Monday, November 9, 2015
 

Post Article on Walkable Tysons

One of FABB's goals over the years has been to help remake Tysons from a suburban, car-dominated place to a more walkable, bikeable community. In Sunday's Washington Post article U-Va. professor takes steps to measure Tysons’ path to a pedestrian paradise a UVA professor and his students document walking conditions in a part of Tysons. As anyone who has tried to walk and bike in Tysons lately, it's a challenge.

A major transformation is happening in Tysons and Tysons is a test case. If Tysons can be remade into a livable community it can set the standard for other similar communities to follow. Many people are watching this transformation, hoping that if it's successful in Fairfax, it can occur elsewhere. Conversely, many people think there are too many obstacles to overcome.

Fairfax and  VDOT need to have a greater sense of urgency about improving biking and walking conditions in Tysons. We've been impressed with progress made this summer with over two miles of bike lanes created in Tysons. However bike connections to the stations are still poor and walking conditions are worse. Changes immediately around the stations should have been made BEFORE the stations opened. As it is, it will be years before basic ped infrastructure is in place. We know the county and VDOT are trying to respond; they need to do what is necessary now to make the changes happen sooner.

From the Post article:
"In addition to the four Metro stations, the plan to remake Tysons Corner includes 36 million square feet of new development — a mix of office, retail and residential. The hope is to add parks, bike paths and plazas, giving residents places to gather and move about without needing a car. But whether the ambitious plan can be realized remains to be seen. Tysons’ makeover could be a model for other auto-dependent developments, or it could be a cautionary tale."
Comments:
In the figure, what do the "temperature fluctuations" have to do with the content of the article? Did someone think this was attractive to show even though it's unrelated?

Presumably the squiggly colored lines show the routes the group took in 2014, but the article makes it sound like they took a different route this year. How do they expect to evaluate changes if they take different routes?
 
Temperature was one of the variables recorded during the walk. I can understand that a shady, cooler route would be preferred over say walking along Route 7 with no shade.

It is odd that the group didn't take the same route as in 2014 for the reason you mentioned. Had they consulted google maps walking directions they would not have chosen the route they tried this year along 123 to Rt 7.
 

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