I ran by Sheehy Honda to get my car fixed today and decided to use my time waiting around to talk to some business folks. It was an interesting discussion that says a lot about redevelopment efforts on U.S. 1.I walked up the street to each of the three dealerships along the road. One manager told me about how their marketing reports show that they are hitting their sales metrics on all zip codes around their location except for one area - Springfield.
When I asked him "why is that," he said, "because they can't get here - it's more convenient to drive west to Fairfax, north to Alexandria, or south to Woodbridge, rather than to make the slog across the county to get to the Route 1 corridor.
If this one business is having this experience, you know that every business is having this experience. This is also why it took so long to attract any kind of high quality development to the Multiplex site. Most sites between Beacon Mall and Woodlawn are being held hostage to traffic.
Living between the Potomac River and the largest park in Fairfax County has its advantages. However, it also means that our area is not accessible to the same populations as other areas. Attracting the highest quality development to our community means we also must have high quality transportation infrastructure to facilitate movement.
All the more reason why we need to continue to fight to move U.S. 1 up on the County's list of priority transportation projects so that the state will fund it.
I don't see the logic in the "if one business is having this experience..." statement.
ReplyDeleteBusinesses depend on a number of factors, not the least of which is uniqueness. If there are other Honda dealers, equally capable of sales and repairs, more convenient to a zip code, why should any one expect to get business from a less convenient area?