The Virginia Department of Transportation is launching a new program this fall that will allow buses traveling I-66, inside the Beltway, to use the shoulder when traffic is backed up.
The Bus-on-Shoulder pilot program, expected to start in mid-November, is part of a new strategy to improve the commuting experience of transit users in the delay-prone corridor. Transportation officials say it could help save bus riders time and improve the performance for many bus routes that are often stuck in traffic gridlock during the morning and evening rush hours— and increasingly during non-peak times too.
About 30 buses travel the corridor during each rush hour when traffic congestion is generally at its worst. During the pilot, those buses will be able to move to the shoulder lane when traffic speeds drop below 35 miles per hour. Buses using the shoulder will need to maintain a speed of 25 miles per hour.
The one-year pilot follows years of study on how to improve I-66. “Everybody knows that there is a lot of congestion there,” said Bud Siegel, the project manager with VDOT. He said bus-on -shoulder operations are a low-cost strategy the agency can employ to mitigate congestion.
The concept is not new to the region.VDOT began a similar operation along the Dulles Connector in 2000. Shoulder operations also have been successful in more than a dozen states across the country. The Minneapolis-St. Paul region has put nearly 300 shoulder-miles in operation for buses since its program began program 20 years ago. VDOT officials say the I-66 pilot is modeled after the Minnesota program.
