 10 minute bus ride from the Park Run region to Tysons Corner station. That is only 2 minutes shorter than walking. Adding in the average headway wait of 5 minutes (half of 10 minutes) and it makes more sense for the thousands of residents in this community to walk instead.
That being the case, it’s not shocking that ridership on the 423 is so pathetic, especially considering the very strong ridership from this same neighborhood on the 425/427 series to WFC… which used to take only 4 minutes more than the 423 to get to the metro station.
That’s just the morning. Forget about riding the bus if you want to take it home after work. Due to the 423’s one way loop around Tysons, grabbing the bus from Tysons Corner Station to get to center of the North Central residential region will take between 14 and 18 minutes. All of this is being caused by the serpentine and over stretched nature of the 423.
If instead the 423 was to run down Park Run Drive, a road not even shown on the 423’s bus map, then a one way loop would make much more sense evenly dividing the farthest reach of the route (Jones Branch timecheck) and the largest destination of the line (metro). This of course would also require a new route be provided to serve office uses along Greensboro Drive, connecting to Springhill Metro Station.
The result would be two routes with 12 minute laps, serving the largest population to destination sources with average ride times of 6 minutes, and improving headways significantly as well.
The resolution to remove the fourth bus route from the circulator system was not at all based on providing a high quality bus service, it was a dilution to save some money. This is the epitome of penny wise pound foolish. Yes they have reduced the number of drivers by two, but they have also decimated what used to be a bus user base that maintained above average farebox recovery. What’s more costly, one bus without any riders with no hope of encouraging ridership or two buses consistently carrying riders because of the time savings it provides? We transportation service district tax payers are the ones making up the difference for a circulator system that was promised to be an improvement, but so far has been a complete dud.