Developing Dedicated Bus Lane Screening Criteria in Baltimore, Maryland

Abstract

Despite the increasing number of dedicated bus lanes in various cities across the United States, no clear screening criteria or thresholds have emerged for determining appropriate locations for these dedicated facilities. The Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration (MDOT MTA), in coordination with the Baltimore City Department of Transportation, conducted a detailed review of literature, selection of performance measures, and screening evaluation to identify candidate corridors for dedicated bus lanes and criteria to be used for future assessments. A national-level literature review and review of best practices was used to identify performance measures by which to assess the benefits and tradeoffs of installing dedicated bus lanes. As a result of this literature review and evaluation, design was undertaken on the selected corridor segments and implementation has started on the selected corridor segments. By the end of 2017 nearly 5.5 lane miles of dedicated bus lanes were in place, with 4.9 mi of full-time lanes with red paint (methyl methacrylate) and appropriate signing and markings, and 0.5 mi of peak-only lanes with signage and pavement markings but no paint. This effort was conducted in support of BaltimoreLink, MDOT MTA's overhaul and rebranding of its core bus service, which included redesigning the entire local and express bus system throughout the Baltimore region in 2017.