City of Frederick Alderman Carol Krimm has been tapped by the Transportation Planning Board to co-chair a task force created to identify promising locations in the region to operate buses on the shoulders of highways known as “Bus On Shoulder” (BOS).
CONTACT: Susan Harding, Public Information Officer, 301-600-1385
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Krimm Tapped to Co-Chair “Bus On Shoulder” Task Force by Transportation Planning Board
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Frederick, MD -- City of Frederick Alderman Carol Krimm has been tapped by the Transportation Planning Board to co-chair a task force created to identify promising locations in the region to operate buses on the shoulders of highways known as “Bus On Shoulder” (BOS).
As requested by the Transportation Planning Board (TPB), this task force will bring together the stakeholder agencies, including transit operators, departments of transportation, and local jurisdictions, to review local and national experience with BOS and discuss the potential applicability in the region. The task force will oversee a scoping of potential locations for BOS, including a high-level benefit –cost analysis of implementing BOS along selected corridors and bus routes.
Alderman Krimm, who presently serves on the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Transportation Planning Board and the Frederick Area Committee for Transportation (FACT) said, “I look forward to working with regional transportation planners and elected officials to implement this cost effective method of relieving traffic congestion on the region's major highway arteries."
If the task force finds that it would be safe, practical and advantageous to do so, express and local transit buses that operate on the region’s highways could be allowed, in select locations and under certain driving conditions, to use road shoulders to bypass highly congested regular traffic lanes. If feasible, MTA said it could be a way to move more people more efficiently using infrastructure that is already in place.
Final approval and implementation of such operations would come from the state departments of transportation that have jurisdiction over highways, and both the federal government and the agencies that operate the region’s bus transit services would also have to agree to such operations.
Co-chairing with Alderman Krimm will be Mr. Chris Zimmerman, an Arlington County Council member. The first meeting of the newly formed task force will be held on Wednesday, October 17th at the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board located in Washington, DC.
For additional information on “Bus On Shoulder” and other transportation news, visit http://www.mwcog.org/transportation/
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