Metro Plans for Rapid-Bus include Falls Church

There's an interesting article in today's Washington Post outlining Metro's desire to increase rapid-bus service in 18 regional bus corridors.  Metro staff has recommended  Leesburg Pike's (aka Broad St. where buses 28AB, 28 FG, 28T travel) Alexandria-Falls Church-Fairfax County corridor as part of the first wave for rapid-bus upgrades.  Some excerpts from the Post article:

The improvements would make bus service along these corridors "much more reliable, shave 15 to 20 percent off your travel time, and make [rides] more pleasant," said Nat Bottigheimer, Metro's planning chief. Unlike the average subway rider, who rides the train to work, these key bus arteries have a more diverse ridership.

"These corridors serve every aspect of people's lives," he said. "There are kids riding, people going shopping and people going to work."

With the region's population forecast to grow 22 percent by 2030, Metro officials say better service on priority corridors will help unclog roadways and get people out of cars and into mass transit.

If Metro and its partners adopt the plan, transportation officials will have to make a fundamental shift in the way they think about traffic, Bottigheimer said.
They are used to thinking about traffic flow by getting the greatest number of vehicles, rather than people, through an intersection.

I think the last line, in conjunction with the statistic about 22% regional population growth by 2030 is telling; the need to start thinking about moving the greatest number of people and not the greatest number of vehicles on Falls Church's roads.  Rapid-bus service will be a great addition to Falls Church.  It has many of the positive attributes of light rail service, will make Falls Church a desirable location for both residential and retail/commercial uses along Broad St. and will offer a viable and effective alternative to car transportation for people coming in and going out of the City.   

Comments

[Kathy]

OK, I get the whole need for more organized and efficient mass transit. But I have a hard time reconciling this with discussions of a more pedestrian-friendly city. How would those two elements work together?

[Bob]

Kathy---thanks for your question.

Pedestrian-friendly because anything that can be done to reduce the % of needed car usage plays to the advantage of pedestrians and a more people-friendly environment. In rough terms one rapid-bus represents the need for 20-30 fewer cars on the road--and 20-30 people who are more likely to be active walkers, use amenities in proximity of a bus stop (therefore bolstering retail/commercial possibilities) or along their walk home or to work from a bus stop. (bolstering walk-friendly residential) A real world example is the Portland,Oregon region where bus and light rail successfully share the streets with pedestrians, cars and bikes making for an incredibly humane and walkable region.

[Kathy]

Thanks Bob. I am sure that it could work and has worked in cities like Portland.

But couldn't it also underscore that 7 is a major traffic corridor and increase traffic? There are surely examples of this happening throughout the country as well.

And where would we possible fit the bus shelters? There's no room on the sidewalk as is.

[Bob]

Portland once had a situation where their roads served as major traffic corridors too but they took an approach where they prioritized the pedestrian over the car and brought into play the methods I mentioned before--including bus shelters. As long as Rte. 7 remains "Rte. 7" (a regional cut-thru for cars to the detriment of FC) and doesn't become "Broad St."(the Main St. of FC--with on-street parking/multi-modal uses) we'll be wallowing in the same problems. "Rte.7" is "Leesburg Pike" in Tysons as well as "King St." in Old Town. Which direction of street form would you like to see the "Broad St." of Falls Church move? Multi-modal allows for a more "King St." approach for Broad St.