Montgomery taking a hard look at bus rapid transit Plans are on the books for a BRT route called the Corridor Cities Transitway, which would serve fast-growing northern Montgomery communities and businesses along Interstate 270 from Shady Grove to Clarksburg. But planners envision a more elaborate 98-mile network of enhanced bus service on 10 of the county's most congested roads, including Georgia Avenue from Glenmont to Olney; MD 355 (Rockville Pike/Wisconsin Avenue) from Rockville as far south as Friendship Heights; U.S. 29 (Colesville Road) from Burtonsville to downtown Silver Spring; and Veirs Mill Road from Rockville to Wheaton. There is no money to pay for the system, which preliminary estimates indicate would cost as much as $3 billion. Nor have decisions been made on how routes would be laid out. Buses could travel in existing medians across one or two lanes, curbside or in mixed traffic. The plan faces years of additional study, public hearings and regulatory sign-offs. It could be at least 2020 before construction begins on the first segment, which would most likely be Corridor Cities, MD 355 or U.S. 29. But the broad outlines of this proposal - approved by the county planning board in July, and tentatively scheduled for an adoption vote Nov. 26 - have emerged as the long-term transit prescriptive of choice. Debated in one form or another for decades, BRT is now regarded by many county leaders as the only rational way to address some of the worst commuter traffic in the country, where average peak travel times exceed 35 minutes. Roadway congestion is expected to grow by 70 percent between now and 2040. Light rail is a far more expensive alternative - $75 to $100 million a mile versus roughly $36 million a mile for the current BRT plan - and there is little room for new roads, advocates contend. Nobody's going to widen any more roads, or build another Wisconsin Avenue or Georgia Avenue. You have to figure out how to take advantage of the environment you have," said council member Marc Elrich (D-At-Large), who has spent several years championing BRT. Bus rapid transit is rooted in the notion that if you take away a lane for cars on a congested road and set it aside for attractive, light-rail-like buses, some motorists will abandon their cars. Soon, roads that were carrying one or two people per automobile will be moving groups of 200 to 500 per bus, and traffic improves. County planners are working out exact numbers, but they estimate that an exclusive bus lane on MD 355 from the Beltway to Western Avenue, for example, could move about 600 more people an hour than car traffic in a general travel lane, based on projected ridership in 2040.