The impact of Phase 1 of the Silver Line on the Northern Virginia transportation system.

Details

• Creators:
  Murray-Tuite, Pamela ; Zhu, Shanjiang ; Chacko, Amal P.
• Corporate Creators:
  Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC)
• Corporate Contributors:
  Virginia. Dept. of Transportation
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Commuting Rail Transit Regional Transportation Ridership Travel Patterns
• Publication/ Report Number:
  VTRC 17-R28
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States;Virginia
• Edition:
  Final report
• Corporate Publisher:
  Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC)
• Abstract:
  The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of Phase 1 of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Silver Line on the broad regional transportation system, and specifically on the road network operated by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). All of the data used in this study were aggregate and were provided by transit agencies and VDOT.
  
  The study used geographic information systems to visualize transit demand and regression and the Mann-Whitney U test to identify patterns, estimate new transit demand, and determine whether road changes were significant. Some, but not all, Silver
  
  Line ridership appeared to be drawn from the Orange Line, resulting in traffic pattern changes between the two lines. This
  
  finding was supported by the ridership on the two lines and changes at intersections in the south of Reston and intersections near
  
  the West Falls Church Metro Station.
  
  The regression analysis showed that the Silver Line attracted approximately 20,000 new rider trips (trip ends counting
  
  both exits and entrances separately) on a typical weekday. Ridership at the Wiehle-Reston East Station showed a strong pattern
  
  of commuting traffic, with a detectable morning and afternoon peak for entries and exits, respectively. Changes in the
  
  intersection counts in Reston supported this pattern. However, the numbers of entries and exits during the same time period for
  
  the other four stations were more balanced. Ridership supported reverse commuting with the Silver Line. Some mode or route
  
  shifts appeared to occur in the Reston area, suggested by improved travel times on VA-267 between Route 28 and Hunter Mill
  
  Road in the AM peak and in the Tysons Corner area, suggested by improved travel times on I-495 between I-66 and Route 7 and
  
  intersection count changes at Chain Bridge Road and International Drive. Another travel pattern shift in the Tysons Corner area
  
  appeared to be the avoidance of the interchange of Route 7 and Chain Bridge Road, particularly suggested by changes at the
  
  intersection just west of this interchange. The majority of the road data suggested general growth in the region, which hid some
  
  of the benefits of the Silver Line. The new ridership allowed for some accommodation of new traffic and traffic rebalancing
  
  across routes.
  
  
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  106440
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bee9e829204c276cc5492e53a52e7309de819ba82643ff5e130151967caf68dfffd614af96928c207aedbad828a5a78f3319e677e2204e1cf4224ab9e8545ab5
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/32383/dot_32383_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.53 MB ]