At left are the final results of our recent Silver Line poll. Overall, approximately two-thirds of the respondents said they wouldn't use it. If we include only the NOVA responses, the result is much closer with a 40 to 30 No/Yes response. Unfortunately, this poll is likely more flawed than normal because, after speaking to at least one poll taker, I found that the question asked was not the question answered. Specifically, I had hoped the poll would address how the Silver line would make an immediate impact on traffic congestion during the rush hours. But it appears that at least some people answered whether they would use the Silver line at all. Much different question and if there is a mixture of people answering both questions the results are a complete mess.
However, I think the poll was a success due to the discussion in the associated diary. Two major themes emerged: RK readers are looking at the long term impact and there is major frustration at the difficulties getting to Dulles.
The Long Term
While the poll was focused more on the short term (i.e. would the Silver have an immediate impact on congestion), much of the discussion revolved around the question of whether the Tysons area would become like the Rosslyn/Ballston corridor over the long term.
Some thoughts regarding this:
* The long term is probably 30+ years off. The R/B corridor didn't pop up overnight and the building around a Metro line will take a good amount of time to develop - not to mention the time it takes to actually build the line. The "long term" is appropriately named.
* The Tysons area does have some workable space right now. The car lots immediately come to mind - gee, anyone wonder why the car dealers are in favor of a train? They'll make more profit off land sales than they would in 20 years worth of car sales. Anyway, point is there is some room to grow, which is a positive for train supporters.
* Flip side, there is already a large number of fairly new buildings, roads, and infrastructure, and it is designed specifically to cater to the individual vehicle. It is decidedly not pedestrian or mass transit friendly. So why is this a problem over the 30 year long term? Simple - an incredible amount of money has been spent recently building all this infrastructure and I can't imagine it being torn down so quickly. The R/B corridor had many old (40+ years) structures that were ready to be replaced. Tysons has many shiny new structures that have many decades of use before they'll be ready to be replaced.
* The overall long term vision seems to be Field of Dreams like: "if we build it, they will come". Ok, fine. So if that will happen, why not build near, but not through, Tysons? Sounds crazy in short term thinking (i.e. what about today's commuting patterns and business centers?), but for long term it might not be so crazy. Tysons is a suburban single vehicle utopia right now and won't be changing much in the next 40 years (see point just above), so leave it alone. Service existing Tysons via some sort of train connectors people have mentioned rather than run the line right through Tysons. Then build the new line along a route that covers the most out-of-date areas/structures and allow those areas to become the new R/B corridor. These areas are more ripe for new, high density planed, environmentally friendly, development than the recently developed Tysons.
Getting to Dulles
Although this issue had nothing to do with the poll question, RK readers are clearly frustrated with the lack of reasonable options to get to the region's premier airport. A Silver line would provide much needed relief for this problem, but it isn't the only way. Why should we trust the WMAA the manage a complex project like building a new Metro line when they can't even do the little (being a relative term) things now? While we're busy debating the train, or even waiting for the train to be built to Dulles (10 years?), how about the WMAA steps up and designs and runs a workable bus system? Or work up some other near term solution because we really need it. The one thing that was clear from our poll was that almost everyone thinks getting to Dulles sucks.