One of the region’s most persistent urban legends is that Dulles Rail will magically transform sprawling Tysons Corner into a walkable downtown where people can live, work and play without a car.
This myth been repeated so often that some Fairfax County residents regard it as incontrovertible fact. It is also part and parcel of the “Smart Growth” conventional wisdom among urban planners.
However, it’s much more likely that after spending billions of tax dollars redeveloping Northern Virginia’s top employment center, Tysons Corner will remain more suburban office park than pedestrian paradise.
The very concept of a walkable Tysons Corner is a conceit used by planners and politicians to sell the public on higher densities. But it is not a realistic outcome — no matter how much proponents of Transit Oriented Development wish it to be so.
For starters, the number of commuters who will be able to use the four new Metro stations currently under construction in Tysons is limited to those who live directly east or west of the fixed rail line.
For those coming from other compass points, Metro does not make sense. And the number of drivers who do switch to Metro will be offset by the hordes of newcomers allowed under the higher densities who won’t use mass transit.
However, even with increased transit ridership, mixed-used development that creates residential units in Tysons, and aggressive management of traffic demand, more than three-quarters of all Tysons Corner commuters will still be driving to work, according to Fairfax County’s own figures.
In a 2010 statement to the Fairfax Planning Commission, McLean Citizens Association president Rob Jackson pointed out that the county’s own staff and consultants recommended enormous increases in road capacity to handle the influx, pointedly noting that “the transportation network would fail” once Tysons Corner adds the 84 million square feet planned by 2030.
In a stunning example of political dysfunction, Fairfax County supervisors approved the Tysons Plan — which Jackson said includes density increases “well beyond the point of transportation failure” — without a transportation plan to deal with the inevitable traffic gridlock.
The plan includes 546 acres located more a half mile beyond the nearest Metro station that are, by the county’s own parameters, too far to walk.
County staff is now recommending that the definition of TOD be expanded to measure the distance from station entrances instead of the customary station platforms. Staff also wants the policy that limits TOD densities to within a half-mile of the stations to include “how pleasant and inviting the walk is.”
As anyone who has ever tried it knows, walking anywhere in Tysons Corner is hardly pleasant, and it’s more an invitation to get run over than anything else.
And crossing Tysons’ busy streets on foot, already a daunting proposition, will become even more difficult and dangerous with more angry drivers looking for a hasty exit.
Tysons Corner was simply not designed for pedestrians. Some office buildings on its extra-long “superblocks” can only be accessed through their parking garages. And most of the new office buildings will be built along Greensboro and Westpark Drives — not Route 7, where all the new Metro stations will be located.
The Tysons Partnership has still not come up with a funding plan to pay for the estimated $3 billion needed to turn Tysons’ treacherous, winding streets into a walkable, city-like grid.
Meanwhile, Route 123 — one of two six-lane roads running right through the heart of Tysons — is being widened. Those two extra lanes are badly needed, but they will create a nearly insurmountable barrier for those on foot.
With its shopping malls and jobs, Tysons Corner is and will continue to be Virginia’s economic engine. But at least for the next few decades, a large majority of commuters will still need another kind of engine to get there.
Barbara F. Hollingsworth is The Examiner’s local opinion editor.
