As promised we are going to spend the next month looking line by line into the Bus Network being provided to us by WMATA to question a few things.
- Are the routes connecting points of interest, residents, and destinations together?
- Are the routes running at appropriate headways and durations during the day?
- What are some possible cost effective solutions?
Our first look comes courtesy of my weekend visit to Vienna. If you live in Tysons or Vienna you likely often traverse between both, possibly on a daily basis. Vienna is very populated at densities that resemble parts of Northwest DC and parts of Tysons are far more densely populated than even central portions of Washington.
In between these two zones exists dozens of destinations that some of us would like to get to. There are nearly 200 restaurants for instance between Vienna and Tysons. There are several bars between the two towns. There are two major music venues, two theaters, and one of the busiest malls in the country. This isn’t some boondock with 20 residents who are asking for a bus to run 20 miles between one or two points.
Perhaps someone at WMATA can inform me (not going to hold my breath) why between Vienna and Tysons there isn’t a single dedicated system that isn’t in place largely to transfer metro commuters. In other words, the metro system isn’t just about access for commuters, it is for people who don’t want to use a car for social events and evening service as well. In DC, WMATA routinely runs even the most remote of bus lines until 3am. Here in the far more densely populated Vienna/Tysons corridor all buses connecting the two towns shut down at 10pm.
WMATA currently runs the 15M, 2T, and 28T between Tysons and Vienna. Between these three routes only one really connects Vienna and Tysons social destinations together, the 2T. Unfortunately the 2T does a lot of extra stuff it doesn’t need to do. Commuters from Vienna who want to get to Dunn Loring can do so via the much more convenient Fairfax Connector routes 462, 463, and 466. The Pimmit Hills region will be gaining several new transit options via the Tysons circulator. Commuters coming off of Dunn Loring looking to go to Tysons can do so with the much quicker 401, 402, and 2C routes. So what does the 2T do?
It connects retail zones of Maple Avenue and Tysons together, that is what much of the ridership is likely using it for, otherwise they would use the much quicker alternates. By cutting out the need to connect the 2T to Dunn Loring the system could now be extended to McLean and still run a 30-minute one way trip, the same as the current 2T network.
This creates a system that currently is lacking (without 2 transfers), a Route 123 bus system. The alignment shown would allow avoidance of some of the worst traffic zones of Route 123 during commuter and rush hours. At night the system could be realigned after 7pm to run express between Maple Avenue, Tysons, and McLean along only Route 123 with major transfer at the North side of Tysons I. The night time service could make 15-minute one way trips by switching to this alignment, allowing for a defacto doubling in headways with the same single bus.
All of this would mean nothing if the bus service is intended to still stop at 10pm though. At a minimum the bus service should run until 12:30am on Friday and Saturday nights (still nearly three hours shorter than most DC routes). To make up for lesser usage the bus could charge $2.00 – 2.50 and still be more viable than the current cab options.
I know in the minds of most DC residents and WMATA planners, Virginia is closed for business after 10pm, but the reality is that there are plenty of night spots and young residents (especially in this part of Fairfax) who would like to be able to leave the car at home where it belongs. This concept really does not add any cost for the 2T system, other than wanting 2.5hours of extra service. For this minimal additional operation cost it could create a far more unified connection between the towns of Vienna, Tysons, and McLean.