Residents Voice Frustrations Over Bus Rapid Transit Plan for Wisconsin Ave.

Residents from Chevy Chase and Bethesda packed the assembly room of Concord Hill School on Wisconsin Avenue Tuesday night to ask questions—and voice frustrations—about the Montgomery County Planning Department's Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan to create possibly 79 miles of bus rapid transit (BRT) lanes in the county—including through areas of Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Friendship Heights to the Maryland-District of Columbia line.

The planning department says that the bus lanes would be a way to handle a projected 21 percent increase in population the county could face between 2013 and 2040 and a projected 70 percent increase in congested road lanes by 2040, according to independent planning consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff.

The BRT lanes would compliment existing Metrorail routes, offering closer spacing between Metrorail stops as well as providing for faster transit between points not connected by Metrorail, county transportation planner Larry Cole told public meeting attendees on Tuesday night.

"What we’re trying to do is move more people in the same amount of space. We have demands that we’re trying to meet in a limited amount of space," Cole said.

Median bus-only lanes are under consideration for Wisconsin Avenue north of Bradley Boulevard. The lanes would be separated by a median strip at least 6 feet wide with pedestrian shelters at stops. Curbside bus-only lanes are under consideration for Wisconsin Avenue south of Bradley Boulevard to Friendship Heights. The lanes would have no physical barriers, Cole explained. 

Buses in the bus-only lanes would be allowed to cross intersections before the rest of the traffic, which he said was helpful in moving buses from a curb-side lane to a median lane and vice versa. Buses would travel every two to three minutes during peak hours, and would not be allowed to travel above the speed limit, Cole said.

The buses would make stops at Friendship Heights, Bradley Boulevard, Cordell Avenue, Cedar Lane and at other stops further north—Rockville and beyond. Between Rockville and the DC line (9.3 miles), there would be 14 stops, according to the Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan.

But, many of the meeting attendees asserted that BRT lanes would not be useful on Wisconsin Avenue south of Bethesda, due to existing Ride On buses and Metrorail service. Several attendees suggested that commuters taking the rapid transit buses from the upcounty area to the Friendship Heights Metrorail station could just as easily transfer to Metrorail in Bethesda or farther north.

Meeting attendees also voiced concerns about pedestrian safety, which would be threatened by BRT buses traveling through Chevy Chase, where many senior citizens, school children and adults pushing children in strollers cross Wisconsin Avenue to get to and from Ride On bus stops, they said.

Currently, there is a sidewalk only on the west side of Wisconsin Avenue between Friendship Heights and Bradley Boulevard—the so-called "Green Mile"—although a sidewalk is planned by the state highway administration for the east side of the Green Mile section. Regarding the coordination of the curb-side bus lane and Green Mile sidewalk projects, Cole said that planners and state highway administration officials do their best "to coordinate the ongoing plans and projects."

Other safety concerns voiced at Tuesday's meeting included the safety of people getting into and out of vehicles—including taxis and ambulances—outside the medical Barlow Building at 5454 Wisconsin Ave. where the vehicles would be in the curb-side BRT lane, and the coordination of the buses with fire trucks leaving the fire station at Bradley Boulevard.

But, as Cole pointed out, these considerations will need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis in further stages of the planning process.

Public comments on the Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan must be posted on the website by midnight on May 30, although residents are hoping that the deadline will be extended. Many meeting attendees expressed frustration over what they said was too short an amount of time allowed for public comments, some saying that they had only just heard of the BRT plan for the area. A petition to extend the public comment time to June 7 was signed by many of the attendees.

In a September 2011 "Masterplan of Highways: Bus Rapid Transit Amendment," the BRT lanes stopped at Bethesda and did not continue to the District line (see page No. 9 of the document).

The bus rapid transit plan was first considered in 2008, and a transit task force issued a report last May.

On May 16, 2013, a public hearing was held on the plan. The county planning board is expected to approve the planning board's draft on July 22, after which there will be a public hearing and work sessions before the plan goes to the Montgomery County Council. 

Then, the project must be planned, designed, funded and implemented, with each phase lasting perhaps two years, Cole said.

Should Wisconsin Avenue have dedicated bus lanes south of the Capital Beltway? Tell us in the comments.