Montgomery County, Maryland, has ambitious plans to build bus rapid transit (BRT)- type infrastructure throughout the County on some 160 miles of surface roads as rapidly as possible. The selection of this core network of BRT corridors, and some effort to envision what this system might look like, was assigned to a Task Force comprised of stakeholders and chaired by Mark Winston, appointed by the County Executive Ike Leggett. The basis of this network selection was work done by Parsons Brinckerhoff under contract to Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) which used a multi-criteria analysis that gave significant weight to future development potential along each corridor and the projected ridership in a 2040 scenario.

ITDP recommends a measured approach, in which one corridor, which can be built within the next three to five years, is identified as Phase I. Beyond Phase 1, a full BRT network in Montgomery County would include those corridors which will be realistic to build and operate within a ten to fifteen year period. Outside of these, we would recommend lighter bus treatments which would not constitute part of the BRT network.