MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

FWIW, Everett is testing and Cambridge is planning (Mass Ave). Is there some action on bus lanes or signal priority that I am not giving Boston credit for?
 
Supposedly, Boston was/is testing/has launched signal priority for the Green Line/Route 57 buses on Comm Ave, but I have no idea what the status of this is.
 
Arlington said:
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)
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Completely agreed. That is one of the major complaints I have with Boston is that it seems that parking always comes before mobility for both personal autos and buses. Where are the rush-hour parking restrictions, turning lanes and general lane enforcement rules that are so prevalent basically everywhere else?

As evidenced by the map you linked to, a bus lane (even if only during rush hour 6-10a and 3-7p) along Washington Street between Roslindale Square and Forest Hills would be infinitely better for the neighborhood than the current glut of parking.
 
omaja said:
Completely agreed. That is one of the major complaints I have with Boston is that it seems that parking always comes before mobility for both personal autos and buses. Where are the rush-hour parking restrictions, turning lanes and general lane enforcement rules that are so prevalent basically everywhere else?

As evidenced by the map you linked to, a bus lane (even if only during rush hour 6-10a and 3-7p) along Washington Street between Roslindale Square and Forest Hills would be infinitely better for the neighborhood than the current glut of parking.
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There are examples of rush hour parking restrictions in the urban core -- East Berkeley Street AM restriction, for example. I believe there are others in Back Bay, other parts of Downtown... but they are not all that common.
 
Scipio said:
More good reviews of Everett's Broadway bus lane. The original plan was to do a one-week demonstration this fall, take it down, and then do a longer-term pilot in the spring. Now they've decided to keep the demonstration going for as long as possible.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/re...way-success/9wDjozXVolbCkz2ziPf9lJ/story.html
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YES! Let Boston, Cambridge & Somerville know that they just got schooled in transportation innovation by Everett.

Back to this picture, where Broadway in Everett is only Orange (at the "E" in Everett, below). The mayor of every route that's between Orange and Red should be looking at removing parking 4am to 9am along every Orange-Red route.

dedicatedlanes2.png
 
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This was such a quick and obvious win we need to question what Everett did right (and how Cambridge and Boston can copy it). Was it the unusually supportive mayor? A more recent plan for local transit improvements?
 
FitchburgLine said:
This was such a quick and obvious win we need to question what Everett did right (and how Cambridge and Boston can copy it). Was it the unusually supportive mayor? A more recent plan for local transit improvements?
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Looks like me that the key ingredient is the political willpower to unilaterally wipe out parking on an entire corridor.
 
I think another key element is that the whole endeavor was advertised as temporary. If Everett had even gone as far as road paint with this, I'm not sure it could have gotten off the ground. It's a nice transit adaptation of what bike advocates have been doing with trials of protected lanes. Once a majority realizes that the sky doesn't fall when the prototype infrastructure is implemented, it gets much easier to move up the paint->electronics->concrete ladder.
 
^ Good point about starting as "temporary" and "just a test". Laypeople are bad at forecasting how transportation changes will affect them--generally focusing on any possible "loss" they'd suffer (no matter how remote), and bad at seeing upsides. But having tasted fast bus service, ain't no way they're gonna give it up.

To focus on parking as a source for AM-only Bus lanes is also key. Riders vastly outnumber shop owners, but shop owners are usually long-tenured, organized, politically-wired, and have more concrete "cash register" scares to bomb-throw, as opposed to riders who have a hard time articulating the value of reliable transit or describing the losses they currently suffer from bad transit.

So on any "Main Street" (retail, non-residential stretch, which most busy bus routes travel), the key is to show riders the upside before merchants can spool up the propaganda machine with imagined/exaggerated downsides.

I think Everett (and all others) should keep the lanes 'til 9:30. We've talked elsewhere about the value of a "safety train"...the first "post-9am-arrival" commuter rail trip with low ridership that nonetheless serves as backup for everyone who's crowded onto the "get there before 9" train. Ridership on "the 9:20" arrival train is low, but everyone on that train probably a regular on "the 8:50" just had their disaster day saved (or job saved) by it. "The 9:20" is a key part of their use of mass transit.

Same goes for a safety bus...the bus that keeps you from being "too late" when you're late or when the last in-rush bus gets cancelled.

1) Most of these stores don't open until 10am anyway because anyone with the time/leisure to go shopping during the weekday is (a) not somebody on a 9-5 commute and (b) almost by definition going to wait to "go out" until after rush hour calms down. Commuters dominate the streets until 9:30 and shoppers don't emerge until things are tailing off.

2) Merchants believe that customers park in the spots in front of their store, and so cannot claim to need them "for customers" until 10 minutes before they open (the reality is that employees and shop owners actually squat all day in the "customer" spots if pricing/enforcement even wink at it). If the bus lane were clear by 9:45 every day, that should be sufficient.

So taking spots as late at 9:30a...9:15 or 9:20 if we must... to use as bus lanes can and should be standard practice and get pushback only from the few stores that cater to commuters (coffee & dry cleaning)
 
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The stretch of Lower Broadway between Sweetser Circle and Sullivan Square is where the bus lanes are REALLY needed, as shown by the map. There's no parking there for the most part, so I don't know what the solution is there...
 
How many vehicles per hour does lower Broadway see during the peak hour in the peak direction? If it were to turn out to be less than 1800, maybe just reallocate one of the travel lanes to be a bus lane instead of a queue storage lane?

In the long run, we might want to build a new bridge across the Mystic for the Newburyport/Rockport line to get better geometry for the commuter rail, then convert the existing Newburyport/Rockport bridge across the Mystic to look a lot like Tilikum Crossing, at least in the sense of having one transit lane in each direction shared between bus and Green Line, plus bicycle and pedestrian access. There'd then be a transitway just to the west of the commuter rail tracks from Sweetser Circle to the bridge, and presumably we'd work something out to build a transitway from the bridge to Sullivan Sq as well.
 
cden4 said:
The stretch of Lower Broadway between Sweetser Circle and Sullivan Square is where the bus lanes are REALLY needed, as shown by the map. There's no parking there for the most part, so I don't know what the solution is there...
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A really interesting question is how Everett chooses to spend its $$$ from Wynn's Casino. On the Casino's PR site they say:
Sweetser Circle and Revere Beach Parkway — Access lanes will be widened and the circle will be modernized to relieve congestion. Improvements will also be made to intersections along Revere Beach Parkway.

Lower Broadway (Route 99) — A four-lane boulevard will be created with new turn lanes, ultra-modern ‘smart’ lights, upgraded street lights and furniture, trees and a landscaped median.

Sullivan Square — An effective, short-term solution is being created that ties into Boston’s long-term plan. Wynn is also committed to fund planning and help realize Boston’s preferred Sullivan Square design. Wynn will jump start the improvement process which has been under discussion for more than 15 years.

Wellington, Malden and Sullivan Square T Stations — Continuous shuttle service will be provided for guests and employees travelling to the resort via public transportation.
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If "'smart' lights" means "transit signal priority, that'd be really cool. And frankly, if Wynn wants TSP & HOV on 99 for his shuttle buses, that'd be totally cool with me as long as the MBTA and UberXL and Taxi can use them (when occupied). If they want to call it BUS & ____ Only, almost any ___ would work (Commercial vehicles, taxi/limo, or HOV3+) with the corresponding enforcement commitment.
 
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I've been wondering if it would make sense to have a 15 minute headway late night bus network that would be centered around the casino, and whether it would be pratical to make it available to the general public for arbitrary non-casino trips, but to have the casino pay for the privilege of being at the center of the network.

One bus route could potentially loop around the airport terminals, possibly stop at the Blue Line Airport station, then follow the Coughlin Bypass road, the Chelsea busway, then Spruce St to Beacham St to 99, and potentially continue past Sullivan to Davis via Broadway along the 89 bus route.

Another bus route might start at Wonderland and follow the part of bus route 117 north of the Chelsea busway, and then follow Broadway to Williams to Beacham to 99 to Sullivan, then Somerville's Union Sq and then Harvard Sq and then Watertown Sq.

Another bus route might start at the Malden Center MBTA station, follow Centre to Main to Broadway to Sullivan, then Lechmere, Kendall, Harvard Bridge, and then follow bus route 28 to Mattapan.

Bus route 109 extended to Cambridge's Central Sq, then Boston University and Coolidge Corner might also make sense.
 
Woohoo! The Lechmere bus terminal has countdown timers (2 units, w/2 lines per side). So I saw next bus in xx minutes for the 80, 87,88 and one other

How are the other major bus terminals doing? Davis, Dudley, Alewife, Sullivan, Wellington, etc?
 
I've seen them at Harvard and will look when I'm in Davis tomorrow.

They're quite helpful.
 
Arlington said:
Woohoo! The Lechmere bus terminal has countdown timers (2 units, w/2 lines per side). So I saw next bus in xx minutes for the 80, 87,88 and one other

How are the other major bus terminals doing? Davis, Dudley, Alewife, Sullivan, Wellington, etc?
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They have these at Forest Hills, but the display is confusing, as it seems to randomly list routes, neither in order of next bus, nor route number. Also, perhaps only an issue at Forest Hills, but there is no display of location data, which matters when there are three separate bus depots.
 
Davis Sq Busway side (96/94) side does not have bus times outside (biked past last night)
Lechmere's are good in that they cover all 4 lines that have berths (69,80,87,88)
 
We've discussed Houston-style bus network redesigns before, and the conclusion has generally been that that's not a lot of places in Boston where you really have chances for consolidation. But looking at Silicon Valley's proposed plan really drove something home for me: Boston needs consistent frequencies, and clock-facing schedules.

The 70 is particularly bad. Many other routes operate inconsistent or awkward frequencies - 11, 13, 6.5, 25 minute headways - which are hard to remember. On several segments with overlapping routes, there's no coordination whatsoever between schedules (70/70A, 1/CT1, etc). Some routes just need consistency - the 43 is scheduled for between 15 and 25 minutes all day, but the headways bounce around constantly.
 
^ I can attest to the frustration of the 43 frequency, and the fact that buses simply disappear from the schedule, leaving huge gaps. (One minute they are showing on my app, the next minute they are cancelled.)

I often default to walking a few blocks to Washington Street to catch a SL4 or 5 rather than trying to figure out what is real on the 43 schedule. (Not that the Silver Line schedule is hugely reliable either, it is just more frequent in general.)
 
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