MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

Quincy has pretty significant bus operations, but they all kind of fan out from Quincy Center. At some point they need to make a bus lane on Hancock St. from Quincy Center to School St. It's too dense now to have non-metered on-street parking, but with all the construction there it might be years before there's actually a straight shot. At peak it's about 15 buses per hour.

Watertown could easily convert a lane of Mt. Auburn Street to bus only, but the traffic volume doesn't justify it, and they do have a few queue jumps right now. The 70 is what really needs help through Watertown.
 
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West of Union Square = painted fall 2020 (can't see the completed stuff here, but you can see the white line work for the lanes from this November 2020 street view) and seems like that one at McGrath Highway near the glx bridge is under construction now. word was GLX had to complete some work before the bus lane could start.
 
Interesting proposal - it's not a particularly heavy corridor (441 and 442 plus the dinky 439), but Lynn is attempting to redevelop the area.
 
The EGE said:
Interesting proposal - it's not a particularly heavy corridor (441 and 442 plus the dinky 439), but Lynn is attempting to redevelop the area.
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Not heavy in lines, but heavy ridership on those lines. And horribly plagued with delays in traffic. (Need to fix the Revere stretch too, though).
 
JeffDowntown said:
Not heavy in lines, but heavy ridership on those lines. And horribly plagued with delays in traffic. (Need to fix the Revere stretch too, though).
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The Better Bus Profiles are literally one of my favorite transit things ever:

Screen Shot 2021-07-15 at 8.24.28 AM.png


The 441-442 profile further notes that some 70% of riders disembark at Wonderland.

cneal said:
1.5 mile, center-running busway proposal for the Lynnway:

mass.streetsblog.org

State Agencies Seek to Transform the Lynnway With New Bike Path and Bus Rapid Transit - Streetsblog Massachusetts

The project would remove car lanes on the Lynnway to create center-running bus lanes with transit signal priority, a shared use path, improved bus stops, and safer crosswalks along a 1.5 mile corridor along Lynn's harborfront.
mass.streetsblog.org mass.streetsblog.org
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This really is great to hear. I have to admit, I am starting to feel -- more out of principle than anything else -- that all 6-lane non-limited access roads in Greater Boston should be rebuilt with center-running bus lanes (with concurrent upzoning to build walkable neighborhoods). The "Route 1"'s of New England have become our 21st century Main Streets, and we should use them as a centerpiece of a sustainable transit-oriented future.
 
cneal said:
1.5 mile, center-running busway proposal for the Lynnway:

mass.streetsblog.org

State Agencies Seek to Transform the Lynnway With New Bike Path and Bus Rapid Transit - Streetsblog Massachusetts

The project would remove car lanes on the Lynnway to create center-running bus lanes with transit signal priority, a shared use path, improved bus stops, and safer crosswalks along a 1.5 mile corridor along Lynn's harborfront.
mass.streetsblog.org mass.streetsblog.org
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I have a better idea. Extend the blue line to Salem, and speed up local commuter rails around the proximal north shore. Major bus termini get moved to the BLX stations. Then, take those same two lanes of traffic from the Lynnway and make a wide parkway with greenspace and bikeways on both sides (keep the autos to the middle). And eliminate as many curb cuts as possible.
 
FK4 said:
I have a better idea. Extend the blue line to Salem, and speed up local commuter rails around the proximal north shore. Major bus termini get moved to the BLX stations. Then, take those same two lanes of traffic from the Lynnway and make a wide parkway with greenspace and bikeways on both sides (keep the autos to the middle). And eliminate as many curb cuts as possible.
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That has been a great idea for at least 4 decades, and still is no where close to happening. Given all the EIS issues, even if you fully funded BLX today, you would not see transit capacity for at least a decade. And the area needs transit capacity now.
 
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FK4 said:
I have a better idea. Extend the blue line to Salem, and speed up local commuter rails around the proximal north shore. Major bus termini get moved to the BLX stations. Then, take those same two lanes of traffic from the Lynnway and make a wide parkway with greenspace and bikeways on both sides (keep the autos to the middle). And eliminate as many curb cuts as possible.
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No one would deny that that is a better idea. Likewise, no one would deny the exercising 60 minutes a day is a better idea that exercising for 10 minutes a day. That doesn't mean that exercising for 10 minutes a day is a bad idea -- especially if you currently are getting no exercise at all.
 
Riverside said:
No one would deny that that is a better idea. Likewise, no one would deny the exercising 60 minutes a day is a better idea that exercising for 10 minutes a day. That doesn't mean that exercising for 10 minutes a day is a bad idea -- especially if you currently are getting no exercise at all.
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Right. My concern is that improving bus transit generally elicits a knee-jerk positive response amongst transit and urbanist people, but that such projects might actually lock out better changes in the future. The Melnea Cass project is a glaring example, and of course a bit different because the proposal was to actually widen the hardscape. Nonetheless, a Lynnway busway, once constructed, is never, ever going away. The Lynnway is a road that has great potential for a boulevard, but it’s too high capacity to accommodate both a true greenscape AND busway. Moreover, the real transit issue in this area is the lack of high capacity transit. Perfect should not be the enemy of the good, but in this case I fear this project would prevent a better future use of this corridor, as well as waste money on a project that misses the mark. If they want to just close a lane on each side for buses only, fine. That’s easy and would be effective and temporary. Don’t throw money at fancy busways when the solution never will be buses alone.
 
FK4 said:
Right. My concern is that improving bus transit generally elicits a knee-jerk positive response amongst transit and urbanist people, but that such projects might actually lock out better changes in the future. The Melnea Cass project is a glaring example, and of course a bit different because the proposal was to actually widen the hardscape. Nonetheless, a Lynnway busway, once constructed, is never, ever going away. The Lynnway is a road that has great potential for a boulevard, but it’s too high capacity to accommodate both a true greenscape AND busway. Moreover, the real transit issue in this area is the lack of high capacity transit. Perfect should not be the enemy of the good, but in this case I fear this project would prevent a better future use of this corridor, as well as waste money on a project that misses the mark. If they want to just close a lane on each side for buses only, fine. That’s easy and would be effective and temporary. Don’t throw money at fancy busways when the solution never will be buses alone.
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I share the concern about a 1/2 way solution, but there are additional considerations. Some time before the next millennia, transit needs to be improved there.

1) No one is jumping up and down shouting they are anywhere close to funding BLX. No one. No movement, no progress, nothing but three letters typed on message boards (BLX).

2) Bus lanes on the Lynnway won't work without serious reengineering of the roadway. Drivers in Greater Boston have zero respect for painted bus lanes. None. And there are far too many curb cuts and turns along the Lynnway that will be open invitations to violating the bus lane. A painted bus lane is a waste of paint.
 
People are pretty good about the painted bus/bike lane on Broadway in Somerville, even though there sure was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth when it first went in.
 
Work proceeds apace at the Mount Auburn end of the Harvard Square bus subway. Here, a group of workmen is installing new curbs after successfully chipping a few inches off of the busway surface here.
PXL_20210716_152043720.jpg
 
Nice writeup in WickedLocal (Medford Transcript) on the Bus Lanes that feed the 95 Bus down Mystic Ave and toward Sullivan at the inbound rush:
Commute gets quicker to work on Mystic Avenue with dedicated bus lanes
The cities chose the MBTA Route 95 because it seemed to hold onto ridership compared to other MBTA routes even as people were under lockdown travel restrictions. And it was a route here ridership came back the quickest and with the most volume even as restrictions were lifted.
[...]
In addition to the dedicated bus lanes, Medford received a $100,000 proprietary grant from the state’s Shared Streets program to install new bus shelters and benches. That grant will be used on Salem Street opposite River Street and just east of Haines Square. The funds will pay for shelters, new benches and E-Ink signs at the stops.
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BeeLine said:
They seem to be making a (BIGGER) mess of the Courthouse Station. Anyone know what is happening? I hope they fix the water leaks.

IMG_1033 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_1034 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr

Now none of the escalators are operational. Thanks MBTA for your great customer service (NOT!!!) *Sarcasm*

IMG_1036 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_1037 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_1039 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
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That does look a mess but yes there are two contracts underway for Courthouse Station, there's "Courthouse Leak Repairs" and there's the "Courthouse Second Headhouse"

MBTA > Business Center > Bidding and Solicitations > Awarded Contracts

bc.mbta.com bc.mbta.com

MBTA > Business Center > Bidding and Solicitations > Awarded Contracts

bc.mbta.com bc.mbta.com
 
Why were they not capable of building a station that had few leaks in the first place?
 
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