Try /r/novarent?

The only relevant article I could find covers their opening -- back in late 2010.

The "s" stands for "scheduled." It means that, instead of giving you a real time arrival estimate, it's the time left until the bus should arrive according to the posted schedule. The "s" turns up when the tracking system has lost communication with the bus, or the bus has lost its GPS connection, etc., and so the system switches back to working with the old-school timetable.

You might try asking over at /r/novarent too.

Is this what /u/solidrecommendations and /u/blind__panic are looking for?

(Just a heads up: you need the leading forward slash if you want it to turn into a link.)

OpenStreetMap sounds like your kind of place! As an example, note the ring of bollards just outside the National Gallery of Art.

This is more for future reference, but over in DC, in an area just about as close to Arlington as you can get (northwest of the Lincoln Memorial), during the summer months the Parkway Drive volleyball courts are available.

Yeah, 2035 is practically around the corner.

> ...if having the 8000s means they'll have a full fleet, it seems it would solve a lot of needs.

That's what they said about the 7000 series though.

It's also a straightforward walk from the Vienna metro station. It takes about 20 minutes. If you go sometime other than in bright daylight hours, wear bright clothing, and turn your phone's flashlight on when you get to Nutley Street and Lee Highway. There are crosswalks with signals at that intersection, but I guess drivers aren't used to people actually using them? All I know is there have been way too many drivers not paying attention to pedestrians there, especially when it's not light out.

There are also a couple of buses that go from the metro station to a stop right next to the strip mall that Microcenter is in. It's a quick ride, but meshing with the bus schedule might mean that walking is still faster.

The Arlington County Library has soldering irons (follow the "Equipment List" link on that page), and you might find someone there to help you with the skill issue, too.

I recall reading many years ago that the reason the National Airport metro station was built above ground was because it was hoped that it would be more visible and draw more passengers from Crystal City that way. It never did, especially after the parking structures were constructed. Instead, recently arrived air passengers have ever since had to stand on an outdoor station platform that can get brutally cold in winter with the wind blowing in from the Potomac, and stiflingly hot in the summer.

If I'm remembering that motivation correctly, evidently Arlington is still trying to make it happen.