Affordable and accessible public transportation is important for an urban setting, and part of having access is convenience. In Prince George’s County, Maryland, officials know the county wasn’t providing that as well as it needed to.
At a Department of Public Works and Transportation garage in Forestville, county, state and federal leaders hoped to signal to residents that will be changing.
“Improving Prince George’s access to mass transportation is one of this administration’s proud priorities, and transportation is only one area where our administration has made tremendous progress,” said County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.
County employees went about riding The Bus, the county’s public bus system, and talked to riders about what was working and what wasn’t.
“The schedules have been adjusted also to include an enhanced transportation on the weekends,” Alsobrooks said. “Really just improving the whole network of transportation that our seniors rely on and that our workforce relies on.
“We had outdated bus routes; we had outdated buses,” she added.
Some of the $25 million in federal funding that was being touted to help fund these improvements will also buy 20 new all-electric buses, on top of the 11 the county has already bought.
“We did listen to the public when they said that it was difficult to navigate if you don’t have a car in the county, and we want people again, to be able to get to work,” Alsobrooks said.
This includes, for example, people who work at the National Harbor. Alsobrooks said that she has heard from people who said that bus service for their routes ended before their shifts and that buses did not run late enough into the evenings.
“That was helpful to hear. And of course, that impacts safety. It’s inconvenient,” Alsobrooks said.
Over the next year, the project will also review the county’s entire public transportation system, including paratransit service, with a goal of implementing those changes over the next five years. And county leaders are promising more regular assessments in the future.
“We have heard the community’s concern about on time performance. We know that riders want faster, more reliable and efficient services,” said Michael Johnson, the county’s director of public works and transportation.
“Last year, there were no routes that were performing at 90% or better for on-time performance. In fact, only five routes achieved the 80% on-time performance goal. As of October of this year, Prince George’s County’s transit has doubled that with 10 routes operating at 80% on-time performance.”
