Montgomery proposes scaled-back rapid-bus network
Posted: 9:49 am Tue, February 19, 2013
By
ROCKVILLE — Montgomery County planners are proposing a scaled-back bus rapid transit system after an outside firm found the original proposal wouldn’t justify its cost.
The county had planned to install a 160-mile rapid bus network at a cost of between $8 billion and $10 billion. But the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy found that ridership wouldn’t be high enough to justify such an expansive system. The New York firm was commissioned by the county to study the proposal.
The Washington Examiner reports that county transportation planner Larry Cole has now proposed a 79-mile network with eight routes. There’s no estimate of how much the smaller system would cost.
County Executive Isiah Leggett says if new studies find the network isn’t feasible, it won’t be built.
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Comments
I am not sure a survey of possible mass transportation use should be the deciding factor. Communities/society changes its patterns according to how they are informed/trained. If you build a good product and inform the public, they will come, read, and text their way to work and back. Market this sensible investment properly and the public will get on board.