Elrich Talks Rapid Transit with Wheaton-Kensington Chamber of Commerce

Councilmember Marc Elrich (D-At Large) estimates that he's given the Bus Rapid Transit presentation at least 100 times in the past five years. His latest presenation was at Wednesday morning, for a meeting.

It appears that his efforts have paid off, as Parks and Planning is studying the proposed BRT lines in the Master Plan of Highways, the State Highway Administration has encouraged Elrich to look into using the medians on state highway roads for dedicated lane on some routes, and a County task force is studying implementation.

"We're done road building in Montgomery County," Elrich said, saying that BRT would use existing roads to create a system that brought people north and south and created connections not currently served by public transit in East County.

The bus rapid transit system uses both dedicated lanes and regular traffic lanes. Elrich suggested that during rush hours, buses would use a single track, running in the median, and buses would run in direction of traffic. Against traffic, the buseswould drive back on the regular road.

What would the dedicated lane look like? Two tire-sized strips of concrete with a grass median in the center. The BRT system uses tiny wheels attatched to the sides of buses to press against the side of the concrete and "lock in" to the lane. The side wheels can also be added to existing buses.

Elrich and the County Executive have several differences between possible route maps for the BRT system, but there are several primary routes that are more likely (see Elrich's route map here, with overlays of the Red, Green line, the Beltway and MARC):

• Veirs Mill Road from Rockville to Wheaton Metro Station
• Georgia Avenue from Olney Town Center to Glenmont Metro Station
• University Boulevard from Wheaton to Takoma Park/Langley
• Rockville Pike from Bethesda Metro to Germantown
• Connecticut Avenue from Aspen Hill to Jones Bridge Road
• Colesville Road (Route 29) from Silver Spring Transit Center to the County Line (with a possible extension to Columbia, MD)
• A possible New Hampshire Avenue line
• The ICC (on-road, not a dedicated lane)

Elrich said that capital costs are anywhere between $6 to $15 million a mile, depending on the number of intersections on a route. With consultants looking at somewhere around 120 miles of the system, Elrich's chief of staff, Dale Tibbitts, said they are looking at bonding the costs over 30 years through the state. Construction of the dedicated lanes would likely take between two to three years.

"Developers have been very supportive of this," Elrich said, adding that they are even supportive of paying additional taxes, if the money is dedicated towards towards transportation.