here are five things montgomery county says BRT would do

Better bus service could mean less traffic and fewer delays along Route 29 in Montgomery County, say transportation officials. But that may only happen if buses get their own lanes.

BRT in Alexandria opened three years ago. Photo by BeyondDC on Flickr.

For nearly a decade, the county has discussed creating a network of bus rapid transit lines. County Executive Ike Leggett wants to build the first one, along Route 29 (Colesville Road/Columbia Pike) between Silver Spring and Burtonsville, by 2020. While BRT has been successful in other cities around the country, the 11-mile line will help prove that it can work here.

The county and the Maryland Department of Transportation just finished a study looking at what a bus rapid transit line could do if it were built, and what would happen if nothing got built at all. Here's what they found.

How BRT would work

BRT offers many features you'd expect from a train: large, covered stations, fare machines where you pay before getting on, and special traffic signals to let buses pass ahead of other vehicles. The county envisions thirteen stops along Route 29, with buses running in both directions every six minutes between 5 am and midnight, seven days a week.

The most important feature of BRT are dedicated lanes for buses, which allow buses to speed past traffic, making the service fast and reliable. The county and state are looking at three alternative ways to create dedicated lanes for all buses (including existing local and commuter buses) as well as carpools. Depending on the alternative, buses would use the right-hand lane along sections of Route 29 south of New Hampshire Avenue, where it's more of a city street. North of New Hampshire Avenue, where Route 29 becomes more of a freeway, buses would either travel on the shoulder or in the median, where new lanes would be built.

Estimates say the project would cost between $79 and $136 million to build. Meanwhile, the county is planning to build a sort of "temporary" BRT line with some of those features that could cost about $67 million. It recently received a federal grant to help pay for it.

Map of the proposed Route 29 BRT line from Montgomery County.

What BRT could do

It could reduce travel times, including for drivers. Today, a bus trip from Burtonsville to Silver Spring can take nearly an hour in the morning. The study found that the same trip on BRT could take as little as 29 minutes, making it even faster than driving. In some cases, car trips would be shorter as well.

It could reduce congestion. The study found that in all three cases, the amount of driving along Route 29 would actually decrease. Today, many people may choose to drive because the current bus trip is slow and circuitous. With a new, faster option, some drivers may choose to use transit, freeing up space on the road for those who still choose to drive.

It could double transit use in East County. Route 29 is one of the region's busiest bus corridors. Today, people take 15,000 trips through the area each day on Metrobus, Ride On, or MTA commuter buses. The study estimates that another 16,000 to 18,000 would ride BRT, while existing bus service would see new riders as well.

It could increase access to jobs and economic opportunity. The study finds that BRT could "provide opportunities for low-income and minority populations to enhance their quality of life through improved transportation and employment options." Research shows that one of the biggest barriers to getting a job is the lack of safe, reliable transportation to that job. The study finds that BRT could allow East County residents to reach more jobs within 45 minutes than they can today. Transit might also draw more private investment to areas like downtown Silver Spring and White Oak, putting more jobs within close reach.

It could support Montgomery County's nighttime economy. One of the county's main priorities has been promoting nightlife in downtown areas like Silver Spring to encourage more people to live or work here, but the buses are often less frequent or don't run at all outside of rush hour. The BRT study finds that many of the proposed BRT stations, like Fenton Street, Burnt Mills, and Stewart Lane will actually be busier during evenings and weekends than during rush hour. These stations are in shopping and entertainment areas, like downtown Silver Spring and White Oak, that are both popular hangouts and have lots of late-night service and retail jobs.

This may not happen without dedicated lanes
This study looks at what would happen if Montgomery County and Maryland built bus rapid transit with dedicated lanes for buses. Creating bus lanes can be expensive depending on how you do them. And since Montgomery County first proposed BRT several years ago, there's been a lot of pushback from some neighbors who are worried about car traffic.

But all of the benefits BRT could bring East County are less likely to happen without dedicated lanes that make buses faster, more frequent, and more reliable. After all, a bus that sits in traffic is just a bus.

You've got a number of chances to offer your thoughts on this project. The county and state are taking public comments on this study through February 20. On February 7, the County Council will have a public hearing about whether to provide money to build bus rapid transit, and you can sign up to testify here. And there will be public meetings later this spring to talk even more.

(Full disclosure: I sit on the county's Route 29 South BRT Citizens Advisory Committee, but these thoughts are mine and mine alone.)

I was frustrated by our region’s housing market. So I got my real estate license.

The housing market in the Washington region can be a pretty daunting place for young homebuyers, particularly those who want to live closer in. I knew I wanted to help. So six months ago, I got my real estate license.

Photo by the author.

My mother has been a real estate agent for over thirty years, primarily doing business in the District. I grew up going with her to look at houses, learning my way around DC and soaking up local history one sale at a time. I vividly remember touring a corner rowhouse on North Capitol Street, near Truxton Circle, that had been turned into a rooming house: ten rooms, each occupied by a single man.

Back in 1996, that house sold for about $100,000. At the time, nobody would have guessed that Truxton Circle would become one of the region's hottest neighborhoods. Through my mother, I got to see the transformation of DC's real estate market firsthand. That house on North Capitol Street was gutted, turned back into a single-family house, fully restored, and is maybe worth a million dollars today.

On the one hand, it's exciting to watch people and investment flow back into DC and close-in areas. Part of me wants to get in on that: everyone else is making money, so why can't I?

On the other hand, I'm deeply frustrated by it. Everyone else is making money, but those flipped houses and trendy restaurants are pretty expensive. I read the now-predictable news stories about the "latest" neighborhood to "revive," as if house prices are the only vital signs of a neighborhood. I listen to my family, who emigrated here from the Caribbean in the 1970s, wonder if they still have a place in a DC that is increasingly white and affluent. And I listen to my friends, white, black, or otherwise, the ones a few years out from school and working steady jobs, also wonder if they will ever have a place here.

silver spring could get a big music and sports venue

Montgomery County's been talking about building a sports and entertainment arena for a decade. Now, officials want to build it in downtown Silver Spring on the site of an aging parking garage.

This underused parking garage could become a new sports and music arena.  Image by the author.

On Wednesday, county officials announced a request for proposals to build a 5,000-seat venue on the site of two public parking garages on Bonifant Street, one block from the Silver Spring Metro station. The county is looking for a development partner to build a hall on the three-block site, as well as housing, retail, and some replacement parking.

This idea first emerged last year when the Wizards were looking for somewhere to build a practice facility. Montgomery County suggested building it on top of the parking garages, similar to the Capitals' practice rink in Ballston. The Wizards instead chose a site in Congress Heights.

But county officials have been considering an arena for over a decade. A 2007 study looked at building an 8,000 to 10,000-seat venue in Germantown and said it would be successful, drawing a minor-league sports team, live concerts and shows, and hosting high school graduations, most of which are held at DAR Constitution Hall in the District. Five years later, two entrepreneurs suggested building a venue next to the Shady Grove Metro station.

This Silver Spring site could solve two problems. Like many Montgomery County parking facilities, the Bonifant Street garages, which together contain nearly 1,800 spaces, were built in the 1970s and are aging. Meanwhile, 42% of Silver Spring's nearly 10,000 public parking spaces sit empty at all times (full disclosure: my company worked on a study of parking in the county) and are frequently closed to the public.

As a result, county officials decided it may be easier to dispose of underused parking than to do expensive renovations. Last year, the county sold a garage at Colesville Road and Spring Street to United Therapeutics, which is building an office building there, while a parking lot on Thayer Avenue will become an apartment building with some public parking in an underground garage.

A 5,000-seat music venue could fill a big void for concert halls in the DC area. It would be bigger than DAR, which has 3,700 seats, and a proposed 4,200-seat venue at St. Elizabeths in southeast DC. Montgomery County's largest indoor venue is the Fillmore Silver Spring, with room for 2,000. Meanwhile, the next largest venues are either outside, like Merriweather Post Pavilion (19,000 capacity) or major-league sports arenas like Verizon Center (20,000 capacity).

It could potentially be a huge draw for downtown Silver Spring, which has drawn thousands of new homes over the past decade but has a high office vacancy rate. Like the Verizon Center for Gallery Place, more entertainment options would help draw foot traffic to the area's small businesses and retailers, particularly along Georgia Avenue and in the Ripley District, a portion of downtown Silver Spring that is pretty dead at night.

That said, there are some big questions looming ahead. One is how the demand for a sports and entertainment venue might have changed since 2007. The live music industry is consolidating, and bigger concerts and festivals are struggling to sell tickets. Meanwhile, the area's smaller venues have had to compete for acts since the Fillmore opened in 2011.

There are some interesting design challenges too. The parking garages bridge over two existing streets, Bonifant Street and Dixon Avenue, creating two gloomy underpasses that may discourage people to walk through to the other side. Removing these underpasses would improve connections to the surrounding neighborhood, but may not be possible depending how much space a 5,000-seat venue would need (it is, after all, a giant box). There's also the issue of how the venue would work with the Purple Line, which will pass through the site on Bonifant Street.

Big arenas usually don't have a lot of windows or openings to the outside, meaning lots of blank walls at street level that can kill activity. On top of that, they're only busy when events are happening there, meaning the site could be dead most of the time. Ideally this venue will follow the example of the Verizon Center and have shops and restaurants on the ground floor that create activity regardless of if there's a game or concert happening.

Montgomery County's been thinking about building a sports and entertainment venue for a decade. While this project may have gained some momentum, it'll require a lot more thought before the lights finally go up. At this rate, county officials say it may open sometime in the 2020s.

student protests in montgomery county show why public space matters

Suburban communities designed for cars don't always have obvious places for people to gather and assemble. So when students at several Montgomery County high schools and Montgomery College walked out of class in protest this week, they headed onto highways and into shopping malls— and their community supported them.

High School Students pouring into the streets of Downtown Silver Spring. #blair #nomoresilence pic.twitter.com/OlERN3qe8Y

— Jake (@nochilljake) November 14, 2016