The Mosaic District is one of the most popular destinations in Fairfax County, Virginia – shopping, experiences (yoga in the park), movies, a brewery, new residences and, yes, even a fishmonger. Yet, despite being one of the newest and coolest places around, Mosaic does not sit directly on a main transit line – aka, Metrorail. While the Dunn Loring Metro Station on Metrorail’s Orange Line is an easy walk or bike ride from Mosaic, it is still just under a mile away.
Solving the Last-Mile Connection for Mosaic
We see this “last-mile” connection challenge all over the Washington, DC metro area, so it was a big moment this week when the newest Capital Bikeshare station was added to Mosaic. The new station joins two sister bikeshare kiosks just outside the Dunn Loring Metro station and next to the Lost Dog Cafe along Merrilee Drive and is part of a growing network.
Wells + Associates’ Senior Associate Lydia Shackelford was instrumental in bringing together the developers and tenants of these three station locations with Fairfax County to encourage the installation of the new bikeshare facilities.
“We are excited to see bikeshare arrive in the Merrifield area. Avenir Place, Halstead, and Mosaic are already attractive places for dining, shopping, and living, and they deserved more transportation choices. The final Capital Bikeshare station as part of this expansion in Mosaic is the culmination of an extensive dialog between County officials, tenants, developers, and our team at Wells + Associates,” said Shackelford. “We congratulate our friends and clients at these three locations, the county, and everyone who will enjoy this additional transportation amenity.”
Bikeshare Network Expansion: A Team Effort
A year ago, the Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling (FABB) analyzed Capital Bikeshare ridership in Fairfax County for the first five months of 2018. As FABB reported on their blog, “Clearly bikeshare is closely related to transit and major employment centers,” with the top three Fairfax County bikeshare stations Reston Station, Tysons Corner Station, and Reston Town Center Transit Station.
To the outside observer, these transportation advancements might seem inevitable, but that’s simply not the case. Information – demographics, traffic statistics, and the projected value of bikeshare – needed to be shared, budgets needed to be developed, and stakeholders needed to get involved. Numerous Transportation Demand Management (TDM) programs in the Merrifield area participated in this process, along with developers such as EDENS, Bozzuto, and Mill Creek. Here at W+A, we were pleased to roll up our sleeves with these stakeholders and officials at Fairfax County in order to get bikeshare activated.
The Future of Bikeshare in Fairfax County
What’s next? These new bikeshare facilities are part of a larger trend.
Capital Bikeshare arrived at Dunn Loring Metro in mid-May of this year. Numerous bikeshare facilities were added to the growing Tysons district in October 2016.
On the horizon: More stations in the Providence District, including some on the route to Inova Fairfax Hospital. It’s the type of transportation expansion needed to help the Northern Virginia region handle growth in the future.
