Biking to Loudoun Gateway: definitely an experience.
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- I biked to Loudoun Gateway, the least-used station on the DC Metro, and rode the Silver Line one stop to Ashburn. This was my first time taking a bike on the Metro, but it was pretty easy (minus the experience of actually getting to Loudoun Gateway from the rest of civilization).
Loudoun Gateway to Ashburn using a charm card has to be the most weird trip one can take on Metro...
Quite possibly!
Pretty cool video.
It's pretty cool that you can get 2 mountain bikes on the elevator there. just for the I've been wanting to ride that silver line for a while from ashburn into dc Plus it's the closest for Me.
Because I live in Winchester area.
Thanks for watching! The Silver Line out to Loudoun is nice to have, but its biggest shortcoming is the amount of time it takes to get into DC. It seems unlikely, but I keep hoping that someone at WMATA brings up a plan for express trains out to Dulles or Ashburn, and not just through Arlington. Regardless of time, I still use the line, anyway! It’s nice to not have to worry about driving in DC traffic, though! It’s worth a ride if you haven’t been on it yet!
If you were coming from the east on W&OD, left on Elden in Herndon (no shoulder but slow speeds), right on Sterling Rd > becomes Old Ox Rd (good shoulder) right on Moran > becomes Lockridge you have an easier ride.
If you were coming from the west and got off on Pacific blvd, it probably would’ve been better to stay on Pacific to cross Waxpool then right on Moran. That short stretch of Waxpool that you were on has high speeds and no shoulder due to the merge coming off 28.
Good advice! I was coming from the west from Loudoun County Pkwy on that day so I used the sidewalk on Waxpool to Broderick Dr (not ideal but it was fine for the short distance). I’m sure a proper trail will be put in eventually! (probably if/when the Shellhorn Rd connection opens)
Awesome video
Thank you so much for watching, glad you enjoyed!
What a waste of space! How did Loudon county allow this giant parking lot being the only thing built by a metro stop!!?!
My guess is that this station was always intended to be pretty much just a park and ride. For a park and ride, however, you need good road connections. Loudoun Gateway is severely lacking in this department. There are very few road crossings over Broad Run between Waxpool Rd and Loudoun County Pkwy. This means that driving to Loudoun Gateway is inconvenient unless you are coming from somewhere on Route 606 (or want to pay a toll for Route 267). I think ridership will jump here if a road connection between Old Ox Rd and Loudoun County Pkwy is built. Shellhorn Road will do this once its extension opens, so I wouldn’t be surprised if ridership at Ashburn takes a hit while ridership here increases when that happens.
But yeah, the zoning around Loudoun Gateway is quite odd.
@@29downtheline I don't think it's ever going to jump. There aren't houses within miles. That is the most important area around a metro station is the first mile radius. It's kinda sad Loudon had decades to get this area prepared for metro and rezoning. And yet did nothing with this gift for a huge increase in new people living there in a dense area that doesn't cost much to maintain and brings in a potentially massive amount tax money. In 2023 it averaged 10 riders an hour. There is a garage for 1800 cars and only 10 people an hour use it.
@@letsgoOs1002 Quite frankly I don’t even know why they thought here was a good station location. It’s right in the flight path of IAD; planes fly pretty low overhead coming into the airport. I imagine this is one of the last places they would even want to develop housing. With all those planes, it makes sense why they’d want to put the data centers here. The question is why did they think giving a bunch of data centers a metro station was a good idea. I like this station because of its quirks, but its existence just begs so many questions.
@@29downtheline ask the county supervisors at a meeting
you could bike ON the metro tracks if ur brave enough...
Awesome