Dulles Corridor Metrorail ignores bikes (so far)

With the decision about whether or not to tunnel under Tyson's Corner out of the way (though I think they got it wrong, but that's not what this blog is about) the Dulles Metrorail Corridor Project is ready to move forward. This puts us in the design-build phase, with the preliminary engineering to be complete in the next few months, and construction to begin late next year.

Unfortunately, the project website thus far doesn't mention bicycle access even once. In general I expect the new stations to have the same cycling amenities as the present stations (namely bike boxes, racks - though hopefully the inverted U type and elevators). But I'm also hoping for a little more.

First, there's the Wiehle Avenue Station. This will be the end of Phase 1 and more importantly it's the closest station to the W&OD trail. The station will be in the median of the Dulles Toll Road, at Wiehle Avenue. North of the station is a planned 2300-space Metro parking garage (see photo), connected with a pedestrian walkway. North of that are a few buildings that front Sunset Hills Road and then the W&OD trail. Here's a google map of the area.

There doesn't seem to be any plans to create a connection to the trail. I don't bike out there very often so I'm not sure how much traffic Sunset Hills Road gets, but it's four lanes and I'd suspect that it's not a quiet rural road. Before this moves forward, they should look at either improved surface facilities to connect the station and the trail or, better yet, consider a grade separated crossing of the road. There's a small stream west of the site and a trail could go under the road there (or between Wiehle and Isaac Newton Square).

The other thing I'd look at is running a bike trail underneath the elevated section. I've seen this done with Miami's Metrorail (which allows bikes even during rush hour, though you need a permit). Unfortunately this is the only photo I could find of Miami's trail - the trail is to the right hand side. The plans I've seen for the Dulles line are incomplete - it doesn't seem they're looking for any pesky public input - so it may not be feasible, but looking at the image above, it looks like there's room.

This is the next big transportation project in the area. Bikes were included in the Wilson Bridge, left out of the Springfield Interchange and are being paid lip service on the InterCounty Connector. This project has a long way to go to be considered bike friendly a la the Orange Line Bikeway.

Comments

[Bruce Wright]

You're absolutely right about the Dulles Rail project. The plan is to have some bike parking facilities at the stations, but almost nothing else for bike/ped access. When this subject has been broached, the repeated response has been that WMATA will only build facilities on their property. As you can see in these photos that I took a while back at the Suitland Metro station, WMATA does a poor job of that. The sidewalks are all in the wrong places and goat trails are everywhere: http://www.restondigital.com/images/suitland_all.jpg

I plan to meet with the project engineers to discuss the plans for bike parking at the Tysons stations. Until now they have always said that it's too early in the process to see specific locations of the parking.

To let the project team know that you want better bike facilities in Tysons and Reston, call Marcia McAllister at 703.288.7100 and tell her. There have been rare opportunities for the public to comment, so it's necessary to contact the project staff directly.

Re: Wiehle Ave. station, there is an existing 8' asphalt trail adjacent to Wiehle Ave that leads from the W&OD Trail to the current park and ride lot which is the location of the future station. There are also bike lockers and inverted U racks available. Of course the bike lockers have never been used because Fairfax Co has never figured out how to rent them, but that's a subject for another discussion.

The trail from the W&OD to the station site crosses Sunset Hills Rd, and it is a dangerous crossing. Motorists consistently turn right on red without looking to the right for oncoming cyclists and I have almost been hit there many, many times. When we complained to the police, they spent a day issuing warnings to pedestrians for crossing outside the crosswalk or against the light, and the didn't issue a single ticket to a motorist.

Bruce