For Immediate Release: Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Montgomery County Council,
City of Rockville and
City of Gaithersburg elected officials
to meet jointly on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
on Thursday, March 9
Also: County Council committee to receive
‘mobility’ reports on traffic trends
ROCKVILLE, Md., March 8, 2017—The Montgomery County Council, the Rockville Mayor and Council and the Gaithersburg City Council at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 9, in Gaithersburg will hold a rare triple joint session to discuss key issues regarding the planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system that would extend through many sections of the County.
The meeting, which is open to the public, will be held at Casey Community Center at 810 South Frederick Ave. in Gaithersburg.
The session will be will be recorded by County Cable Montgomery (CCM) so it can be replayed in its entirety on dates yet to be determined. The channel can be viewed on Cable Channels 996 (high definition) and 6 (standard definition) on Comcast; Channels 1056 (HD) and 6 (SD) on RCN; and Channel 30 on Verizon.
Planning for BRT—which would utilize specialized vehicles running mostly on dedicated routes—is taking place in stages involving various routes. The discussion on Thursday will chiefly address a proposed route along Maryland Route 355 that would run through both Rockville and Gaithersburg.
The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), in partnership with Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT), is planning the implementation of the BRT line on Maryland 355. The project is part of the Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan. It spans from Clarksburg to Bethesda. Most of its alignment goes along Maryland 355 (North Frederick Road, Rockville Pike and Wisconsin Ave). The area around Maryland 355 is planned for high level of development.
The project is divided into two sections: North and South. The North section falls north of Rockville Metro Station. It is characterized by heavy congestion and high transit ridership. It has several major existing and planned activity nodes, including Gaithersburg and Rockville.
The South section falls south of the Rockville Metro Station. It is characterized by very heavy congestion and high transit ridership potential. Trips on the section are shorter and they represent a wide variety of travel purposes (shopping and recreation, in addition to commuting). This section has several planned or existing activity nodes, including Rockville, Twinbrook, White Flint, the National Institutes of Health/Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and Bethesda's central business district.
For more information about BRT, visit the Montgomery County DOT web site at http://tinyurl.com/zwqf8rh .
At 2 p.m. in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville, the County Council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee, which is chaired by Councilmember Roger Berliner and includes Councilmembers Nancy Floreen and Tom Hucker, will be briefed on the 2017 “Mobility Assessment Report” that looks at a variety of traffic trends.
Among the information to be addressed from the report:
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Release ID: 17-072