Tuesday, July 12, 2016

MCDOT Wins Five NACo Awards

 http://www.naco.org/

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) has won five Achievement Awards from the National Association of Counties for the following projects:

Bus Rapid Transit Corridor Advisory Committees
To bring Bus Rapid Transit to Montgomery County, MCDOT is working with the State of Maryland to plan service on three major corridors. MCDOT created Corridor Advisory Committees (CACs) comprised of area residents, businesses, community organizations and others to ensure community stakeholders have the opportunity to participate in the planning process. The CACs are advising MCDOT and the State throughout the decision process.

In response to a change in school start times, the Division of Traffic Engineering installed a control system that allows school zone flashers to be controlled remotely.

The Division of Parking Management created an interactive, online parking map that shows the address, times requiring payment, rate and payment options for every County owned parking facility. In addition, for locations with a parking availability system, the map shows the number of spaces available in real time.

To encourage use of Bikeshare by low income individuals living, working or attending job training/education in the County, MCDOT created the first suburban-based bikeshare network in the nation and the first bikeshare program specifically targeted to serve low income participants.  The program provides free membership, helmets and cycling safety training to those who are eligible.

The Division of Transit Services has improved nearly 3,000 bus stops to enhance safety and provide ADA accessibility. Transit developed an open source, inventory/database system that is cloud-based to make it accessible from anywhere and includes information on each bus stop covering work completed, expenses, maps and photographs.