MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

I'd stipulate that whenever you see route consolidation, there's going to be a secondary corridor (Broadway) that sucks where you can pin it on service that sucks, and there will always be a temptation to say "why can't we build up the secondary route" (Broadway) instead of stealing from Broadway in order to make the winner (Mass/Main) more winning.

Maybe make Broadway a jitney /bike corridor.

But given limited bus garage space (which limits the number of peak hour buses that can be deployed) I'd say that killing Broadway in favor of Mass/Main (and Cambridge St) is the way to go for now. Mass/Main and Cambridge st are far enough apart to not cannibalize each other and are good alternatives for anyone along Broadway

They're really asking how to create transit "worth walking to" for Cambridge if we assume the Red is crushed at rush hour.

I also really like the idea of adding First St & Binney bus lanes to tie Kendall to Lechmere.

Time for the Binney median to go and be replaced by either bus lanes or bike.
 
A redditor linked to a CTPS report from earlier this year that analyzed the locations where bus lanes would have the greatest impact. Their top priorities are the North Washington Bridge, Mass Ave in Cambridge and Boston, Dudley to Ruggles+Melnea Cass+the Blue Hill Ave corridor, Forest Hills to Rozzie Square, and bits of the 66's route.

Boston has scratched the surface of bus infrastructure planning with the North Washington Bridge's inbound bus lane. Cambridge is ahead with some hardware already installed along Mass Ave for signal priority, but I haven't seen anything on whether it's active yet. Cambridge also has a NACTO grant for more Mass Ave bus improvements next year.
 
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The MBTA has updated it's project page for the Forest Hills Upper Busway Canopy design. The 60% design hearing was held a week ago. Design presentation here: www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_th...ForestHills_Public Meeting 2016-11-02_WEB.pdf

MBTA Project page here: http://www.mbta.com/about_the_mbta/t_projects/default.asp?id=6442456842
 
The City of Waltham just finished it's draft of the City master traffic plan with some transit improvements proposed. Bus stops would be consolidated with some being eliminated or relocated along Main Street & Moody Street. The consultant recommends eliminating the 70 bus loop around the Route 20 rotary and relocating the Ceaderwood layover to Tavern Road. The MBTA is in the process of rerouting the 558. The current route takes Spruce Street and turns onto Moody Street towards Waltham center. The new route would have the bus continue along Crescent Street turning onto Moody Street towards Waltham center. This eliminates the bus stops along Spruce Street and relocates the stop on Crescent @ Spruce St to the east of Adams Street. Also the consultant recommends bus shelters, transit signal prioritization and que jump lanes at Moody & Pine Street. Also Carter Street is proposed to become a transit center with Eastbound traffic banned and busses in bus only lanes in East & westbound dirrections. Also rerouting of the 70A bus in North Waltham is proposed. The 553 is proposed to be extended down Angleside Road to Charlesbank Road and the office buildings.
 
Randomgear said:
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The MBTA has updated it's project page for the Forest Hills Upper Busway Canopy design. The 60% design hearing was held a week ago. Design presentation here: www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_th...ForestHills_Public Meeting 2016-11-02_WEB.pdf

MBTA Project page here: http://www.mbta.com/about_the_mbta/t_projects/default.asp?id=6442456842
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They really should sell and develop that huge green patch. Looks like just a big piece of wasted vacant space that only makes that segment of Washington seem like a highway wasteland corridor, more unsafe driving, etc.
 
FK4 said:
They really should sell and develop that huge green patch. Looks like just a big piece of wasted vacant space that only makes that segment of Washington seem like a highway wasteland corridor, more unsafe driving, etc.
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Great location for that thousand footer!

Seriously though, that's the sort of land our public agencies should be gung ho on selling. Having windswept green patches next to transit along wide roads lacking streetwall is appropriate for Atlanta, not Boston.
 
I am not sure about building on that though - its not that big of a parcel, and I think its above all of the trackage so it might need reinforcement to build on (which might not be cheap), so it could be hard to find anyone interested in it due to the economics. Plus, if a private party built on that site it would really limit any future redesigns of the upper bus way. Maybe the MBTA could do some basic improvements to it and make it a food truck/pop-up shop/market (3 season) space or something.
 
"The new Upper Busway Canopy for the expanded upper Busway at Forest Hills Station on the Orange Line will facilitate year round Bus Operations."

Given that the original canopy did a mediocre job shielding people from the elements, I'm not sure how "year round" operations will be any better with this new one. Aside from that, this new design conflicts horribly with the pointy canopies of the existing Forest Hills station. If we're going to expand/renovate the bus canopy, why not renovate Forest Hills, too?
 
Courthouse BRT question: The fare lobby is so large and column free--is it designed to be a bus level if the.lower level goes light rail?
 
matredsoxfan said:
The City of Waltham just finished it's draft of the City master traffic plan with some transit improvements proposed. Bus stops would be consolidated with some being eliminated or relocated along Main Street & Moody Street. The consultant recommends eliminating the 70 bus loop around the Route 20 rotary and relocating the Ceaderwood layover to Tavern Road. The MBTA is in the process of rerouting the 558. The current route takes Spruce Street and turns onto Moody Street towards Waltham center. The new route would have the bus continue along Crescent Street turning onto Moody Street towards Waltham center. This eliminates the bus stops along Spruce Street and relocates the stop on Crescent @ Spruce St to the east of Adams Street. Also the consultant recommends bus shelters, transit signal prioritization and que jump lanes at Moody & Pine Street. Also Carter Street is proposed to become a transit center with Eastbound traffic banned and busses in bus only lanes in East & westbound dirrections. Also rerouting of the 70A bus in North Waltham is proposed. The 553 is proposed to be extended down Angleside Road to Charlesbank Road and the office buildings.
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All seems pretty sensible, logical--if also prosaic, nickel-and-dime--stuff. The 558 rerouting on Crescent might help lure more of the hundreds of apartment dwellers at the Grover Cronin's apartment complex to use public transit given that a stop would be presumably right at their doorstep. It's also funny because moving it off of Spruce St. eliminates the tragic-comic chronic bottleneck from the delivery vehicles for the Indian supermarket at the corner of Spruce & Moody. Also, total wishful thinking, but maybe, eventually, the 553 extension may help unlock the development potential of those acres of parking lot at Angleside/Charlesbank sandwiched between the cemetery, commuter rail, and South St and help make it less grotesquely auto-centric. It's such a sad sad office complex right now with that sea of [what I presume to be] underutilized parking, something out of the Brady Bunch era or something.
 
omaja said:
"The new Upper Busway Canopy for the expanded upper Busway at Forest Hills Station on the Orange Line will facilitate year round Bus Operations."

Given that the original canopy did a mediocre job shielding people from the elements, I'm not sure how "year round" operations will be any better with this new one. Aside from that, this new design conflicts horribly with the pointy canopies of the existing Forest Hills station. If we're going to expand/renovate the bus canopy, why not renovate Forest Hills, too?
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The old bus canopy was demolished to make way for traffic relief on Washington/South Street - allowing room to fit new turning lanes in and also to get the bus exit from the bus station to be distant from the Washington/South Street intersection.
The new upper busway is expanded to handle at least five articulating buses, the old one only 3 or so 40'ers depending on how much they squeezed them in. The new canopy is longer, wider and lower - with the inner bus lane much more shielded from rain and snow than the old one ever was, and the outer bus lane perhaps a bit less so.

ADA accessibility upgrades to Forest Hills Station are being mandated by station changes as part of the MassDOT Highway Division work on the Casey Arborway. When that will happen is unknown, but it will be within the next few years as the Architectural Access Board (Commonwealth of Massachusetts department of Public Safety) is now requiring it and the MBTA will be forced to finally comply with current ADA and Mass AAB regulations. Money was allocated in the MassDOT CIP for these upgrades.
 
What changes are in store for Forest Hills, other than the new north headhouse? The station is already fully accessible to my knowledge - there are elevators from both platforms and the lower busway.


I don't believe Courthouse was intended to be a bilevel station, just a ridiculously fancy lobby.
 
The EGE said:
What changes are in store for Forest Hills, other than the new north headhouse? The station is already fully accessible to my knowledge - there are elevators from both platforms and the lower busway.
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ADA and MassAAB covers a lot more than just elevators. The upgrades include accessible bathrooms for workers, handrail adjustments, doors, thresholds, accessible counters and controls, signage, platform height (apparently not quite in spec with ADA/AAB) and other issues.

As for timing, the Mass AAB voted in Jun 2016 to allow the MBTA to begin planning accessibility upgrades in 2016 with construction to begin in 2018.
 
Arlington said:
Courthouse BRT question: The fare lobby is so large and column free--is it designed to be a bus level if the.lower level goes light rail?
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No need to when the Transitway is set up for full trolley and bus co-running at the existing platforms.


It's just a freakishly gigantic-ass fare lobby that'll always be freakishly gigantic-ass relative to the size of the primary development it serves. No other reason behind it.
 
Maybe we didn't cover this, but there was a great discussion on the MBTA Datablog that showed:
1) Where buses were busy
2) Where buses were delayed
3) Where buses were a substantial share of road travelers

Produced this map meeting all 3 criteria:
dedicatedlanes3.png


I'd say the only thing short-sighted about this analysis is that the other "Step 3" should be "where parking takes a lane of road", because parking is basically always (but particularly at the AM rush) serving a truly tiny share of people (by any metric: per mile, per minute or whatever)

But the other thing is that we should immediately be advocating on behalf of all of these users. They need a bus lane.

At least one is in the works for the new Washington St bridge
 
Also based on the blog, I'd consider extending bus lanes as a tool for decreasing crowding on buses (the same fleet can run more turns per shift if it can move faster)
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From the above, anything in black should immediately get a reserved bus lane--its how the municipalities concerned can do something very cheap that will greatly increase the benefits that their people derive from the essentially-fixed investment that the MBTA can make in each area.

Basic message: Mayor Walsh has to get his act together and start reclaiming the streets on behalf of his people (or their employees) on bus.
 
Arlington said:
Basic message: Mayor Walsh has to get his act together and start reclaiming the streets on behalf of his people (or their employees) on bus.
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From that map it looks like it is Mayor Walsh, a dozen other mayors and Governor Baker who all need to be acting on this. It is not just a Boston issue.
 
JeffDowntown said:
From that map it looks like it is Mayor Walsh, a dozen other mayors and Governor Baker who all need to be acting on this. It is not just a Boston issue.
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The deepest-red/black sections are in Boston. The biggest economic, mobility, & political win would be to re-allocate Boston street-lane-miles to bus lanes. He's 100% of the solution to something like 80% of the problem areas and probably mayor to 60% of the people affected.
 
Arlington said:
The deepest-red/black sections are in Boston. The biggest economic, mobility, & political win would be to re-allocate Boston street-lane-miles to bus lanes. He's 100% of the solution to something like 80% of the problem areas and probably mayor to 60% of the people affected.
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Understood, but it works even better if there is cooperation, particularly on routes on State highways, and ones that cross jurisdictions.
 
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