Business & Tech

Who Will Ride the Silver Line? Poll: Maybe Not as Many as Metro Thinks

WaPo story says most Northern Virginians likely will stick to their cars, even with rail access here.

By Karen Goff

Now that Metro's Silver Line is months away from opening, will it have a drastic impact on commuter and driving habits in McLean and elsewhere in Northern Virginia?

Maybe not, says a poll conducted by The Washington Post.

The Post reports that Northern Virginia is overwhelmingly a car culture, and that might be a tough habit to break.

Only 7 percent of commuters here take Metro; 85 percent drive to work. By contrast, in Maryland, 75 percent of commuters drive, and in the District, fewer than half do, the poll shows.

Only 12 percent of Northern Virginians report riding Metro “very often” or “fairly often,” down from 19 percent in 2010 and 23 percent in 2005. By contrast, the poll finds Metro ridership steady among Marylanders and people living in the District.

The first phase of the Silver Line will run from Tysons Corner to Reston's Wiehle Avenue. Construction is to wrap up soon, and the first riders are expected in early 2014, says the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

Phase 2 of the project will run from Wiehle to Ashburn. It is still in the planning and engineering stages and won't be built for several more years.

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Reston2020's Terry Maynard is also skeptical that commuting habits will change much even with Metro access to Reston.

"In general, I think most of the use of the Silver Line will be people who already use public transit to commute," he writes on 2020's blog.  "There are two categories of people who I would suspect would jump on the new Silver Line connection:

  • Fairfax Connector bus transit riders who have been making the commute to West Falls Church and transferring to the Orange Line there. The Silver Line will save them the transfer, maybe some time (notwithstanding 4 stops in Tysons), and maybe some money.
  • People who have been driving to the Vienna Orange Line station to commute by Metrorail.  There are a number of people who do so, and the Wiehle station will save them a whole lot of time and some gas money. 
So far, I am skeptical that people who now commute by car will change their habits--notwithstanding the WMATA report on its survey of potential rail users."

Maynard says he hasn't heard anyone tell him they plan to switch from auto commuting to Metro.

"In large part, that is because their destination is not near a Metro station," he said.  "It is also a function of commuting time and possibly expense (Metro fares vs. destination parking costs)."  

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Metro is coming - will it get you where you need to go to work? Will it change your commuting habits? Tell us in the comments.


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