Countywide rapid bus system proposed

The system will be based on buses running in dedicated lanes on major roads throughout the county. It would cost an estimated $2.3 billion to $2.5 billion and have at least 16 routes down major corridors such as Route 355, New Hampshire Avenue and Shady Grove Road, according to a report by consulting firm Parsons Brinckerhoff.

Those involved with planning have banned the word “bus,” saying they want to differentiate the proposed system from existing bus systems like Ride On or Metrobus.

The vehicles in the system will resemble “trains on rubber tires,” said Mark Winston, chairman of the county’s Transit Task Force — the group charged with designing the plans for the system.

In one proposal, the buses are in “guideways,” roadways in which curbs hug the buses and prevent them from moving from side to side, said Tina Slater, president of the Action Committee for Transit and head of the task force committee responsible for developing the system’s routes. The guideways or dedicated lanes would use current medians.

The study predicted the system could see 165,000 to 207,000 daily “boardings” in a 150-mile route system. It assumes a base fare of about $1.50.

“The system is the closest thing to the Metrorail that we can financially do,” said task force member Jonathan Genn. “We are trying to transform the way people commute.”

The system would reduce traffic congestion by reducing the number of cars on the road, said County Councilman Marc Elrich, D-at large, who sits on the task force and has championed the idea of bus rapid transit.

The task force does not know where funding would come from, though Councilman Roger Berliner, D-Bethesda, suggested funding would come from a combination of federal, state and county sources.

Ideally, he said, work could begin in the next three to four years.

The system is the “single most important investment our community can make to lay the foundation for future growth,” he said.

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