Weighing In on Rockville Pike

Friday is the last day to submit written testimony to the Rockville Planning Commission on the city's draft plan for Rockville Pike redevelopment.

Written testimony should be hand-delivered to the city's Planning Commission, c/o Long Range Planning, CPDS, 111 Maryland Ave., Rockville, MD 20850 or emailed to rockvillepikeplan@rockvillemd.gov. Include your name, address and, if applicable, affiliation.

The Planning Commission held two nights of public hearings on the draft plan in March. .

A recent Greater Greater Washington post about the pike, by Lee Epstein, is generating conversation (93 comments as of 10:55 a.m. Wednesday).

Epstein argues that bus rapid transit—not Metrorail—is the way to rescue the city's main commercial thoroughfare from traffic gridlock and to bring visitors to the pike without bringing their cars.

Dedicated bus lanes are an integral part of . A 120-mile bus rapid transit system proposed for construction in median strips of heavily-traveled county roads .

"This sort of transformation will be necessary if Montgomery County is to continue to grow and prosper," Epstein writes. "Without such transformation, the county and the Pike specifically risk stagnation."