Study Gives Insight Into Tysons Transportation, Prioritizes Projects

Fairfax County took one step forward Tuesday night in mapping the transportation network surrounding Tysons Corner's four planned metro stations, unveiling the results of a nearly 2,000-resident study which prioritized sidewalk, bike and bus projects and offered more insight into how people plan to use them.

The meeting at Freedom Hill Elementary School gave residents their first look at the results of the Tysons Metrorail Station Access Management Study (TMSAMS), approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2009 to educate residents about ongoing Fairfax County Department of Transportation studies involving pedestrian, bicycle and bus service networks in a 3-mile radius of the Tysons area. It also aimed to get resident feedback about those recommendations and identify what parts of Tysons need additional analysis and planning.

The study will ultimately be a tool for the Board of Supervisors as it makes funding decisions for Tysons transportation projects, said Kris Morley-Nikfar, a member of FCDOT and the TMSAMS project manager.

But residents who reviewed the project Tuesday said the timeline for those projects — many of which need funding and all of which must be prioritized and approved by the Board of Supervisors — wouldn't be realized by the time metro opened in 2013.

Some of them said they were concerned the transportation network was being dragged behind growth and demand instead of driving it.

The study surveyed about 250 people who attended four public meetings last spring and nearly 1,900 more who gave input online. In addition to prioritizing projects, the study also asked residents how they'd access metro and how they'd travel in and around the future Tysons Corner.

Among the most requested projects by those who took the survey were

• Sidewalks and trail improvements in the Vesper Trail area, between Higdon Drive and Leesburg Pike
• Crosswalks at Chain Bridge Road and International Drive
• Bicycle routes in several areas among them, on Routes 7 and 123, Beulah Road, Dulles Toll Road and Trap Road
• Regional Bus Service On Leesburg Pike and neighborhood buses connecting Vienna and McLean neighborhoods to the metro.

"The projects are identified as highest priority but there is no guarantee that that’s necessarily going to be the project that county staff pushes forward," Morley-Nikfar said. "Some of those improvements have already been proffered into redevelopment of sites ... [there are still decision to be made as to] what's going to be covered by redevelopment versus what the county should cover."

Projected costs for the projects prioritized in the study have not been calculated, Morley-Nikfar said. Some proposed projects included in the study are already funded, but will still take some time to complete.

"We were thrilled to hear about the section of sidewalk planned along 123 to access the Tysons East Metro Station was funded. We were not so thrilled to hear, when I asked about the timing of that, that it would not be completed [until] 2 to 5 years after service begins," said Clark Tyler, president of a homeowners association off of Route 123. "That’s incredible to me."

"We'll be lucky if we get it in that time," a county staff member said, noting that even funded projects still had to go through a planning and approval process.

Many other projects are not funded, which concerned some residents at the meeting who worried development was moving ahead of the area's needs. In other areas projects have since been turned down by landowners — notably, what a once proposed park and ride at Wolftrap Park — or deemed not possible, leaving a demand but no way to meet it, they said. 

"Unless you adequately address this in advance this bus service is going to be useless," one resident said. "If you don’t have satellite parking at these hubs where they can fill up busses that are bringing people up to Tysons [it will be ineffective]. That's the only effective way to come in."

Janet Bradley, who said she's lived in the area for 20 years, added the county should better understand how buses are currently being used.

"I see Metro buses, Fairfax Connector buses that routinely chug around here empty and if they’re not empty, there may be one or two or three people," she said. "It’s astonishing to me that somebody does not keep better track of who uses those and what their revenue is. We’re subsidizing those with our tax dollars ... it would be cheaper just to buy those folks a Corolla."

The study will be presented to the Board of Supervisors, who will direct county staff to develope a recommended project list, funded as money becomes available, Morley-Nikfar said.

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