SILVER SPRING – Transportation planners next week will present to the Montgomery County Planning Board a proposal to refine a countywide rapid transit study that will identify where and how to accommodate bus rapid transit vehicles on county roadways.
In late summer, the Planning Department began a year-long study of bus rapid transit (BRT) options for Montgomery County, picking up where the county Department of Transportation left off. DOT recommended 16 corridors covering 150 miles for BRT, which offers bus priority on dedicated lanes, fast passenger boarding and speedy fare collection in a system touted as a potential traffic congestion solution.
Working with a transportation consultant, planners are analyzing the DOT proposal and will present a Network and Methodology report December 15 to the Board, which will then forward its recommendations to the Council. In the report, planners recommend removing two of the proposed 16 corridors from the study while studying the remainder and potential additional routes. The report also lays out the methods by which planners will determine the optimal BRT system and potential land, or right-of-way, requirements.
Planners recommend removing the Intercounty Connector and Midcounty Highway routes from the study but adding the following corridor segments for evaluation in the next phase of study:
- two intended to serve the East County, particularly the White Oak area
- three to provide better east-west connections
- seven additional corridors that were recommended by the Rapid Transit Task Force and recently endorsed by the County Executive
If approved by the Planning Board and County Council, those corridors will be evaluated with the 14 corridors from the original study.
As justification for removing the 23-mile ICC transit corridor, planners point out that BRT stations would be spaced 11.5 miles apart, and would operate more like an express bus service than BRT. The state already operates commuter express bus routes along the ICC, and the 13.4-mile Midcounty Highway route competes with another proposed BRT route as well as the proposed Corridor Cities Transitway line, planners say.
The study will consider whether the routes should have dedicated lanes in the median, take an existing lane, or operate in traffic with priority over cars at intersections. Planners suggest a “tiered approach.” Ridership forecasts reviewed for the report show that many corridors need high service during rush hours, but not at other times. The tiered approach would match high ridership needs with a higher level of transit service.
To assess how much right-of-way is needed along segments of each transit corridor, planners propose weighing:
- Peak-hour BRT passenger volume along corridor segments
- The type of activity centers and other destinations through which a corridor segment runs
- Congestion
- Existing right-of-way for corridor segments
Planners assert that more ridership demand studies would help better understand the integration of BRT with local bus service and the proposed Corridor Cities Transitway public transportation project. They also need to conduct additional ridership forecasting based on the eventual BRT network recommendation.
Learn more about the project.
WHO:
Montgomery County Planning Board
WHAT:
Transit corridors study refinement
WHEN:
Thursday, December 15, approximately 9 a.m.
WHERE:
Park and Planning Headquarters
8787 Georgia Ave.
Silver Spring, MD
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