Residents Get Another Chance to Speak Out on Bus Route 432

It's become clear Bus Route 432 will, in some way, run between Vienna and Tysons.

The question now is which route it will take.

Fairfax County transportation officials will hold a public meeting June 4 to discuss proposed Silver Line Connector Bus Route 432, a route so far both strongly suported by residents but also one that's drawn concern over buses running on streets that aren’t meant to accommodate them,  non-local residents parking their cars in the neighborhood in order to catch the bus and children’s safety.

Transportation officials indicated in a notice about the meeting that Route 432 would be on the final list of routes submitted to supervisors for approval and implementation when the Silver Line opens at the end of 2013. But the routing has not been finalized and will be the main subject of the June 4 meeting.

Residents on Creek Crossing Road submitted a petition to officials demanding that their street and portions of East Street be taken out of the proposed route.

Besides being a potential danger to kids and cyclists, they questioned whether many people in their neighborhood who could get to the Metro with other bus routes, on bike or by foot, would use the route.

But other residents, including members of the Westbriar Civic Association in Vienna, support the route, which they say will greatly benefit them and hundreds of other homes in the area.

“Alarming claims have been raised by a few regarding child safety, carcinogens in exhaust, criminals arriving by bus, and loud engine noises around the clock, but the facts, statistics, and logic fail to support any of this,” Westbriar Civic Association President John Shreffler wrote in a May 5 letter to Fairfax County officials. “The Connector makes a lot of sense to us, because the four Metro stops at Tysons have no parking, and we are realistically out of walking range.”

The route’s website indicates that public comment is opposed to sections of its current layout and includes proposals for two alternate routes down Maple Avenue.

The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. June 4 at Patrick Henry Library, 101 Maple Avenue East in Vienna.