Proposals Outlined To Improve, Expand Howard Bus Service

Howard County should add more buses to the county's busiest routes and expand service to future high-growth areas, particularly Columbia Town Center and Fort Meade, according to a consultant's report presented Tuesday.

The report, prepared by Bethesda-based KFH Group and delivered before the county's Public Transportation Board, provides preliminary recommendations aimed at sparking residents' comments.

"We took a stab at it partially to get public and board reaction," said Fred Fravel, a vice president of KFH Group, adding that residents have 60 days to comment on the report. "The whole point here is to get some ideas in front of everybody and get some feedback on that."

Total ridership on Howard County buses increased from 863,714 in fiscal 2007 to 940,108 in fiscal 2008, according to data provided by the county.

And as gas prices increase, baby boomers stay active longer and development continues to spread through Howard, the demand for public transportation is likely to increase even more, officials said.

"There's a lot of development yet to come," Fravel said, mentioning plans for Columbia's downtown and the pending arrival of thousands of workers at Fort Meade in 2011 because of the Pentagon's base realignment process. "Some of that new service, we really need some time for development to fill in."

There is no Howard bus service to Fort Meade, which is just across the county line in Anne Arundel. Howard officials would have to arrange for the buses to have access to the secure Army post.

In addition to the Fort Meade initiative, KFH's report lays out several phases for expanding and improving bus service at a cost of about $32 million, some of which would come from county coffers and some from the state.

The consultants recommend that the first step be increasing the frequency of buses on the busy green route, which runs between the Mall in Columbia and Howard Community College through several villages. Red, yellow and brown routes elsewhere in the county would also be restructured or receive more frequent bus service.

The report provides no timetable. "I think it will end up being more of a 10-year plan, at least," said Ben Pickar, planning supervisor for Howard's Division of Transportation Planning.

The KFH report also lays out a variety of other public transportation problems -- for example, the lack of a central transfer point in Columbia Town Center and the fact that the buses are managed by a third party, making it difficult for residents to get complaints addressed immediately by county officials.

The report asks whether it might be time for Howard to create a public transportation department that operates outside the Department of Planning and Zoning. It also proposes two options for Town Center shuttles: one that runs all day and has an annual operating cost of about $1.03 million, and one that runs only during mid-day and has an annual cost of $121,000.

To view the full report, go tohttp://www.howardcountymd.govand click on the link near the bottom of the page that says "Interim Transit Report."