MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

[BeansTheCat]

Another plus that comes from free buses and is not often brought up is increased driver safety, and with it, improved retention and hiring. From the discourse that occurred during the recent re-negotiation of the Carmen's Union contract, it appeared that bus driver safety was the one of the highest priority areas, after only pay increases. Fare disputes seem to be the leading cause of conflicts with drivers (although I couldn't find a source for this), and removing them should make drivers much safer. I have no idea how the value of this could be quantified, but it's definitely not negligible. This is of course besides the fact that bus drivers are human and deserve as much of a safe and respectable working environment as anyone else, and a little extra investment could immediately help with that.

 

[sneijder]

Another plus that comes from free buses and is not often brought up is increased driver safety, and with it, improved retention and hiring. From the discourse that occurred during the recent re-negotiation of the Carmen's Union contract, it appeared that bus driver safety was the one of the highest priority areas, after only pay increases. Fare disputes seem to be the leading cause of conflicts with drivers (although I couldn't find a source for this), and removing them should make drivers much safer. I have no idea how the value of this could be quantified, but it's definitely not negligible. This is of course besides the fact that bus drivers are human and deserve as much of a safe and respectable working environment as anyone else, and a little extra investment could immediately help with that.

not only that, but free buses = greater ridership = more people waiting for the bus at stops and riding on the bus. People are less likely to assault bus drivers/commit crimes when a bunch of people are around and watching. That makes the on-bus and bus-stop experience safer for everyone else.

 

[Riverside]

Dwell times per passenger went down, but the free fares also stimulated ridership, which made it basically a wash.

View attachment 54269

View attachment 54270

https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/file/2022/03/Route28_Report_FINAL.pdf

Good point. Looks like the T's measure of dwell time per passenger went down 23%. Basically, I think they're saying absolute dwell times stayed about the same, but all while ridership on the 28 went up 38%. I'd say that's still a big win, but slightly different than what I was saying before.

Also, I rode the 28 a few times near the start of the pilot (not my usual route). Pretty regularly, people would still line up to get on only at the front door, because that's what they were used to or that's what all the other buses do. Maybe that got better as the pilot went on. But that's another reason to just make all the buses free, instead of picking and choosing some. If some buses still cost a fare, then some people will still be lining up at the front door when they don't have to, or trying to tap in while the bus driver tries to explain they don't have to. If we make the whole thing simple and consistent ("No fares, just get on"), people will get in faster.

Aha yes, this was it, thank you both! And yeah, even if dwell times didn’t necessarily improve in certain ways, the increased ridership is an obvious winner, IMO.

It’s also possible that the 28 is a bit of a special case, and that lower ridership routes — maybe even very-high-but-not-28-high ridership routes — might see dwell improvements.

 

[Koopzilla24]

I asked this question to the 2.0 thread because there are two of the new readers on buses but they are both near the front but I also asked the MBTA. The official response was:

Pretty, pretty lame. If I had to venture a guess as to why it probably is because they cannot afford to have people do spot checks for back door payment on the buses.

They need to wait until the new Charlie Cards that work with the fare readers are implemented. Riders still overwhelmingly use Charlie Cards over tap to pay and doing all door boarding on buses would just be a free pass for Charlie Card users to fare evade unless they have a massive fare enforcement presence. This isn't a concern on the Green Line because all door boarding and just not paying fare has been the norm for years and now with the tap readers it's all door boarding with some people paying fares.

 

[AndrewOnTheMBTA]

Drove by the center-bus-lane section along Seaver and Columbus on a venture out of Eastie to JP, and it doesn't slow cars on Columbus at all, while getting a steady ridership and keeping a nice pace.

The look of the stations came out nicely. In a VERY perfect world it'd extend down Blue Hill Ave and be light rail, but this does better for now!

 

[KCasiglio]

Drove by the center-bus-lane section along Seaver and Columbus on a venture out of Eastie to JP, and it doesn't slow cars on Columbus at all, while getting a steady ridership and keeping a nice pace.

The look of the stations came out nicely. In a VERY perfect world it'd extend down Blue Hill Ave and be light rail, but this does better for now!

Shortly after it was implemented the class I was in at the time was led on a guided tour by someone in BTD. We rode them outbound then walked inbound and talked to people as we went. The only complaint we heard was the McDonalds drive-through would back up into the road and block traffic now that it's single lane. This, imo, is better framed as "should there be a drive through here" rather than "the bus lane created this problem". It is a wonderful piece of infrastructure.

EDIT: I also want to add I've driven it twice while delivering for instacart on the weekends and did not find it burdensome or confusing, including that one of those deliveries was on Coloumbus.

 

[HelloBostonHi]

T Updates Routing for Bus 66 Through Harvard Bus Tunnel - Streetsblog Massachusetts

The MBTA has started routing its Route 66 buses – one of its key bus routes – through the Harvard Bus Tunnel instead of using the surface streets through Harvard Square. The new routing offers a more direct, weather-protected transfer between the 66 and the Red Line, and bypasses several traffic...

mass.streetsblog.org

Hadn't heard about this change, according to NEtransit this is the first time since 2004 the 66 has been in the Harvard tunnel.

In June 1998, Harvard-bound buses began operating through the Harvard Sq. bus tunnel (instead of congested Harvard Sq. surface). In June 2004, buses returned to the surface routing to accommodate the operation of CNG buses on Route 66.

 

[737900er]

T Updates Routing for Bus 66 Through Harvard Bus Tunnel - Streetsblog Massachusetts

The MBTA has started routing its Route 66 buses – one of its key bus routes – through the Harvard Bus Tunnel instead of using the surface streets through Harvard Square. The new routing offers a more direct, weather-protected transfer between the 66 and the Red Line, and bypasses several traffic...

mass.streetsblog.org

Hadn't heard about this change, according to NEtransit this is the first time since 2004 the 66 has been in the Harvard tunnel.

I thought they would wait until the 71 and 73 were out of the upper busway to do it, but glad to see it finally happen.

 

[sean99090900]

Petitioners seek to blunt idea of a Columbia Rd. bus lane | Dorchester Reporter

A group of residents and merchants who oppose the idea of a dedicated center bus lane on Columbia Road have been gathering signatures this summer from like-minded people as they seek to pre-empt any official effort to add bus lanes to the 2.5 mile Dorchester-South Boston artery. The city of...

www.dotnews.com

 

[sean99090900]

Papadopoulos says his customers are also concerned and were eager to sign the petition. “No one had an inkling this was even being discussed,” he said. “This was an option that was in serious talks at City Hall, and when I brought it to their attention, everyone lost their minds. Everyone had the same reaction. It’s already bad enough as it is, this is going to make it worse.”

I think there's a lot of hand wringing over nothing but like, I entirely forgot that Columbia road was even getting center running bus lanes. I have been excitedly watching for news about the Blue Hill Ave and Columbus Ave/Tremont Street center lanes but don't remember seeing this one. Are people right that outreach has been particularly poor, or did I just merge this with Columbus Ave in my head lol

 

[bigeman312]

I think there's a lot of hand wringing over nothing but like, I entirely forgot that Columbia road was even getting center running bus lanes. I have been excitedly watching for news about the Blue Hill Ave and Columbus Ave/Tremont Street center lanes but don't remember seeing this one. Are people right that outreach has been particularly poor, or did I just merge this with Columbus Ave in my head lol

• Columbus Ave is scheduled to begin construction in 2025.
• Blue Hill Ave is scheduled to begin construction in 2026.

Any other bus infrastructure projects are smaller and/or not as far along. Columbia Rd, for example, is still in its fledgling proposal stages.

 

[sean99090900]

I see I see, hopefully it survives

 

[Teban54]

I think there's a lot of hand wringing over nothing but like, I entirely forgot that Columbia road was even getting center running bus lanes. I have been excitedly watching for news about the Blue Hill Ave and Columbus Ave/Tremont Street center lanes but don't remember seeing this one. Are people right that outreach has been particularly poor, or did I just merge this with Columbus Ave in my head lol

The publicity with Columbia Rd center-running bus lanes has certainly not felt quite right. Granted, I haven't checked much first-hand information recently outside of this forum, but the most recent update I could recall was that they weren't even including bus lanes at all in the Columbia Rd redesign, citing the 16 bus wasn't operated or used as frequently as Columbus Ave and BHA (which is BS). I'm pleasantly surprised by the news, but that's not a good look if it took a public feedback controversy for the news to reach transit nerds.

 

[TheRatmeister]

citing the 16 bus wasn't operated or used as frequently as Columbus Ave and BHA (which is BS).

That is true though. The 16 gets about half as many riders with lower peak loads than the 22, especially in comparison to the Columbus Ave section of the 22. And BHA is just such an unfair comparison I'm not even
going to bother, the 28 alone is double the ridership of the 16, adding in the 22 and 29 from earlier plus the 31 from Forest Hills and it's not even close.

That's not to say Columbia isn't an important bus corridor, it is, but comparatively it is and should be behind Washington St, Warren St, Columbus Ave, and BHA for major bus projects.

 

[Teban54]

That is true though. The 16 gets about half as many riders with lower peak loads than the 22, especially in comparison to the Columbus Ave section of the 22. And BHA is just such an unfair comparison I'm not even
going to bother, the 28 alone is double the ridership of the 16, adding in the 22 and 29 from earlier plus the 31 from Forest Hills and it's not even close.

That's not to say Columbia isn't an important bus corridor, it is, but comparatively it is and should be behind Washington St, Warren St, Columbus Ave, and BHA for major bus projects.

The elephant in the room is timeline for opportunity of improvements. Washington St and Warren St* have not been proposed for a road redesign and will probably not be anytime soon, whereas the City of Boston is already leading the Columbia Road Transportation Action Plan with or without bus priority. If bus lanes (especially center-running ones) are not put in right now together with the rest of the project, I suspect they never will.

Plus, the 16 receives identical tiers of service as the 22 in the BNRD. Center-running bus lanes would help just as many buses running on the 16 as they do on the 22.

* The southern half of Warren St is also quite narrow, to the extent where 4 travel lanes are probably out of question.

 

[sm89]

T Updates Routing for Bus 66 Through Harvard Bus Tunnel - Streetsblog Massachusetts

The MBTA has started routing its Route 66 buses – one of its key bus routes – through the Harvard Bus Tunnel instead of using the surface streets through Harvard Square. The new routing offers a more direct, weather-protected transfer between the 66 and the Red Line, and bypasses several traffic...

mass.streetsblog.org

Hadn't heard about this change, according to NEtransit this is the first time since 2004 the 66 has been in the Harvard tunnel.

To make this happen, they are reassigning route 66 to a different garage so that there is no longer a CNG issue with the tunnel.

 

[H2Osquare]

Watertown’s City Council approved their high level plan for Watertown Square over the summer. As part of the Plan (pg 27), they propose consolidating the Watertown Square bus terminal (59 and 71) across the river at Watertown Yard. The 70 would stay where it is.

 

[bigeman312]

Watertown’s City Council approved their high level plan for Watertown Square over the summer. As part of the Plan (pg 27), they propose consolidating the Watertown Square bus terminal (59 and 71) across the river at Watertown Yard. The 70 would stay where it is.View attachment 54959

This will be good for travel between West Cambridge and Watertown north of the River and Newton and Brighton south of the River.

What would be really great though would be:

• A busway on Mt Auburn between Fresh Pond Parkway and Watertown Square.
• Center-running bus lanes Galen Street from Watertown Square to Newton Corner.
• An extension of the 71 to Newton Corner.
• A Regional Rail station in Newton Corner.

This is a good start, though.

 

[FK4]

Man, I waited for almost half an hour for the 86 today. I dont know if those schedule upgrades have been made yet, I hope they haven't, because if they have, this is still not a service with frequency that will ever attract spur-of-the-moment riders. We need so much more investment in public transit, it's not even funny.

 

[as02143]

Man, I waited for almost half an hour for the 86 today. I dont know if those schedule upgrades have been made yet, I hope they haven't, because if they have, this is still not a service with frequency that will ever attract spur-of-the-moment riders. We need so much more investment in public transit, it's not even funny.

I think the schedule upgrades took effect two Sundays ago. The 86 to/from Allston is going to be hell once they cut the route at Harvard.