Single Occupancy Vehicle Rate Drops as Metro Ridership Climbs with Creative Solutions

Towers Crescent is an office building site owned and operated by QDC Property Management. It includes buildings 8000, 8010, 8020, and 1850 Towers Crescent Boulevard. A staple of the Tysons area, it is home to over 3,000 employees and 30 businesses, including Microstrategy and Capital One. It also contains the Towers Club, a diverse business and social community where local power players come to work and connect.

W+A manages the ongoing marketing and outreach efforts for Towers Crescent Commuting, a Transportation Demand Management program designed to assist employees as they travel and commute to one of the busiest areas on the east coast.

TARGETED MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS

Over the four years that W+A has hosted this program, there have been many progressive and noticeable changes for commuters. Towers Crescent Commuting was imperative in these changes through many commuter outreach projects prior to Metro. The program has been successful, as Towers Crescent’s Metro ridership has increased above the county average as peak driving time has decreased.

To achieve these results, W+A offered customized walking maps that gave employees the easiest and safest way to walk to and from Metro, as well as bus to Metro maps that allowed for short and inexpensive bus trips to Metro.

Through surveys and outreach, W+A has perceived a large biking community at Towers Crescent and has worked to make the complex as bike friendly as possible. Today Towers Crescent hosts four bike lockers, six bike racks, and a bike maintenance stand. It also features parking garage wall designs that display Fairfax County’s bike map, and customized North and South Tysons bike maps.

W+A implemented the innovative customized carpool matching map that has led to a fast growing carpooling community. Carpooling at Towers Crescent has increasingly risen.

PROGRAM SURVEYS, MONITORING, AND EVALUATION

A critical part of the program has been ongoing program monitoring and evaluation. The Center’s proffered goal is 24 percent reduction in single occupancy vehicle trips among office employees for Phase One of the development.

By counting site trips and a large annual survey effort to reach over 3,000 employees, W+A has demonstrated strides toward that end, and trip reduction that exceeds the goals in the site’s proffer statement.

These are the achievements so far with this project:

• Drive alone rates have steadily dropped since 2010
• Peak driving time has decreased 6 percent since the Metro’s Silver Line opened
• Metro ridership has increased 5 percent in just once year, increasing Towers Crescent’s Metro ridership over the county average
• Carpooling has increased, with 6 percent of employees commuting this way exclusively in 2015

PROJECT AWARDS

Fairfax County Department of Transportation, in partnership with the University of South Florida’s Center for Urban Transportation Research, has designated Tysons Tower as one of the “Best Workplaces for Commuters” for the last three years. Towers Crescent is also a gold medalist in the annual Race to Excellence hosted by Best Workplaces for Commuters.