What’s old is new on the Q2

WMATA recently announced a study for improving the Q2 Metrobus line, which runs from Silver Spring to Shady Grove via Wheaton and Rockville. The Q2 is one of the most popular routes in the entire Metrobus system with an average weekday ridership of 10,200, and is one of WMATA’s proposed priority bus corridors (large PDF). There’s even room on the shoulders of Viers Mill Road, where the Q2 runs between Wheaton and Rockville, to build a dedicated bus lane. However, announcing a new study ignores one important fact: we’ve already done similar studies before.

Between Randolph Road and Twinbrook Parkway, Viers Mill Road narrows in places from three lanes in each direction to two. The shoulders are extra-wide in these sections, making up for the missing lane, and leaving extra room in the right of way. It would a simple task to dedicate one lane exclusively to buses on the three lane sections while paving and repainting the extra-wide shoulder on the two lane stretches into a bus lane.

This is not a new idea. In fact, Montgomery County put this idea on the to-do list in 2003. It was publicly discussed in more detail in 2005 by Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan’s office. Even the U.S. Department of Transportation, which was notoriously anti-transit under former Secretary Mary Peters, filed a memo on the topic.

However, despite the obvious benefits and modest cost of constructing a dedicated bus lane, it has not yet happened. Viers Mill Road is numbered MD-586. Therefore, the Maryland State Highway Administration has the final say in any matters relating to the road, regardless of who pays. In December 2008, Maryland State Highway Administrator Neil Pedersen expressed some openness to the idea of dedicated bus lanes. Yet we still have no express bus in a dedicated lane. Viers Mill seems to be stuck in the classic conundrum: local government has good ideas, but lacks political will. Viers Mill Road was built in its current configuration in the 1960’s, similar to many of the too-wide arterials in the inner suburbs.

Lack of political will has left many other glaring examples of neglecting the context of the local built environment on Montgomery County roads, both on county and state roads. For instance, there are the reversible lanes on Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring, Viers Mill remaining a wide six lane suburban road in downtown Wheaton, and every aspect of the intersection of University Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue.

Studies can yield a lot off good information and provide planners with an excellent chance to incorporate the desires of the public. However, there comes a time when a study is no longer the best use of time or resources. Montgomery County needs better ways to transport residents, and Viers Mill has some empty space just waiting for use. County leaders and the SHA should lead the way and create the first of Metro’s priority bus corridors on Viers Mill.