How much will it cost?

The main element of the Better BRT plan is a 2.1 mile busway between Sligo Creek Parkway and the area of Lockwood Drive. The busway will involve reconstructing the median throughout the segment, but the road will not be widened beyond the existing curb-to-curb width except in the vicinity of the Beltway interchange where the curbs may need to be adjusted by a few feet (no structures will be threatened). The plan would also involve the reconstruction of shoulders north of Stewart Lane in White Oak to Tech Road, the southern limit of the proposed shoulder operations of the county’s BRT plan (which is totally separate from this plan).

The most comparable projects to the proposed Better BRT project are those that have involved reconstruction the medians of a road. The Maryland State Highway Administration has completed a few such projects on arterial roads in the D.C. area in recent years which can be used as a reference points. The closest case study is the Queens Chapel Road (MD-500) Streetscape Project in Hyattsville, which involved reconstructing and expanding the medians of a one mile stretch of Queens Chapel Road, as well as reconstructing the sidewalks, water lines, sewers, and storm drain infrastructure. That project cost $10.9 million dollars.

Constructing Better BRT on Route 29 will involve much of the same construction elements of the Queens Chapel project. Additionally, the 2.1 mile busway on Route 29 will involve adding four new traffic signals to the corridor with accompanying electric and fiber optic infrastructure. The project will also involve constructing two BRT stations, which in practice will resemble enhanced bus stops with level boarding, sheltered waiting area, and fare payment machines (BRT stations are nowhere near as large as Metro stations or light rail stations).

With these components in mind, an approximate cost for building the 2.1 mile busway between Sligo Creek Parkway and Lockwood Drive is $30 million. Additionally, widening the shoulders between Stewart Lane and Tech Road could cost $7-9 million (the Route 29 Paint Branch bridges each have a 48′ driving deck and would not require widening). For the segment of Better BRT south of Sligo Creek Parkway and into downtown Silver Spring, the existing lane control signals could optionally be modified to provide a peak-period bus lane in the right peak-direction travel lane during rush hour. No alterations would be made to the road itself in this segment due to the narrowness precluding a full time bus lane or median busway. Were the lane control signals to be modified, it could cost around $1 million.

In total, the project’s capital costs would likely be in the area of $40 million. For context, this entire project would be half the total cost of the new interchange at Randolph Road and Georgia Avenue.

What is the tangible return on investment of Better BRT?

There is peer-reviewed academic research to suggest that the type of high quality bus rapid transit proposed for Route 29 will offer a tangible return on investment to residential and commercial property owners near BRT stations.

The Better BRT plan proposes a dedicated busway on the Route 29 corridor north of Sligo Creek Parkway. If realized, the BRT line on Route 29 will resemble high quality BRT lines in other U.S. cities. As planned, the Better BRT system will most closely resemble Eugene, Oregon’s Emerald Express (EmX) BRT system, the first segment of which opened in 2007.

The University of South Florida’s Center for Urban Transportation Research recently completed a study on the impacts of EmX station proximity to surrounding property values. The study compared property values of single family homes surrounding EmX stations before and after the opening of the BRT system while controlling for other factors that lead to increased property values. The results of the analysis led the researchers to conclude that “Overall, these findings suggest that proximity to the EmX BRT stations contributes to a small (but increasing), statistically significant positive impact on the actual market sale prices of single-family homes.”