MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

29 and 26 and 22

The 29 and 26 bus routes both have mediocre service frequency.

At first glance at the system map, 29 looks like it performs sort of the same function as 31 in providing a relatively direct path from part of Blue Hill Ave to the Orange Line in a way that doesn't go all the way to Dudley and Ruggles. 31 has good weekday frequencies in connecting the southern part of 28 to Forest Hills. The southern part of 29 duplicates 31 without providing such a direct path to the Orange Line (if you live along Blue Hill Ave south of Morton St, you're probably going to take 31 and not 29 to the Orange Line), and the northern part of 29's segment on Blue Hill Ave is duplicated by 22, which does have pretty good frequencies (although I think after the northbound 22 meets the Orange Line at Jackson Sq, it might be more useful for it to go to Heath St at the end of the E branch along 14's route instead of continuing to Ruggles). For the handful of stops on Blue Hill Ave between Morton St and Talbot Ave, the 28 does provide frequent, high capacity service, and walking to the 22 or 31 (or 21) may also sometimes be an option if those folks want to get to the Orange Line without riding 28 through Dudley.

Some 29 trips also serve Westview St / Ames St as an awkward deviation, and I'm wondering if there'd be an effective way to reroute 29 to always serve that deviation in a way that wouldn't be a deviation, by having it continue to Ashmont instead of Mattapan. If a small bit of Stratton St could be made two way, perhaps the routing could be Westview St -> [Edit: Ames St] -> roughly southbound on Stratton St -> roughly westbound on Stratton St -> Lyford St -> Woodrow Ave -> Milton Ave -> Rockwell St -> Bailey St -> Dorchester Ave, and in the reverse direction Dochester Ave -> Fuller St -> Milton Ave -> Edson St -> Norfolk St -> Woodrow Ave. This might cover the parts of 26's service area not covered by 21 and 22 well enough that 26 could be discontinued and 26's vehicles reallocated to improving frequency on the rerouted 29. (This is also based on assuming that east of the Fairmount Line we want to avoid reconfiguring one way streets, but a slightly different routing might make sense if changing one way streets is an option.)

I'm also assuming if all this rerouting happens that the Ames St @ Franklin Field stop would be replaced by stops roughly 300' west at the Ames St / Stratton St / Westview Way intersection.
 
Blue Hill Ave to Savin Hill / UMass Boston

31 does 5-6 minute headways at the peak of weekday rush hour. Perhaps that implies it would benefit from 60' buses whenever we become confident that we can buy battery powered 60' buses that will work reliably and be cost effective, especially since the Blue Hill Ave segment already has stops set up for 60' buses for 28 (it appears that the two directions of 31 combined have a total of a dozen bus stops not served by 28, excluding Forest Hills), but if we assume that much of the ridership comes from Blue Hill Ave and not a whole lot from Morton St, we could also look at possibly adding a bus route providing a connection to the Red Line.

In particular, I think going from Mattapan Station to Savin Hill Station along Blue Hill Ave, Harvard St, Bowdoin St, Pleasant St, and Savin Hill Ave would likely work, and if the Old Colony Terrace / Morrissey Blvd intersection were to be modified to allow a left turn from Old Colony Terrace to Morrissey Blvd, that bus route could also be extended to UMass-Boston.
 
31's Morton St opp Shattuck Hospital

31's bus stop on Morton St opposite Shattuck Hospital doesn't look too pleasant: it requires crossing four lanes of highway.

If we could build roughly 500' of new road to connect Circuit Drive to American Legion Highway near Austin St, the Mattapan bound bus could skip 131 Morton, which is way too close to Arborway @ Shea Sq, follow Forest Hills Dr and Circuit Dr, stopping at Shattuck Hospital wherever 16 does (it looks like Google Street View may not have a bus stop sign for that stop?), stop at 14's American Legion Highway opp Kingbird Rd instead of Morton St at Canterbury St, and then take Canterbury Lane to Morton St.

Edit: Austin to Harvard to Morton is probably a better route than traveling along American Legion Highway.

Edit 2: Maybe even Austin to Harvard to Paxton St to Blue Hill Ave if losing the eastern Morton St stops is acceptable.

Edit 3: Looks like Austin St has two disconnected pieces. On the other hand, filling that in east of American Legion Highway probably isn't any harder than the ~500' extension of Austin west of American Legion Highway.
 
FitchburgLine said:
Per today's FMCB meeting, Somerville striped and implemented a new, permanent bus lane across the Prospect St bridge into Union Square last week! https://d3044s2alrsxog.cloudfront.n...ng-docs/2017/december/2017-12-18-fmcb-dgm.pdf
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It's not clear to me what the thinking is as to exactly where bicycles are supposed to ride at this point.

From east to west, there's sidewalk, relatively wide lane, relatively narrow area with flex posts near its western part, the northbound automobile lane, the southbound lane, and the sidewalk.

The narrow area has arrows with bicycle symbols, suggesting it is a narrow bicycle lane.

But there is also some text saying ``BUS BIKE LANE'' or ``BIKE BUS LANE'' or something in that wider, more easterly section, which seems to perhaps imply that bikes are maybe supposed to just use the bus lane, and maybe that narrow area is a buffer area to make the bus lane a flex post protected bike lane? When there is no bus around, having the bikes take the full bus lane would provide more separation and thus probably a bit more safety.

I'm also wondering what instructions bus drivers get regarding following bicyclists in shared bus / bike lanes. I think if the goal is to make the lane comfortable for cyclists, having the bus drivers maintain a 4 or 5 or 6 second following distance might have some advantages.

The bus lane runs from Webster to the 30 Prospect bus stop, and the bus stop is the northern end of the bus lane.

One other thing I noticed, while taking a Lechmere bound 87 a little after 10 PM to get to near where this bus lane was so that I could walk past it to check it out, was that the wait at the light at the Webster / Somerville Ave / Bow St / Washington St intersection seemed pretty long, and it would be nice to have Transit Signal Priority at that light.
 
Joel N. Weber II said:
It's not clear to me what the thinking is as to exactly where bicycles are supposed to ride at this point.

From east to west, there's sidewalk, relatively wide lane, relatively narrow area with flex posts near its western part, the northbound automobile lane, the southbound lane, and the sidewalk.
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It started out as a parking lane and bike lane, but since no one ever parked there, drivers starting forming an illegal second lane, endangering cyclists. They then decided it could make a good bus-bike lane. No need to spend the money to remove the bike lane markings they just put in though, so they left them.
 
Essex St bus tunnel with Ave de Lafayette portal

Might it be possible to extend the South Station bus tunnel under Essex St as far as Kingston St, and then build a portal in the Ave de Lafayette right of way between Chauncy St and Kington St? Google Street View seems to suggest Ave de Lafayette is quite wide, probably quite low traffic, and has parking on both sides, and presumably the parking could go away if that's what it takes to make space for the portal.

I'm thinking if we could get a contraflow bus lane on Washington St from Ave de Lafayette to Avery Pl and reverse the one way section of Avery Place, we could have the buses come out the portal, follow Ave de Lafayette to Washington St to Avery Place to Tremont St to terminate at Boylston Station, then take Boylston St which turns into Essex St to Chauncy St back into the portal. Or there's probably some way SL4 could use that portal, once it starts running on batteries.
 
Re: Essex St bus tunnel with Ave de Lafayette portal

Joel N. Weber II said:
Might it be possible to extend the South Station bus tunnel under Essex St as far as Kingston St, and then build a portal in the Ave de Lafayette right of way between Chauncy St and Kington St? Google Street View seems to suggest Ave de Lafayette is quite wide, probably quite low traffic, and has parking on both sides, and presumably the parking could go away if that's what it takes to make space for the portal.

I'm thinking if we could get a contraflow bus lane on Washington St from Ave de Lafayette to Avery Pl and reverse the one way section of Avery Place, we could have the buses come out the portal, follow Ave de Lafayette to Washington St to Avery Place to Tremont St to terminate at Boylston Station, then take Boylston St which turns into Essex St to Chauncy St back into the portal. Or there's probably some way SL4 could use that portal, once it starts running on batteries.
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You really don't want to dump those buses onto many of those downtown street. Several of the corners are going to be turn nightmares, and taking a lane from Washington for the counter flow bus lane is not happening. Traffic there is horrendous, particularly around theatre times.

If you are going to spend the effort of tunneling from the busway loop; go for a twin tunnel deep bore under Essex/Boylston, and convert the line to light rail/bus dual use. The elevation change up from the waterfront then down from Washington makes this a pretty straightforward trajectory (not really diving too much deeper.). Biggest challenge is the station at Chinatown/Bolyston -- likely a single center island mega station connecting to both. Connect to the Green Line at the site of the old portal between Charles Street South and Arlington (there is room there to merge up into the tunnel.) This is strictly a line for one of the Green Line branches from the West; but you make downtown connections at Chinatown (Orange) or Boylston (Green) from the mega station platform.
 
Re: Essex St bus tunnel with Ave de Lafayette portal

http://www.archboston.org/community/showthread.php?t=5003&page=21[

In post 408 of the Green Line reconfiguration thread I had proposed something similar to this. F-line believed Ave de Lafayette was not wide enough for a portal.

QUOTE=Joel N. Weber II;311384]Might it be possible to extend the South Station bus tunnel under Essex St as far as Kingston St, and then build a portal in the Ave de Lafayette right of way between Chauncy St and Kington St? Google Street View seems to suggest Ave de Lafayette is quite wide, probably quite low traffic, and has parking on both sides, and presumably the parking could go away if that's what it takes to make space for the portal.

I'm thinking if we could get a contraflow bus lane on Washington St from Ave de Lafayette to Avery Pl and reverse the one way section of Avery Place, we could have the buses come out the portal, follow Ave de Lafayette to Washington St to Avery Place to Tremont St to terminate at Boylston Station, then take Boylston St which turns into Essex St to Chauncy St back into the portal. Or there's probably some way SL4 could use that portal, once it starts running on batteries.[/QUOTE]
 
Re: Essex St bus tunnel with Ave de Lafayette portal

Upstruk said:
http://www.archboston.org/community/showthread.php?t=5003&page=21[

In post 408 of the Green Line reconfiguration thread I had proposed something similar to this. F-line believed Ave de Lafayette was not wide enough for a portal.
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Page 41 of https://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Portals/31/Docs/SLGateway_SEIR_Final_03-31-14.pdf seems to think that just under 27' is wide enough for the paved area for the busway in Chelsea under the new Washington St bridge. Do retaining walls really have to be 11' thick on each side?

I'm also now wondering if the Boring Company's elevator idea (minus the silly sleds to carry cars in the tunnels) could work for buses. Heading west on Essex St, there's about 200' from Kingston St before you reach the first building on the north side of the street. I'm guessing 80' might be sufficient for an elevator capable of carrying a 60' bus. Or perhaps a bus elevator could fit on the north side of Essex St just west of South St, especially if the landscaping (and maybe ventilation shaft?) could be reconfigured. Of course, a downside of the elevator approach is that it doesn't seem like there's an obvious way to scale it to a 350' Green Line train.
 
Re: Essex St bus tunnel with Ave de Lafayette portal

JeffDowntown said:
You really don't want to dump those buses onto many of those downtown street. Several of the corners are going to be turn nightmares, and taking a lane from Washington for the counter flow bus lane is not happening. Traffic there is horrendous, particularly around theatre times.
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Sounds like we have way too much parking capacity in that neighborhood.

If you are going to spend the effort of tunneling from the busway loop; go for a twin tunnel deep bore under Essex/Boylston, and convert the line to light rail/bus dual use. The elevation change up from the waterfront then down from Washington makes this a pretty straightforward trajectory (not really diving too much deeper.). Biggest challenge is the station at Chinatown/Bolyston -- likely a single center island mega station connecting to both. Connect to the Green Line at the site of the old portal between Charles Street South and Arlington (there is room there to merge up into the tunnel.) This is strictly a line for one of the Green Line branches from the West; but you make downtown connections at Chinatown (Orange) or Boylston (Green) from the mega station platform.
Click to expand...

I thought we'd seen lots of skepticism that putting that station under Boylston St between the existing Orange Line and Green Line station could happen without damaging historic buildings, and that the new tunnel would be expected to have one level for each direction because of the limited street width (platforms on the north side of the track probably go best with connecting to Boylston).

Having one of the branches that serves Copley and Arlington stations serve South Station instead of Government Center to free up slots at Government Center for Dudley service does have some appeal, but if we're only going to be able to run one train every 6 minutes or something through the new station deep under Boylston St if everything has to continue through the tunnel to Arlington Station and merge with trains from Park St, that sort of limits capacity through the South Station Transitway.

I'd also expect a configuration with no underground station to cost substantially less than a configuration with an underground station.

So while a new tunnel at Boylston / Chinatown certainly has some appeal, I'm concerned that focusing on a risky and expensive project has a high probability of leaving the no build alternative favored.
 
Re: Essex St bus tunnel with Ave de Lafayette portal

Joel N. Weber II said:
Page 41 of https://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Portals/31/Docs/SLGateway_SEIR_Final_03-31-14.pdf seems to think that just under 27' is wide enough for the paved area for the busway in Chelsea under the new Washington St bridge. Do retaining walls really have to be 11' thick on each side?

I'm also now wondering if the Boring Company's elevator idea (minus the silly sleds to carry cars in the tunnels) could work for buses. Heading west on Essex St, there's about 200' from Kingston St before you reach the first building on the north side of the street. I'm guessing 80' might be sufficient for an elevator capable of carrying a 60' bus. Or perhaps a bus elevator could fit on the north side of Essex St just west of South St, especially if the landscaping (and maybe ventilation shaft?) could be reconfigured. Of course, a downside of the elevator approach is that it doesn't seem like there's an obvious way to scale it to a 350' Green Line train.
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Not to derail, but kind of verging on Crazy Transit pitches.
 
http://www.bostonbrt.org/local-pilots/

I apologize if this has already been posted but it looks like they're gonna test some BTR for Bus 71, 73 and 77 along with the already in place bus lanes in Everett.

Interesting how there are no routes actually in Boston.
 
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tysmith95 said:
http://www.bostonbrt.org/local-pilots/

I apologize if this has already been posted but it looks like they're gonna test some BTR for Bus 71, 73 and 77 along with the already in place bus lanes in Everett.

Interesting how there are no routes actually in Boston.
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Well, that's just the BostonBRT (Barr Foundation I think?) supported work.

The Roslindale/Forest Hills bus lane is supposed to going in for real next year, TSP is going in for the B + E branches of the Green Line, and they've got some other projects I've seen mentioned:

Quoted from this presentation:

"Case Study: Blue Hill Ave. & Warren St. Traffic Signal Improvement Project
- Joint Highway/BTD initiative to rebuild 16 intersections, including new traffic signals by 2019
- MBTA is working to ensure that TSP is included in the project during design.
- Touching on bus routes 14,19, 23, 28, 29, 44"

So Boston is doing some things in this realm.
 
I take that back. The Boston BRT site has a big page on all door boarding for the silver line (SL4 and SL5)

It also posts corridors that it wants to see.

1425590634040


And yes this is the Barr foundation.

Anyway I would love to see some BRT in Southie. Some bus lanes on a lynn to wonderland route would also make sense.
 
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Tom Bombadil said:
Some MBTA Bus people like to lurk in these threads and take note of ideas from this community for more detailed consideration :)

As for more formal channels, look for the Service Plan website and other opportunities for comment in early-2018. See the FMCB presentation from Monday (slide 18).
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Why not extend both 87 and 89 to Arlington Heights, and eliminate 79? According to the PDF schedules, 87's trip from Arlington Center to Davis (8:20 AM to 8:34 AM is 14 minutes) is faster than 79's trip from Arlington Center to Alewife (8:36 AM to 8:54 AM is 18 minutes), and then a lot of riders would avoid a few additional minutes of Red Line time from Alewife to Davis.
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(and also re-route the 350 via Broadway to Davis)

Has the MBTA opened the bus suggestion box yet?
 
Re: MBTA bus 60

Joel N. Weber II said:
The western part of bus route 60 runs along the residential signalized freeway known as Route 9.

In the long run, perhaps we should figure out whether Route 9 is supposed to be a freeway or a residential street and reengineer it appropriately, because both is not really a good answer.

But in the meantime, most of the homes to the north of Route 9 are probably served by the D branch of the Green Line or in some cases the 51 bus, and so I suspect that the western portion of 60 probably primarily serves the neighborhoods to the south of Route 9.

Therefore, I think 60 should be rerouted onto quieter residential streets just to the south of and parallel to Route 9. A possible reroute for an outbound 60 turning off of Cypress would turn onto Walnut instead of Route 9, the follow Warren St and Heath St to Hammond St to Woodland Rd, and probably then along a short bit of Heath St and along Hammond Pond Parkway; in the outbound direction, it could serve The Shops at Chestnut Hill, and perhaps then have a short stretch along Route 9 and take Langley Rd to Newton Center Station; in the reverse direction, perhaps it would serve Avalon at Chestnut Hill instead of The Shops. Perhaps bus stops near the southern part of the Route 9 / Hammond Pond Parkway intersection along with pedestrian infrastructure from those stops to the malls could facilitate access for people who need to get to / from a mall not directly served by the bus in the direction they're going.
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Between Jefferson Rd and Reservoir Rd, coming closer to Route 9 might be more useful. If you start at the Jefferson / 9 intersection and proceed along 9 in the eastbound direction for about 600 feet, you come to an unnamed road. Roughly 450 feet from route 9 that unnamed road has a roughly 90 degree turn. That 90 degree turn comes within about 200 feet of a spur of Heath St that apparently is confusingly named Heath St. Building that 200 foot connection (probably actually a bit longer to minimize the impact on residential properties that probably still won't want to allow bus service to be functional) and running the bus along it and along the unnamed road to the Brigham and Women's building would probably produce the most useful bus service if the neighbors could be persuaded to tolerate that.
 
Arlington said:
(and also re-route the 350 via Broadway to Davis)

Has the MBTA opened the bus suggestion box yet?
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Does anyone know why they keep the 350 with an express route number when it is not an express bus route? I know it's origin, but I don't understand why it continues decades later when all other 300 series routes are indeed express and have different fare structures.
 
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