MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

Delvin4519 said:
That's why the estimate for reaching 1,725/1,859 is roughly about 3 - 4 months after December 2024, not a full year. April 6th, 2025 seems like an excellent time since 1 more class's worth of ~30 trainees after the current one will pretty much fill the entire roster of 1,859 in.
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Hence Phase 2 in early 2025 where they're gonna need a significant number of new drivers to support service changes, unlike for Phase 1. December 2024 isn't the start of full BNRD only Phase 1 which is much more of a resource re-allocation than an expansion and does not require the full roster.
 
Delvin4519 said:
Generally, you want the bus system to either operate in a grid pattern or a radial pattern, and avoid having bus routes duplicating subway lines, and limiting instances of multiple bus routes on the same street (of course a radial bus network would have some unavoidable trunk&branch routes). This is how a transit system is legible, easy to understand, and runs the maximum amount of frequency.
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That's the difference between an ideal model system and the actual physical and human geography of a location. The activity and development patterns match the physical geography -- which means that there's a "former OL" activity spine, Columbus Ave spine, and a Warren and Blue Hill Ave spine.
 
Bus lanes going in on 2nd Street in Chelsea and Everett for the 104, which is getting a major frequency boost in December.

MBTA Begins Bus Lane Work for NEW Route 104 Bus Service through Everett and Chelsea | News | MBTA

Official website of the MBTA -- schedules, maps, and fare information for Greater Boston's public transportation system, including subway, commuter rail, bus routes, and boat lines.
www.mbta.com www.mbta.com

Not only will this serve the 104, but it will also benefit the eventual SL3 extension:
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New conceptual design is out for the Blue Hill Ave. center-running bus lanes:

mass.streetsblog.org

City of Boston, MBTA Release Refined Designs for Blue Hill Avenue Transit Project - Streetsblog Massachusetts

The City of Boston and MBTA have released new conceptual designs for the Blue Hill Avenue transit project and will host three open houses in Mattapan and Dorchester in the coming month to vet the refined plan with neighbors and bus riders. The new concept-level designs are the first step towards...
mass.streetsblog.org mass.streetsblog.org

PDF of the design
 
devnull said:
New conceptual design is out for the Blue Hill Ave. center-running bus lanes:

mass.streetsblog.org

City of Boston, MBTA Release Refined Designs for Blue Hill Avenue Transit Project - Streetsblog Massachusetts

The City of Boston and MBTA have released new conceptual designs for the Blue Hill Avenue transit project and will host three open houses in Mattapan and Dorchester in the coming month to vet the refined plan with neighbors and bus riders. The new concept-level designs are the first step towards...
mass.streetsblog.org mass.streetsblog.org

PDF of the design
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I'm not sure every T-Mobile needed to be labeled but some details of the project are nice to have. The American Legion Hwy alternate seems rather silly, those stops would be less than 500ft apart. For comparison Allston St and Warren St on the B branch, two stops that I would say are generally considered to be absurdly close together, are around 800ft apart. But apart from those, and actually disclosing the stop names, everything seems pretty complete so I'll add it to the map.
 
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TheRatmeister said:
I'm not sure every T-Mobile needed to be labeled but some details of the project are nice to have. The American Legion Hwy alternate seems rather silly, those stops would be less than 500ft apart. For comparison Allston St and Warren St on the B branch, two stops that I would say are generally considered to be absurdly close together, are around 800ft apart. But apart from those, and actually disclosing the stop names, everything seems pretty complete so I'll add it to the map.
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And yes, changing the map to fit this is a royal pain, in case you were wondering.
 
Since the PDF is extremely slow to open because of all the layers, here's a full-scale (12k x 3.6k) jpg copy, plus the same file split into thirds to be viewable here.

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Now, some actual thoughts:
  • Overall, this looks really good. Stop spacing seems mostly reasonable, and it's amazing to see red lanes the whole length with no gaps.
  • The stop locations aren't quite at major cross streets - Woodrow, Morton, Talbot/Harvard, American Legion (except with the weird alternate), and Seaver. While most transfers will be okay (you might be on the bus a bit longer, but the stops are together in the median), the 28-21 transfer will suck if you're trying to get to Morton Street east of BHA, and walking distance to places on the major cross streets will be longer.
  • Stop spacing is a bit on the long side - averaging about 1,400 feet which is decent, but some distances are 1,800 or more. I would have one additional stop at American Legion (with the next stop moved south to Talbot) and one additional in Franklin Field South.
  • This is really going to establish Warren Street as a bottleneck. The northern section is wide enough, but the southern part isn't. I think having a one-way pair for buses - NB on BHA and SB on Warren - between Grove Hall and Quincy will be the way to do it.
 
The EGE said:
Now, some actual thoughts:
  • Overall, this looks really good. Stop spacing seems mostly reasonable, and it's amazing to see red lanes the whole length with no gaps.
  • The stop locations aren't quite at major cross streets - Woodrow, Morton, Talbot/Harvard, American Legion (except with the weird alternate), and Seaver. While most transfers will be okay (you might be on the bus a bit longer, but the stops are together in the median), the 28-21 transfer will suck if you're trying to get to Morton Street east of BHA, and walking distance to places on the major cross streets will be longer.
  • Stop spacing is a bit on the long side - averaging about 1,400 feet which is decent, but some distances are 1,800 or more. I would have one additional stop at American Legion (with the next stop moved south to Talbot) and one additional in Franklin Field South.
  • This is really going to establish Warren Street as a bottleneck. The northern section is wide enough, but the southern part isn't. I think having a one-way pair for buses - NB on BHA and SB on Warren - between Grove Hall and Quincy will be the way to do it.
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Coincidentally I was reading through the Bus Stop Feedback (starts on pg.30) the other day and it may give some insight into the opinions of community members on stop placement. Residents seem very concerned with stops being placed at some major intersections because of the danger of drivers wanting to make turns and speed through lights while people are trying to catch the bus. A decent number of comments seem to not entirely understand what center-running bus lanes mean or how they work though. For example, one comment expresses that "there should be no bus stops in front of businesses. It should be parking spaces for that business. ONLY IF NECESSARY a bus stop should be on front of a business," when a center bus stop on this wide avenue does not preclude street parking. At the same time there are comments saying specific stops shouldn't be in the center, such as Walk Hill. Interestingly, the stop placing at Nazing/Pasadena had the highest "meets need" approval but also multiple "should be at Seaver" comments. There's a fair bit of more stops vs more spacing as well.

All in all, it seems a lot of the weird minor street stop placement stems from the desire to maintain as many car lanes as possible at major intersections to facilitate turning movements without obstructing through traffic flow as well as maintaining as much street parking as possible.
 
Was just poking around the MBTA's project page and there's some more information including this rendering of Walk Hill St that I've never seen before:

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There's also a like to a website that walks through the design and asks you to weigh in on the alternatives at different sections. There's also a cool video rendering of the above image embedded in that website. Here's some highlights from the website - nice that there's so much of an emphasis on ped safety and calming traffic:
  • Center-running bus lanes to support current and future bus service
  • Bus boarding platforms with bus shelters, real-time information screens, better lighting, security cameras, emergency call boxes, new seating, and accessibility upgrades
  • Roadway resurfacing
  • Traffic signal upgrades to prioritize buses
  • At least 14 new crossing signals, providing pedestrians with 40% more opportunities to safely cross the street
  • Crossing distances shortened by about 25% on Blue Hill Ave and by an average of 19 feet on intersecting streets
  • Repaired sidewalks with at least 185 curb ramps upgraded to meet accessibility standards
  • At least 150 new trees along the avenue
  • Over 100,000 square feet of additional public space with opportunities for better street lighting, benches, bike parking, and public art
Re: stop spacing for this concept - measuring out a few of them on Google Maps and they all seem to be within the MBTA's BRT stop spacing guidance (screenshot taken from page 18):
Screenshot 2024-11-09 at 9.23.17 AM.png

The big exception to that rule would be the alternative with the stop by Calder and American Legion. I can see why they'd want to consider another stop near American Legion Highway given that uphill slope by the park. If you've ever biked north along this street, the part from Talbot up to Columbia feels like you're climbing most of the way. You'd want some close stop spacing in areas like that to shorten walking distances for people who can't walk as far.

Let's build this stat!
 
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Charlie_mta said:
Back to the future. It's similar to the original layout of Blue Hill Ave with the trolley reservation down the middle a century ago.
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I'm sure there will be plenty of photos of digging up the old streetcar tracks once construction gets underway, they're almost certainly still down there under the asphalt for the most part.
 
New bus stop signs are going up in preparation for phase 1 of the network redesign. The real test will be if they come back and remove the temporary covers when the new routes launch.
 

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I was wondering what these "bags" they kept mentioning for covering the new signs were gonna look like and that is not at all what I expected.
 
Koopzilla24 said:
I was wondering what these "bags" they kept mentioning for covering the new signs were gonna look like and that is not at all what I expected.
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Me too - I've seen vinyl bags at a few other stops - is this one made of .... cardboard? plastic?
 
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