Pete and FABB’s Silver Line Metro Station Expedition
Pete Beers is one of our part-time bike ambassadors. Pete lives in Virginia and spends a lot of time biking in D.C.’s suburbs and, as a BA, has worked tirelessly to make getting around WABA’s suburban jurisdictions by bike easier and more accessible. In December, Pete led a holiday shopping trip by bike to Tyson’s Corner and the Mosaic District in conjunction with Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling. Now, we’re reposting his account of another ride with FABB, to the new Silver Line Metro stations. You can read Pete’s blog, I Love My Commute, here.
Last week Liz and I planned and lead a ride with some members of Fairfax Advocates for Better Biking to scout out ways to ride to some of the new Silver Line Metro stations being brought on line in the near future. We found a few surprises in getting around. Some stations are easily accessible by bike. Others are more of a challenge. The good and not-so good rides were not what I expected.
Background: One of the great things about the new Silver Line Metro Stations is that they are all extremely well equipped with bike racks and bike storage lockers. At this point, most of these stations do not have a lot of automobile parking. That leaves getting to and from Metro by bus, taxi or bicycle. As a bicycle advocate, I took a keen interest in scouting out the routes to the Silver Line Stations.
McLean Station turned out to be the most pleasant, and probably easiest station to get to by bicycle. The route from the south consists of mostly neighborhood streets that are quiet and enjoyable by bicycle. Here is the route that we took. It runs from Tysons Station Shopping Center (the intersection of Pimmit Drive and Leesburg Pike) to the McLean Metro Station.