Dwell times per passenger went down, but the free fares also stimulated ridership, which made it basically a wash.
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Dwell times per passenger went down, but the free fares also stimulated ridership, which made it basically a wash.
Good point. Looks like the T's measure of dwell time per passenger went down 23%. Basically, I think they're saying absolute dwell times stayed about the same, but all while ridership on the 28 went up 38%. I'd say that's still a big win, but slightly different than what I was saying before.
Also, I rode the 28 a few times near the start of the pilot (not my usual route). Pretty regularly, people would still line up to get on only at the front door, because that's what they were used to or that's what all the other buses do. Maybe that got better as the pilot went on. But that's another reason to just make all the buses free, instead of picking and choosing some. If some buses still cost a fare, then some people will still be lining up at the front door when they don't have to, or trying to tap in while the bus driver tries to explain they don't have to. If we make the whole thing simple and consistent ("No fares, just get on"), people will get in faster.
BeansTheCat
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Another plus that comes from free buses and is not often brought up is increased driver safety, and with it, improved retention and hiring. From the discourse that occurred during the recent re-negotiation of the Carmen's Union contract, it appeared that bus driver safety was the one of the highest priority areas, after only pay increases. Fare disputes seem to be the leading cause of conflicts with drivers (although I couldn't find a source for this), and removing them should make drivers much safer. I have no idea how the value of this could be quantified, but it's definitely not negligible. This is of course besides the fact that bus drivers are human and deserve as much of a safe and respectable working environment as anyone else, and a little extra investment could immediately help with that.
not only that, but free buses = greater ridership = more people waiting for the bus at stops and riding on the bus. People are less likely to assault bus drivers/commit crimes when a bunch of people are around and watching. That makes the on-bus and bus-stop experience safer for everyone else.
Aha yes, this was it, thank you both! And yeah, even if dwell times didn’t necessarily improve in certain ways, the increased ridership is an obvious winner, IMO.
It’s also possible that the 28 is a bit of a special case, and that lower ridership routes — maybe even very-high-but-not-28-high ridership routes — might see dwell improvements.
Koopzilla24
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They need to wait until the new Charlie Cards that work with the fare readers are implemented. Riders still overwhelmingly use Charlie Cards over tap to pay and doing all door boarding on buses would just be a free pass for Charlie Card users to fare evade unless they have a massive fare enforcement presence. This isn't a concern on the Green Line because all door boarding and just not paying fare has been the norm for years and now with the tap readers it's all door boarding with some people paying fares.
AndrewOnTheMBTA
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Drove by the center-bus-lane section along Seaver and Columbus on a venture out of Eastie to JP, and it doesn't slow cars on Columbus at all, while getting a steady ridership and keeping a nice pace.
The look of the stations came out nicely. In a VERY perfect world it'd extend down Blue Hill Ave and be light rail, but this does better for now!
The look of the stations came out nicely. In a VERY perfect world it'd extend down Blue Hill Ave and be light rail, but this does better for now!
Shortly after it was implemented the class I was in at the time was led on a guided tour by someone in BTD. We rode them outbound then walked inbound and talked to people as we went. The only complaint we heard was the McDonalds drive-through would back up into the road and block traffic now that it's single lane. This, imo, is better framed as "should there be a drive through here" rather than "the bus lane created this problem". It is a wonderful piece of infrastructure.
EDIT: I also want to add I've driven it twice while delivering for instacart on the weekends and did not find it burdensome or confusing, including that one of those deliveries was on Coloumbus.
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HelloBostonHi
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T Re-Routes 66 Buses Through Harvard Bus Tunnel - Streetsblog Massachusetts
The MBTA has started routing its Route 66 buses – one of its key bus routes – through the Harvard Bus Tunnel instead of using the surface streets through Harvard Square. The new routing offers a more direct, weather-protected transfer between the 66 and the Red Line, and bypasses several traffic...
mass.streetsblog.org
Hadn't heard about this change, according to NEtransit this is the first time since 2004 the 66 has been in the Harvard tunnel.
T Re-Routes 66 Buses Through Harvard Bus Tunnel - Streetsblog Massachusetts
The MBTA has started routing its Route 66 buses – one of its key bus routes – through the Harvard Bus Tunnel instead of using the surface streets through Harvard Square. The new routing offers a more direct, weather-protected transfer between the 66 and the Red Line, and bypasses several traffic...
Hadn't heard about this change, according to NEtransit this is the first time since 2004 the 66 has been in the Harvard tunnel.
I thought they would wait until the 71 and 73 were out of the upper busway to do it, but glad to see it finally happen.
sean99090900
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Petitioners seek to blunt idea of a Columbia Rd. bus lane | Dorchester Reporter
A group of residents and merchants who oppose the idea of a dedicated center bus lane on Columbia Road have been gathering signatures this summer from like-minded people as they seek to pre-empt any official effort to add bus lanes to the 2.5 mile Dorchester-South Boston artery. The city of...
sean99090900
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I think there's a lot of hand wringing over nothing but like, I entirely forgot that Columbia road was even getting center running bus lanes. I have been excitedly watching for news about the Blue Hill Ave and Columbus Ave/Tremont Street center lanes but don't remember seeing this one. Are people right that outreach has been particularly poor, or did I just merge this with Columbus Ave in my head lol
bigeman312
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- Columbus Ave is scheduled to begin construction in 2025.
- Blue Hill Ave is scheduled to begin construction in 2026.
sean99090900
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I see I see, hopefully it survives 
Teban54
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The publicity with Columbia Rd center-running bus lanes has certainly not felt quite right. Granted, I haven't checked much first-hand information recently outside of this forum, but the most recent update I could recall was that they weren't even including bus lanes at all in the Columbia Rd redesign, citing the 16 bus wasn't operated or used as frequently as Columbus Ave and BHA (which is BS). I'm pleasantly surprised by the news, but that's not a good look if it took a public feedback controversy for the news to reach transit nerds.
TheRatmeister
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That is true though. The 16 gets about half as many riders with lower peak loads than the 22, especially in comparison to the Columbus Ave section of the 22. And BHA is just such an unfair comparison I'm not even
going to bother, the 28 alone is double the ridership of the 16, adding in the 22 and 29 from earlier plus the 31 from Forest Hills and it's not even close.
That's not to say Columbia isn't an important bus corridor, it is, but comparatively it is and should be behind Washington St, Warren St, Columbus Ave, and BHA for major bus projects.
Teban54
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The elephant in the room is timeline for opportunity of improvements. Washington St and Warren St* have not been proposed for a road redesign and will probably not be anytime soon, whereas the City of Boston is already leading the Columbia Road Transportation Action Plan with or without bus priority. If bus lanes (especially center-running ones) are not put in right now together with the rest of the project, I suspect they never will.
Plus, the 16 receives identical tiers of service as the 22 in the BNRD. Center-running bus lanes would help just as many buses running on the 16 as they do on the 22.
* The southern half of Warren St is also quite narrow, to the extent where 4 travel lanes are probably out of question.
To make this happen, they are reassigning route 66 to a different garage so that there is no longer a CNG issue with the tunnel.T Re-Routes 66 Buses Through Harvard Bus Tunnel - Streetsblog Massachusetts
The MBTA has started routing its Route 66 buses – one of its key bus routes – through the Harvard Bus Tunnel instead of using the surface streets through Harvard Square. The new routing offers a more direct, weather-protected transfer between the 66 and the Red Line, and bypasses several traffic...
Hadn't heard about this change, according to NEtransit this is the first time since 2004 the 66 has been in the Harvard tunnel.