MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

[Delvin4519]

Another issue with a corridor like Washington St to Roslindale is that, AFAIK, the different bus routes are not coordinated (maybe except 35 and 36). For most passengers, waiting 20 minutes for 2 buses back to back is much worse than waiting 10 minutes for one bus, even though they have the same combined capacity; and is not substantially better than a single bus route running every 20 minutes.

For the bus frequency map that shows Sunday service for today, I do not display coordinated frequencies for the 34, 34E, 35, or 36 bus, as the schedules are uncoordinated. As far as I know, the longest uncoordinated headway north of Roslindale Square towards Forest Hills is around 30 minutes at either the start or end of service on Sundays.

Uncoordinated schedule problems also affect the following:
* The B branch and the 57 bus between Packards Corner and Kenmore,
* The 39 and the E branch of the Green Line from Heath St. to Copley,
* The Silver Line 4 and 5 between Nubian and Oak Street W/South Cove,
* The Silver Line 1, 2, and 3 from SLW to South Station,
* The 23 and 28 in Roxbury, from Warren St. to Ruggles.
* The 89 and 101 in East Somerville from Winter Hill to Sullivan Station
* The 95 and 101 between Medford Square and Sullivan Station
* The 86 and 91 between Union Square Somerville and Sullivan Station
* The 108, 100, and 134 from Riverside Avenue to Wellington Station
* The 80 and the 94 from West Medford to Powderhouse Circle.
* The 99 and the 106 from Malden Center to Wellington Station via Main St. Everett.
* The 110 and 112 from eastern Everett to Wellington Station.
* The 99, 106, 110, and 112 from Sweetser Circle Everett to Wellington Station.
* The 60 and the 8 bus from Kenmore to Longwood Medical Area via Brookline Ave.
* The 47 and the 8 from Brookline Ave. LMA to Nubian via Ruggles.
* The 450 and the 455 from West Lynn Garage to Wonderland.

(The map below uses a modified color scale from the regular color code I use)

 

[FK4]

Another issue with a corridor like Washington St to Roslindale is that, AFAIK, the different bus routes are not coordinated (maybe except 35 and 36). For most passengers, waiting 20 minutes for 2 buses back to back is much worse than waiting 10 minutes for one bus, even though they have the same combined capacity; and is not substantially better than a single bus route running every 20 minutes.

How difficult would it be to coordinate them? Seems like that should be pretty easy. Feed all the ideal schedules into an equation and produce a schedule that promises a FH-Ros frequency of x?

 

[KCasiglio]

How difficult would it be to coordinate them? Seems like that should be pretty easy. Feed all the ideal schedules into an equation and produce a schedule that promises a FH-Ros frequency of x?

One would assume they have this very well figured out for the old colony CR lines, which all converge on a single track trough Quincy and Dorchester. Mixed traffic streets are of course less predictable/reliable, but they could certainly do better.

 

[Teban54]

How difficult would it be to coordinate them? Seems like that should be pretty easy. Feed all the ideal schedules into an equation and produce a schedule that promises a FH-Ros frequency of x?

Coordinating the 35 and 36 is already planned in the BNRD, as @alewife noted.

A possible concern I can see with coordinating the remaining routes (30, 34/E, 40, 50, 51, 37 that gets axed in BNRD) is that most of them have poor frequencies, so residents (especially transit-dependent ones) may have gotten accustomed to the current schedule and plan their activities around it. If the schedule changes are more than just a few minutes, it may be too disruptive to them and thus face backlash from locals. However, I think packaging it into a broader set of service changes like BNRD seems fair, as practically every route systemwide would face some changes anyway.

 

[FK4]

Coordinating the 35 and 36 is already planned in the BNRD, as @alewife noted.

A possible concern I can see with coordinating the remaining routes (30, 34/E, 40, 50, 51, 37 that gets axed in BNRD) is that most of them have poor frequencies, so residents (especially transit-dependent ones) may have gotten accustomed to the current schedule and plan their activities around it. If the schedule changes are more than just a few minutes, it may be too disruptive to them and thus face backlash from locals. However, I think packaging it into a broader set of service changes like BNRD seems fair, as practically every route systemwide would face some changes anyway.

I’m not a mathematician, but I think it’s probably pretty easy to build an equation that gives differing weights to preserving existing schedules vs coordinating multiple ones. With the number of bus lines, that should not be difficult to make certain slight adjustments to produce a slightly improved regularity in the corridor.

 

[Koopzilla24]

How difficult would it be to coordinate them? Seems like that should be pretty easy. Feed all the ideal schedules into an equation and produce a schedule that promises a FH-Ros frequency of x?

The main difficulty of coordinating routes on Washington Street is the unreliable traffic delay. During peak, from my experience, there's regularly up to 10min of deviation from schedule. It's worst on the 34, 34E, and 40 because of how much traffic from both Washington St in Dedham and Enneking PKWY are funneled right into a single lane before Metropolitan Ave. Then traffic through Ros Village at Poplar again hits a big delay spot that effects every route to Forest Hills though the 30 has it the least bad. There's not much to be done about Washington from Poplar to Enneking without removing street parking and extending bus lanes. In Ros Village all I can think of is going all-in on the loop. Make Poplar along Adams Park a busway only, have all other traffic go around to Corinth. Eliminate the weird light for the CR parking lot and make the one at the library be always flashing yellow unless a busway detection loop activates the red to release buses. Reverse the direction of Poplar between Washington and Florence and make the rest 2-way so there's no more straight across traffic conflict. Cummins Highway being a T intersection there is kind of annoying but maybe the light cycle could be coordinated with the bus releasing light so that it activates the green for Cummins as traffic is stopped from the library intersection. Otherwise it could be a flashing Yellow. None of this would be as good as the current dedicated pedestrian cycles at these intersection for pedestrian safety though. It's all quite a mess that an Orange Line extension would do a lot to solve.

 

[FK4]

The main difficulty of coordinating routes on Washington Street is the unreliable traffic delay. During peak, from my experience, there's regularly up to 10min of deviation from schedule. It's worst on the 34, 34E, and 40 because of how much traffic from both Washington St in Dedham and Enneking PKWY are funneled right into a single lane before Metropolitan Ave. Then traffic through Ros Village at Poplar again hits a big delay spot that effects every route to Forest Hills though the 30 has it the least bad. There's not much to be done about Washington from Poplar to Enneking without removing street parking and extending bus lanes. In Ros Village all I can think of is going all-in on the loop. Make Poplar along Adams Park a busway only, have all other traffic go around to Corinth. Eliminate the weird light for the CR parking lot and make the one at the library be always flashing yellow unless a busway detection loop activates the red to release buses. Reverse the direction of Poplar between Washington and Florence and make the rest 2-way so there's no more straight across traffic conflict. Cummins Highway being a T intersection there is kind of annoying but maybe the light cycle could be coordinated with the bus releasing light so that it activates the green for Cummins as traffic is stopped from the library intersection. Otherwise it could be a flashing Yellow. None of this would be as good as the current dedicated pedestrian cycles at these intersection for pedestrian safety though. It's all quite a mess that an Orange Line extension would do a lot to solve.

View attachment 47573

Removing parking between Beech and Poplar would go a long way.

 

[kdmc]

So I read the BNRD and executive summary, and I skimmed the BNRD final report, and for the life of me I can't figure out: what exactly does the "T" prefix on some the new bus routes mean? I get the sense that it means they're imprtant and frequent, but it doesn't seem to exactly map to that criteria...?

(Insert Andy meme: I don't know what's going on and I'm too afraid to ask at this point)

 

[TheRatmeister]

So I read the BNRD and executive summary, and I skimmed the BNRD final report, and for the life of me I can't figure out: what exactly does the "T" prefix on some the new bus routes mean? I get the sense that it means they're imprtant and frequent, but it doesn't seem to exactly map to that criteria...?

(Insert Andy meme: I don't know what's going on and I'm too afraid to ask at this point)

From what I understand it's meant to replace/simplify the "Key bus routes" designation to specify which routes have 15 minutes or better headways at all times.

 

[bostonbyfoot]

Brookline to Install Bus-Only Lanes On Route 9 Bottleneck This Year - Streetsblog Massachusetts

This story originally appeared on Brookline.News, an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to providing comprehensive local news coverage for Brookline. After years of debate, Brookline and the MBTA have finalized an agreement to try out a bus-only lane for a year on a busy stretch...

mass.streetsblog.org

The MBTA will paint one lane red in each direction between Station Street and the Boston border and label them for buses only.

The project was designed to help several MBTA bus lines, the 60, 65 and 66, speed up in what the transit agency says is a major bottleneck along their routes.

 

[Teban54]

From what I understand it's meant to replace/simplify the "Key bus routes" designation to specify which routes have 15 minutes or better headways at all times.

This is correct. I'll add that the Key Bus Routes' frequencies are actually better than advertised: if we treat the Remix map's listed headways verbatim, all Key Bus Routes will have 11-min frequencies or better from 6am to 10pm. It's only during the early morning (5-6am) and late night (10pm-1am) that they become 15-min frequencies.

While many existing Key Bus Routes already achieve such service standards, this will be a game-changer for many corridors that received this designation for the first time (some of which offer brand new connections): T7, T8, T9, T12, T16, T31, T47, T70, T96, T101, T104, T109, T110.

(Three other corridors will receive 15-min service standards with two coordinated routes, running 12.5-min headways during daytime: 35/36, 220/222, 442/455.)

 

[JeffDowntown]

This is correct. I'll add that the Key Bus Routes' frequencies are actually better than advertised: if we treat the Remix map's listed headways verbatim, all Key Bus Routes will have 11-min frequencies or better from 6am to 10pm. It's only during the early morning (5-6am) and late night (10pm-1am) that they become 15-min frequencies.

While many existing Key Bus Routes already achieve such service standards, this will be a game-changer for many corridors that received this designation for the first time (some of which offer brand new connections): T7, T8, T9, T12, T16, T31, T47, T70, T96, T101, T104, T109, T110.

(Three other corridors will receive 15-min service standards with two coordinated routes, running 12.5-min headways during daytime: 35/36, 220/222, 442/455.)

I really hope the 442/455 are not being pitched as "coordinated" high frequency routes. The actual routes only touch at Lynn Station and Wonderland. Otherwise the routes through Lynn are blocks apart and you either access one or the other but certainly don't flip between them (unless you are in the minute location half-way between them). If that is being called a "frequency corridor" it is a scam.

 

[alewife]

I really hope the 442/455 are not being pitched as "coordinated" high frequency routes. The actual routes only touch at Lynn Station and Wonderland. Otherwise the routes through Lynn are blocks apart and you either access one or the other but certainly don't flip between them (unless you are in the minute location half-way between them). If that is being called a "frequency corridor" it is a scam.

The BNRD changes the 455’s route between Wonderland and Lynn to match the 442’s through Point of Pines. That’s the portion getting the “frequent service” designation.

 

[ritchiew]

Brookline to Install Bus-Only Lanes On Route 9 Bottleneck This Year - Streetsblog Massachusetts

This story originally appeared on Brookline.News, an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to providing comprehensive local news coverage for Brookline. After years of debate, Brookline and the MBTA have finalized an agreement to try out a bus-only lane for a year on a busy stretch...

mass.streetsblog.org

Really barely related, but the globe recently had a pictures of this section of Route 9, from 1915. This intersection at Harvard St used to have a streetcar stop and quite a lot going on. Almost every building in the pictures was demolished to make way for a widened, 7-or-8 lanes of asphalt. And it's still considered a bottleneck.

 

[Teban54]

Really barely related, but the globe recently had a pictures of this section of Route 9, from 1915. This intersection at Harvard St used to have a streetcar stop and quite a lot going on. Almost every building in the pictures was demolished to make way for a widened, 7-or-8 lanes of asphalt. And it's still considered a bottleneck.

View attachment 47672

That streetcar stop looks much nicer than most of the ones today, and all of the Silver Line Washington bus stops. It might also be just the feel of how it blends into the surroundings, including both the road infrastructure and the architecture.

 

[Riverside]

So I read the BNRD and executive summary, and I skimmed the BNRD final report, and for the life of me I can't figure out: what exactly does the "T" prefix on some the new bus routes mean? I get the sense that it means they're imprtant and frequent, but it doesn't seem to exactly map to that criteria...?

(Insert Andy meme: I don't know what's going on and I'm too afraid to ask at this point)

Beyond the literal meaning that others have explained, I think they literally chose T (instead of Frequent or Rapid or eXpress) because... it's the T. But yeah, it indicates "15 min or better all day every day".

 

[FK4]

Really barely related, but the globe recently had a pictures of this section of Route 9, from 1915. This intersection at Harvard St used to have a streetcar stop and quite a lot going on. Almost every building in the pictures was demolished to make way for a widened, 7-or-8 lanes of asphalt. And it's still considered a bottleneck.

View attachment 47672

Careful with precision there. That area was not demolished for the highway, it was demolished for urban renewal projects on both sides of Rt 9.

My babysitter as a kid grew up in a triple-decker on Juniper Street, and experienced firsthand the eminent domain that cleared out this entire area. She was bitter about decades later, and understandably. South of Washington was all homes, north was more former industrial stuff, other than the shops that lined the north side of Washington.

The widening of the road was a byproduct, certainly representative of the autocentric thinking of the time, but the reason these projects happened was not about transportation, it was about clearing out undesirables and increasing the tax coffers of municipalities (and of course, the jobs creations and lucrative contracts that went to developers). And of course, it’s more complex than that, and there were some good intentions as well.

Federal Housing Act of 1949 did more damage than any of the highway stuff.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Really barely related, but the globe recently had a pictures of this section of Route 9, from 1915. This intersection at Harvard St used to have a streetcar stop and quite a lot going on. Almost every building in the pictures was demolished to make way for a widened, 7-or-8 lanes of asphalt. And it's still considered a bottleneck.

View attachment 47672

This view today

https://imgur.com/a/oSZKSBV

 

[Charlie_mta]

This view today

https://imgur.com/a/oSZKSBV

I think I prefer the 1915 view, LOL.

 

[lainpimicaja]

Maybe we're slowly starting to get back to 1915 with projects like Columbus Ave?