Boston's Comprehensive Transportation Plan Unveiled 3/7/2017

Re: Oak Square Bus Service

It's certainly true that when proposing long bus routes, I haven't been looking at current traffic speeds.

I think this suggests that we ought to be looking at aggressively adding bus lanes before we do a massive bus network redesign, because whether the buses get stuck in traffic affects whether we can have long routes for good anywhere to anywhere connectivity, or whether we're going to be permanently stuck with a transit system that's only really good for connectivity to downtown (which also wouldn't help with crowding at downtown transfer stations).

Google Maps traffic, when set for typical traffic at 8:00 AM on Monday, shows that the eastbound segment from about Fairbanks St to Allston's Union Sq is orange (which seems to be the closest color to the fast green, but it does indeed seem to be clear that 64 is on faster roads than 57 west of Allston's Union Sq).

57 is an existing key bus route, so it probably would be reasonable to prioritize it for bus lanes.

The segment of 57's route from Allston's Union Sq to Oak Sq generally seems to consist of one travel lane in each direction, one parking lane on each side, and bike lanes between the parking lanes and automobile travel lanes. That means that the only way to get bus lanes would be to take the parking lanes, but the bike lanes are an extra complication that Everett's Upper Broadway bus lane doesn't have, and it looks like making the 57 work well would require taking parking lanes in the afternoon, which might have more impact on businesses than taking parking lanes in the morning.
 
Re: Oak Square Bus Service

Joel N. Weber II said:
It's certainly true that when proposing long bus routes, I haven't been looking at current traffic speeds.

I think this suggests that we ought to be looking at aggressively adding bus lanes before we do a massive bus network redesign, because whether the buses get stuck in traffic affects whether we can have long routes for good anywhere to anywhere connectivity, or whether we're going to be permanently stuck with a transit system that's only really good for connectivity to downtown (which also wouldn't help with crowding at downtown transfer stations).
Click to expand...

I'd definitely agree with that.

Google Maps traffic, when set for typical traffic at 8:00 AM on Monday, shows that the eastbound segment from about Fairbanks St to Allston's Union Sq is orange (which seems to be the closest color to the fast green, but it does indeed seem to be clear that 64 is on faster roads than 57 west of Allston's Union Sq).
Click to expand...

Anecdotally, PM is worse, if you take a look at say...5:35PM on a Wednesday in Google Maps, the whole length is orange with a chunk of red in the section I'm mentioning.


57 is an existing key bus route, so it probably would be reasonable to prioritize it for bus lanes.

The segment of 57's route from Allston's Union Sq to Oak Sq generally seems to consist of one travel lane in each direction, one parking lane on each side, and bike lanes between the parking lanes and automobile travel lanes. That means that the only way to get bus lanes would be to take the parking lanes, but the bike lanes are an extra complication that Everett's Upper Broadway bus lane doesn't have, and it looks like making the 57 work well would require taking parking lanes in the afternoon, which might have more impact on businesses than taking parking lanes in the morning.
Click to expand...


Regarding Brighton Center, I'd suggest a rush hour bus lane inbound from Lake St to Market/Chestnut Hill. This will take ~2 blocks of unrestricted street parking along with a couple more blocks of 2-hour street spots.

Outbound actually already has a bus/right turn only lane from Academy Hill Road to Market/Chestnut Hill. Extending that to the Cambridge St/Washington St intersection will only take about 10 2-hour street spots.

Those suggestions are both because I think it's minor enough that the grumbling won't be enough to derail the effort, and because that's most of the Brighton Center congestion for the 57. Once you get past the center in either direction, it's typically pretty smooth sailing until you get close to Union Square.

It's worth noting there's 2 poorly marked free public 2-hour lots in Brighton Center as it is, one on Market and one next to BPD on Washington. It might be worth taking a look at their evening utilization to see if there's actually any real inconvenience to motorists by losing a few 2-hour spots in the evening. (I never paid enough attention to notice).
 
Re: Oak Square Bus Service

millerm277 said:
It's worth noting there's 2 poorly marked free public 2-hour lots in Brighton Center as it is, one on Market and one next to BPD on Washington. It might be worth taking a look at their evening utilization to see if there's actually any real inconvenience to motorists by losing a few 2-hour spots in the evening. (I never paid enough attention to notice).
Click to expand...

What I've never investigated is how much the lot next to BPD empties out in the evening. During the day, there's a lot of police officers leaving their cars in that lot.
 
Re: Washington St / Market St / Chestnut Hill Ave intersection

I'm wondering if instead of focusing exclusively on exclusive bus lanes, it might make sense to focus on complete turn lanes, on the theory that if cars can use red time to split from one to two or three lanes, more cars should be able to travel through the intersection during a given amount of green time, and that should reduce queue length (as long as it doesn't induce more total vehicles being operated).

Perhaps phase 1 (or is this phase 2 given that the route 57 key bus improvement project already made some changes to this area?) could focus on the Waldo Terrace to Argus Place segment of Washington St:

  • Permanently and completely eliminate the five or so parking spaces just west of Waldo Terrace on the north side of Washington St so that the bus / right turn lane can exist for the full length of the road from Waldo Terrace to Market St. (I suspect the confusing signage and road markings that would come from allowing off peak parking aren't worth the confusion.)
  • Restripe the left turn lane so that it exists in its full width for the full length from Academy Hill Road to Chestnut Hill Ave.
  • Convert the parking on the south side of Washington St between Baldwin Pl and Chestnut Hill Ave to a bus / right turn lane. (Is there any problem with the turn radius if right turns happen from this lane? Google Street View doesn't make it seem like the Washington to Chestnut Hill Ave right turn is any significantly tighter than the Washington to Market right turn, but this isn't a particularily precise study of the possible issue.)
  • Convert the bus stop between Argus Pl and Baldwin Pl on the south side of Washington St to bus / right turn lane, and move the bus stop to the east side of the Chestnut Hill Ave intersection.
  • Extend the Washington to Market left turn lane so that its full width exists from Argus Pl to Market St.
  • Given that the Opp Waldo Place stop would be absurdly close to the just east of Chestnut Hill Ave stop, convert the Opp Waldo Place stop to parking.
  • Possibly retime the light for a shorter cycle; a car heading toward the Washington / Market / Chestnut Hill Ave intersection that is just east of Waldo Terrace or just west of Argus Pl when the light turns from red to green should probably not quite make it through the light on the same cycle, to maximize the opportunity for turning cars to use the red time to get out of the straight through lane to maximize how much the green time for the straight through lane actually carries cars through the intersection.
 
Re: Washington St / Market St / Chestnut Hill Ave intersection

  • Alternatively, perhaps eliminating the parking on the south side of Washington St between Academy Hill Rd and Waldo Terrace and not converting the Opp Waldo Terrace bus stop to parking would make sense, to free up enough space to extend the left turn lane all the way to Waldo Terrace.
  • There seems to be only one parking space on the south side of Washington St between Dighton St and Argus Pl because of the fire hydrant and crosswalk; maybe that should turn into a bus lane.
  • Letting bikes use the bus lanes in this area would probably make sense. Immediately to the east of Chestnut Hill Ave, it looks like Washington St is narrow enough that having three westbound automobile lanes (bus/right, straight, and left) plus an eastbound travel lane plus an eastbound bus stop probably doesn't leave enough space for sidewalks plus cycle tracks. However, I think building an eastbound cycle track to the east of that potential new bus stop location is likely possible, and it looks like Washington St has some extra width to the west of Chestnut Hill Ave that might support protected cycle tracks in both directions.
 
Re: Washington St / Market St / Chestnut Hill Ave intersection

Is there any need to allow Washington St to Chestnut Hill Ave left turns at all? If all the traffic that might want to make that turn that could take Winship St instead, getting rid of that left turn lane might free up space to have protected cycle tracks through the area. (Likewise, prohibiting left turns from Washington St to Academy Hill Rd might make sense.)
 
Re: Oak Square Bus Service

Joel N. Weber II said:
  • Bus service which might be designated as 57C (for Cambridge) in its less ambitious version, which would follow 57's route from Oak Square to Allston's Union Square, and then largely follow 64's route to Cambridge's Central Square, though for trips heading to Central Square, the bus should follow 70's route through Cambridge and not 64's. In the more ambitious version, continue to Somerville's Union Square, Sullivan, go past the casino, continue along Beacham, and then somewhere around the busway transition onto 117's route continuing to Wonderland, and call the whole thing 117.
Click to expand...

On further thought, if 110 were redirected to Sullivan instead of Wellington for Sullivan's better bus connections into Cambridge, it probably would make the most sense to run 110 onto 57C and 117 onto 71. The two routes would then overlap from probably the Beacham St / Broadway intersection in Everett through Sullivan Sq and Somerville's Union Sq.
 
Re: Eliminating Gas Stations

If Boston is serious about reducing emissions, maybe we could set a goal of celebrating the 15 year anniversary of the Nissan Leaf's introduction in 2025 by closing the last gas station within the city limits?
 
I think the market will do a good job of seeing gas stations replaced with buildings--a lot of projects in 021xx are gas stations being torn out in favor of hotel, residential, or mixed-use.
 
Re: Washington St / Market St / Chestnut Hill Ave intersection

Joel N. Weber II said:
Is there any need to allow Washington St to Chestnut Hill Ave left turns at all? If all the traffic that might want to make that turn that could take Winship St instead, getting rid of that left turn lane might free up space to have protected cycle tracks through the area. (Likewise, prohibiting left turns from Washington St to Academy Hill Rd might make sense.)
Click to expand...

The former makes sense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top