MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

Holy crap, its actually happening! Would this be the first city-impemented signal priority in the metro area? This was a hilariously cheap participatory budget item, if so, we could be seeing lots of these cheap but effective projects in the future.
 
FitchburgLine said:
Holy crap, its actually happening! Would this be the first city-impemented signal priority in the metro area? This was a hilariously cheap participatory budget item, if so, we could be seeing lots of these cheap but effective projects in the future.
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Dont tell the MBTA though, they wouldnt want their customers to see improvement
 
Crazy how Cambridge bus signal priority happens before Boston green line priority.
 
tysmith95 said:
Crazy how Cambridge bus signal priority happens before Boston green line priority.
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..or Brookline. On both Beacon and Commonwealth, there's a strong case to be made that the lack of signal priority merely favors Newton drivers over Brookline or Boston commuters/voters.

That Cambridge has gotten its act together first is, I suspect, partly due to Cambridge being pretty clear that locals are not (for the most part) commuting within or even through Cambridge by car.

Then the next question is whether this is only from Charles River to Hvd Sq or whether it will also push out west/north from Hvd Sq along the 70-series routes?
 
Arlington said:
..or Brookline. On both Beacon and Commonwealth, there's a strong case to be made that the lack of signal priority merely favors Newton drivers over Brookline or Boston commuters/voters.

That Cambridge has gotten its act together first is, I suspect, partly due to Cambridge being pretty clear that locals are not (for the most part) commuting within or even through Cambridge by car.

Then the next question is whether this is only from Charles River to Hvd Sq or whether it will also push out west/north from Hvd Sq along the 70-series routes?
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I recall this effort being specifically for the 1 bus. Once they work out any bugs on this leg and get another pot of money, I'm sure it will expand.
 
We're used to Massachusetts governors interfering with the T, but this might be the first time a Maine governor has.

Apparently, LePage (the uh, kinda crazy governor of Maine) is going to attempt to renegotiate the contract to overhaul the Silver Line fleet. Maine Military Authority (a state-owned vehicle rehab firm) is currently about 1/3 of the way through overhauling the 32 Silver Line dual-mode buses. MMA seems to have underbid on the contract, meaning they're going to lose money on the deal. While it sucks for Maine taxpayers that they're be picking up the tab, I can't imagine the MBTA has any interest in renegotiating the contract in order to pay more.
 
The T is "studying" a shuttle service from City Point to SS because of extreme overcrowding on the 7.

You mean like SL3 which ran on almost the same exact route with 60-footers? The one which lasted only 5 years before getting axed because its frequencies were so crippled it didn't draw any riders away from the bursting-at-seams 7? It takes a year-and-counting of fresh "studies" to put two and two together here? :rolleyes:
 
It wasn't just the frequencies, though - the SL3 also charged a rapid transit fare for a slower ride that didn't get to DTX directly. Neither of those gets fixed by recreating the SL3, especially not while they haven't figured out how to fix the tunnel pavement.

The real solution is to run 60-footers on the #7 itself (and maybe, gasp, get 60-footers that can run in snow).
 
The EGE said:
It wasn't just the frequencies, though - the SL3 also charged a rapid transit fare for a slower ride that didn't get to DTX directly. Neither of those gets fixed by recreating the SL3, especially not while they haven't figured out how to fix the tunnel pavement.

The real solution is to run 60-footers on the #7 itself (and maybe, gasp, get 60-footers that can run in snow).
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Can't run 60's there except for the Transitway fleet because there's no 60-capable garage in range of the 7. Failure to act on that '04 Bus Facilities Strategic Plan is really killing them on capacity now when they can only do replacement-level 40's and 60's on the same routes that have always had them. The old political unenthusiasm for purely "unsexy improvements" tying hands.

Until that's resolved pretty much the only logical "study" options (none of which should take >year) are some sort of SL3 redux in the Transitway on 60's or some sort of "7E" augmentation on 40's. Not a real brain-teaser.
 
Not really related to the 7 bus issue, but relating to South Boston transit overall-- I was upset to hear that the 9 bus rerouting around Broadway ended up not moving forward after all. It was such a minor change that would have really sped up Southie-Back Bay commutes.
 
sm89 said:
Not really related to the 7 bus issue, but relating to South Boston transit overall-- I was upset to hear that the 9 bus rerouting around Broadway ended up not moving forward after all. It was such a minor change that would have really sped up Southie-Back Bay commutes.
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Wasn't that minor a change if somebody in a wheelchair had to get from the proposed new stop to the elevator at Broadway station.
 
A few people pushed the Boston City Council and BTD at today's Council's Hearing on Parking to restrict parking on highly congested corridors to create bus/bike lanes to move more people faster with the same number of buses. Specific corridors: North Washington Street, the northern half of Mass Ave, Brighton Ave, Washington St in Rozzie, Blue Hill Ave, Warren St, Ruggles St, and Dudley St. Every member of the public who spoke was in favor of parking reform - the problem with parking isn't that we don't have enough, but we aren't managing it correctly.
 
winstonoboogie said:
Wasn't that minor a change if somebody in a wheelchair had to get from the proposed new stop to the elevator at Broadway station.
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True, but there are much longer distances to change modes that the disabled must travel even while in an actual station. Perhaps a solution would be a contraflow bus lane to Traveler St, or even easier, a bus stop on W Broadway opposite the station and then left on Dot, right on W4th.

Randomgear said:
A few people pushed the Boston City Council and BTD at today's Council's Hearing on Parking to restrict parking on highly congested corridors to create bus/bike lanes to move more people faster with the same number of buses. Specific corridors: North Washington Street, the northern half of Mass Ave, Brighton Ave, Washington St in Rozzie, Blue Hill Ave, Warren St, Ruggles St, and Dudley St. Every member of the public who spoke was in favor of parking reform - the problem with parking isn't that we don't have enough, but we aren't managing it correctly.
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Thank God.
 
Cambridge is considering how to improve the buses serving Kendall, including creating bus priority corridors on their streets and encouraging the T to make changes to several routes. The full presentation is online at http://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/Projects/Transportation/~/media/3C8D89FFAF6E4EAC88E4621FE5EE6B1E.ashx, but quick summary

Priority Corridors
- Mass Ave
- Broadway
- Union to Kendall
- Lechmere to Kendall

Proposed Route Changes
- 92A new route from Assembly to Kendall via Charlestown
- 88 reroute to Kendall in addition to or instead of Lechmere
- 87 reroute to Kendall in addition to or instead of Lechmere
- 85 stop consolidation, signal priority, frequency boosts
- 70/70a peak extensions to Kendall, eliminating the 68
- 64 more service to Kendall
- CT2 stop consolidation
- CT4 new route from Sullivan to Kenmore via Lechmere
 
Scipio said:
Cambridge is considering how to improve the buses serving Kendall, including creating bus priority corridors on their streets and encouraging the T to make changes to several routes. The full presentation is online at http://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/Projects/Transportation/~/media/3C8D89FFAF6E4EAC88E4621FE5EE6B1E.ashx, but quick summary

Priority Corridors
- Mass Ave
- Broadway
- Union to Kendall
- Lechmere to Kendall

Proposed Route Changes
- 92A new route from Assembly to Kendall via Charlestown
- 88 reroute to Kendall in addition to or instead of Lechmere
- 87 reroute to Kendall in addition to or instead of Lechmere
- 85 stop consolidation, signal priority, frequency boosts
- 70/70a peak extensions to Kendall, eliminating the 68
- 64 more service to Kendall
- CT2 stop consolidation
- CT4 new route from Sullivan to Kenmore via Lechmere
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This plan actually removes all bus routes from Broadway and relocates them to Mass/Main. I agree that ridership is low along Broadway, but that could be because service is atrocious. Currently the 68 and 64 are unusably infrequent and unreliable. Based solely on their routes, you would think both lines should be packed with tech commuters, but they aren't.

Moving them to Mass/Main along with an extension of the 70/70A along Mass/Main (and obviously the 1/CT1 overlaps part of that) could create a strong bus corridor, but one that parallels the Red Line. Perhaps they should all be routed down Broadway instead to create a new transit corridor with usable frequency that gets closer to the homes and jobs a little ways off from the RL stations. Any bus stops along the RL's actual route are (clearly) <0.5 mile from either Central or Kendall. Broadway is as much as another 0.25 mile away. Kendall Station is not very centrally located - it is the edge of the district.

Maybe I'm missing the bigger picture? Any of the real transit planners on here care to comment?
 
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