When the Montgomery County Council unanimously voted to select bus rapid transit as the preferred alternative to the Corridor Cities Transitway Jan. 17, it may have come as a surprise to some.

Less than three years ago, the County Council had a different vision in mind for the proposed 15.3-mile connection between Clarksburg with the Shady Grove Metro station. They favored light rail, and selected it by a vote of 6-3. But after a 2010 study showed that bus rapid transit would cost about $443 million (as opposed to $772 million for light rail) and need 10 fewer years to be built, the change is a “no-brainer,” in the words of Councilman Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) of Potomac.

“The community wasn’t exposed to it then,” he said, referring to the 2009 vote that favored light rail, which he didn’t vote for. “People are beginning to realize it is a very exciting option.”

I’m sure people such as politicians, urban planners, and obnoxious transportation columnists feel that way, but do most folks even know what bus rapid transit even is? I took a trip to the Shady Grove Metro station Thursday evening to find out if commuters had even heard of the concept.

Leaning against a fence for his bus, I saw Jake, of Rockville, and approached him, and asked if he knew what bus rapid transit was. The look on his face clearly read “Who are you and what are you talking about?” A similar, befuddled look fell on the faces Ben and Jennifer, who thought it was “One of those private buses.”

They didn’t know what I was talking about. So with that, I painted a scene of a beautiful public bus traveling in its very own lane, stations with organized queues, riders on wi-fi connections waving to the poor saps in car lanes as they whisk by. I harkened it to like riding a Metro train, sans the pesky track delays and cracked rails.

Then people lit up and everything clicked. Would they use it?

Jake, Man of Few Words, solemnly said yes.

As Clarksburg and Germantown residents, respectively, Ben and Jennifer would benefit a lot from the Corridor Cities Transitway. They would use it, so long as buses were frequent.

In fact, they both thought bus rapid transit sounded “pretty cool.”

Like Ben, Jake and Jennifer, I didn’t know what bus rapid transit was either, but like them, the County Council, Montgomery County Planning Board and other public entities, I slowly became a supporter. We’ll see if Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) feels the same when he is expected to announce his preferred alternative sometime this spring.

For more information of the Corridor Cities Transitway, including of routes, can be found online at http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/transportation/projects/corridor.shtm

nnourmohammadi@gazette.net