Opponents of bus rapid transit have argued for years that MetroExtra would provide essentially the same benefits as BRT but at a fraction of the cost. They claim that MetroExtra would “provide the exact same level of service in terms of travel time and frequency of service” as the County’s proposed BRT project (Northwood-Four Corners Civic Association, October 2017 Newsletter).

While BRT opponents are correct that MetroExtra will cost substantially less than BRT, their claim that the benefits would be comparable is false and reflect a fundamental understanding of how bus transit works. Although in many cases MetroExtra can provide significant benefits for transit riders, particularly in high-density corridors, the potential benefits of MetroExtra along Route 29 are minor when compared to existing bus service. When compared to the County’s current BRT plan and especially the Better BRT plan, MetroExtra has major shortcomings in terms of reliability and travel time savings, particularly for heavily-congested corridors that are mostly low-density such as Route 29.

Montgomery County Councilmember Marc Elrich, who over ten years ago began promoting BRT as a way to alleviate congestion in Montgomery County, agrees that MetroExtra will not provide meaningful benefits along Route 29. At a 2017 worksession of the County Council Transportation and Environment Committee, he noted:

“I looked at MetroExtra, and my concern is you don’t get any improvement in service. You might as well add an additional bus because its stuck in traffic and it’s stopping. You could have bus stops all over the place wouldn’t make any difference because the bus is not going very far, very fast. On 29 basically… from the bridge at Cherry Hill all the way into Silver Spring: that place is bollocksed up. I don’t even know how you’d maintain 10 minute headways; I don’t know how you’d maintain schedule. As long as you’re running in mixed traffic, it has all the problems that face our existing bus service which is not scheduled to run as regularly.”

Councilmember Marc Elrich
May 4, 2017 T&E Committee Worksession
(watch archived video beginning at 0:57)

What is MetroExtra?

MetroExtra is a special limited-stop express bus service operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). Greater Greater Washington (GGWash) has helpful articles that explain its features and benefits as well as the current routes as of 2017. According to GGWash, MetroExtra offers “longer spacing between stops, [transit] signal priority, and a signature blue paint scheme”. Several MetroExtra routes are served by articulated buses, which have double the capacity of standard buses. These are all great features that provide better service.

The primary way that MetroExtra reduces travel time is by skipping and consolidating bus stops. This works very well in high-density areas, which is why nearly all of WMATA’s current MetroExtra lines are within the Capital Beltway. Conversely, MetroExtra yields diminishing returns in corridors where bus ridership is concentrated in a few spots along a mostly low-density route, such as Route 29 north of downtown Silver Spring.

As noted above, MetroExtra routes are typically equipped with transit signal priority (TSP), a technique that can slightly reduce delays by optimizing the traffic signals at busy intersections. For example, TSP can extend a green light by a couple seconds to ensure an approaching bus does not get stopped by a red light. By itself, TSP does not often result in significant time savings, but it can help on the margins.

The main shortcoming of MetroExtra is the lack of dedicated bus lanes. Without dedicated lanes, buses simply get stuck in traffic. For bus routes where the main cause of delay is congestion, it doesn’t matter if a MetroExtra bus had one stop or a dozen stops: it will not be able to move faster than the cars stopped in front of it. The County’s current BRT plan provides dedicated lanes from Burtonsville to Tech Road, which allows buses to bypass traffic jams along that segment, such as the one shown below.

The Better BRT plan would take this a step further by extending dedicated lanes all the way south to Sligo Creek Parkway. By extending dedicated bus lanes to the edge of downtown Silver Spring, commuters will have a new way to travel that is not only safer and more comfortable, but also faster and less stressful than sitting in traffic.

Other major shortcomings of MetroExtra are the lack of level boarding and off-board fare collection, both of which would significantly reduce the amount of time where the bus is stopped boarding and unloading passengers. Boarding delays not only inconvenience bus riders, but also car drivers and passengers that are forced to wait behind a stopped bus. By speeding up the boarding process, BRT can reduce delays for everyone on the road.

Level boarding is important because it allows people with wheelchairs and bicycles to board quickly. As shown in the video below (taken on the Z6 bus at the Silver Spring Transit Center), a single passenger can cause major delays if they have trouble navigating their wheelchair around the tight spaces of a standard bus. Similarly, passengers with bicycles can also cause delays as they secure their bicycle to the rack on the front of the bus. With BRT vehicles, boarding a bus is just as easy as boarding a MetroRail train.

Off-board fare collection also can yield significant time savings, since it allows passengers to pay before boarding the bus. As shown in the video below (taken on the Z6 bus at Four Corners), boardings on Route 29 can take over a minute if there are a dozen passengers or more. With off-board fare collection, bus riders won’t hold up the boarding process if they choose to pay in cash, refill their fare card, or their SmartTrip card is not scanning correctly. The County’s current plan for BRT also allows multiple-door boarding, which by itself can reduce the boarding time by half or more, since all the passengers do not have to funnel through one door.

A BRT system with off-board fare collection and level boarding (as proposed in the County’s current BRT plan) would avoid delays associated with the boarding process; a standard limited-stop MetroExtra bus service would not be able to avoid these delays.

Now that we’ve summarized the features and shortcomings of MetroExtra, the remainder of this post explains the shortcomings of MetroExtra as they relate specifically to Route 29.

Express Bus Service already exists on Route 29

First off, it should be noted that WMATA already operates rush-hour-only express bus service on Route 29. The Z11 and Z13 routes operate at 10 minute headways and have six or fewer stops between Briggs Chaney Road and the Silver Spring Transit Center (see route map below, obtained from Technical Memorandum #6 – Transit Service Assessment). Based on these characteristics, these routes essentially provide MetroExtra service along the Route 29 corridor.

Unfortunately however, because they don’t have dedicated lanes, the Z11 and Z13 buses get stuck in traffic jams, especially as they approach downtown Silver Spring. As a result, their end-to-end travel time is typically greater than 45 minutes. Based on the operating characteristics of these existing Express routes, it is unlikely that upgrading them to MetroExtra (even with TSP) would provide significant time savings. By comparison, the Better BRT plan could make the same trip in about half that time.

Existing buses from White Oak already offer “de facto express” service

While WMATA currently runs two express bus service lines along Route 29, there is one under-served area that could benefit from a new MetroExtra-style express bus service: the neighborhood of multi-family housing east of White Oak, off of Stewart Lane and Lockwood Drive.

The residents in this area are currently served by the Z6 and Z8 Metrobus routes, which have stops approximately every 200 feet along Stewart Lane and Lockwood Drive in White Oak. As a result, buses here stop frequently due to the high level of residential density behind the White Oak Shopping Center.

MetroExtra would help speed up the buses in this area. In fact, the WMATA Z Lines Priority Corridor Study recommended MetroExtra service for this area two years ago. The proposed route would operate from Stewart Lane to the Silver Spring Transit Center, as “an effective precursor to the proposed longer-term BRT service” (WMATA, 2015, Z Lines Corridor Study Final Recommendations).

However, south of White Oak, MetroExtra would not be much help or provide much benefit. This is because south of Oak Leaf Drive (near the Enclave Apartments) all the way into downtown Silver Spring, the Z6 and Z8 become “de facto express” bus service, stopping only a couple of times on average along this 3.5-mile long road segment.

The existing Z6 and Z8 buses operate similarly to express service because of low-density residential land use pattern and lack of transit ridership south of White Oak, through Four Corners, and into downtown Silver Spring. Aside from the Kinsman Farm townhome community in Four Corners and the Burnt Mills Crossing townhome community in Burnt Mills, residential land use along the 3.5-mile stretch of Route 29 between White Oak and downtown Silver Spring consist entirely of detached single-family homes.

The only place with consistent ridership along this low-density stretch is the bus stop at University Boulevard in the Four Corners commercial district. All other bus stops on this corridor are used infrequently. It is not uncommon for a southbound Z8 to stop for passengers at University Boulevard, and then not stop again until Fenton Street, 1.8 miles to the south.

This ridership pattern is illustrated in the figures below obtained from WMATA Z Lines Priority Corridor Study Technical Memorandum 6. Note that nearly all the stops south of White Oak have extremely low boardings (yellow dots).

The charts below (from the same report) shows that the Z6 and Z8 buses often reach peak load by the time they arrive at Burnt Mills, with a slight dip at Four Corners/University Boulevard, and then the ridership plateaus until reaching downtown Silver Spring.

Summary: MetroExtra cannot provide the same benefits as BRT on Route 29

The Route 29 already has express bus service similar to MetroExtra. The existing limited-stop Z11 and Z13 routes are highly utilized and provide a fast bus trip from Greencastle/Briggs Chaney to downtown Silver Spring.

While bus stop consolidation for the Z6 and Z8 routes could certainly reduce the time buses are picking up passengers along Stewart Lane and Lockwood Drive, MetroExtra can do little (if anything) to speed buses on that route south of Oak Leaf Drive.

While low in density, the same stretch of Route 29 that sees the aforementioned “de facto express” bus service also sees the worst traffic jams. MetroExtra was not designed to address these delays caused by congestion. Therefore, MetroExtra is not a suitable or comprehensive solution for the problems facing buses on the Route 29 corridor.

As noted above, MetroExtra TSP could reduce the amount the times the buses are stopped at red lights, but it would not address the delays caused by sitting in the long lines of cars leading up to each intersection.

The only true solution for avoiding delays caused by congestion is to implement dedicated bus lanes, as proposed in the Better BRT plan.

By repeatedly suggesting that MetroExtra would be a cost-effective, appropriate, and adequate transit fix for Route 29, opponents of BRT are suggesting that it is acceptable for bus riders to get stuck in traffic even though there is a Better BRT solution.

If you would like to learn more about BRT opponent’s arguments in favor of MetroExtra, we encourage you to visit their website at www.metroextranow.org so you can make an informed decision on whether MetroExtra would be preferable to BRT.