I've been very glad to see that we're catching up with bus lanes that make great sense for buses without needing to go "full" BRT a la Curitiba or Bogota. Keeping these things a little less grandioise means we can fund these thigns out of cities and state budgets and avoid going after Small Starts grants and lengthy reviews. Thinking about places like Paris, London, Amsterdam, or Hamburg and even NYC, where they've implemented many bus lane projects administratively with relatively small budgets, though, it seems like we should be dreaming a bit bigger when it comes to bus facilities. That is, we should try to get more more projects like Columbus Ave. and less of the tactical bus lanes that we've been seeing.
So, looking at the CTPS bus priority corridors from 2018, I thought it's time to propose some upgraded ideas to push the limits of "reasonable" transit pitches.
Reasonable to kinda wild ideas for administrators - super wild for the reactionary types
Huntington/South Huntington (Mission Hill) - Convert the street running E-branch trackway to a shared bus + trolley transitway from Northeastern to Brigham Circle. Construct a shared bus+trolley transitway from Brigham Circle to Heath Street. It would give the 39 a leg-up in the long route. The E-branch operators already are used to 'shared' street operations. (I could see parking being a major concern in Mission Hill, too.) The other benefit is that this would help that longer Route 66 which has that slog through the entire region.
Commonwealth Ave (BU/Allston/Northern Brookline) - Convert the street running B-branch trackway to a shared bus + trolley transitway from Blandford to Packards Corner. Construct a new busway from Packards to Union Square. It would reëstablish the 57 as a successor to the A branch.
Wholly reasonable ideas - kinda wild ideas for the reactionary types
Washington St Silver Line (South End) - Convert this into a full Columbus Ave. style busway in the middle of the street. All the way from the Turnpike overcrossing down to where Washington and Warren Street meet. Some sections of Washington Street could have the street repurposed into having cycletracks and better parking regulations. Having the center busway also makes crossing Washington on foot much easier, where you're crossing in places between signals, too. My ideas for Washington Street Silver Line in Chinatown-Theatre District-Downtown Crossing are a bit wilder than "reasonable" but, put simply, involve a route change and would focus on contraflow bus lanes on Tremont and Washington.
Warren St (Roxbury) - The project should've been handled so much better in the 28X era. Warren St should have pretty significant bus priority given how many bus routes travel from Mattapan-Roxbury into Nubian Square. I think they could fit in a center busway between Nubian and Quincy/Townsend. Once you hit Quincy/Townsend, it seems like Boston could deprioritize through traffic to the parallel Humboldt and Blue Hill Ave and make one direction of Warren into a full busway and the other direction into a diverter kind of like the sketch below.
Bus island diverter concept (Red = safety islands or boarding island; purple = bus-only lane; green = bike lane)
Blue Hill Ave (Roxbury-Mattapan) - To opine for a bit, the biggest failure of the 28X project, to me, was killing the ability to do any bus lanes around the region (not just this corridor) for a couple decades. As far as that previous project and its administration, the saddest thing to me is that these are the neighborhoods and communities that have suffered from the most from the inequities of our transportation system.
A center busway from Warren Street straight to Mattapan Square/station area is a very easy design from a busway perspective - heck there even used to be a trolley line there. The street options are really how much space for parking and for the cycling facilities that would also likely be desirable here.
Mass Ave (Roxbury-South End) - A center busway from Melnea Cass to Symphony seems relatively straightforward. The transition from Symphony to Christian Science Center Plaza seems like the area in which you may transition out of a center busway.
Mass Ave (Fenway-Back Bay) - My thought is that this should be a transitway on the westernside of Mass Ave. Mass Ave is doing a lot in this section - serving local access, regional traffic to Boylston/Comm Ave/Beacon, access to the Pike from Cambridge & Roxbury, handling some of the Storrow traffic destined for Back Bay. It's one of the areas where, I don't see it not needing at least 3-lanes wide to allow for dedicated turn lanes, etc. to make it all work and not grind to a halt. Putting the transitway next to the western sidewalk means that you can improve bus stops, give the buses there dedicated space, and maintain some of the 3-lane wide vehicular space through this area.
Mass Ave (Back Bay to Central Square) - From Back Bay, I think the transition has to happen at Beacon Street to create a center busway again onto the Harvard Bridge. Mass Ave. in Cambridge is narrower, but, I think a tad less congested, so I don't know if you need as much dedicated space. I take a lot of inspiration from Ari. O.'s blog post here. Essentially, a center busway to MIT from the bridge, mixed traffic operations to Central Square station, and then a dedicated busway in Central Square to Cambridge City Hall.
North Washington/Rutherford (Downtown/North End) - Just make it a full busway all the way from the Route 1 ramps to Haymarket. I think it may again make the most sense to keep things on the western sidewalk so that you can maximize the use of sidewalk space and deal with the all of the regional traffic destined for downtown.
So, looking at the CTPS bus priority corridors from 2018, I thought it's time to propose some upgraded ideas to push the limits of "reasonable" transit pitches.
Reasonable to kinda wild ideas for administrators - super wild for the reactionary types
Huntington/South Huntington (Mission Hill) - Convert the street running E-branch trackway to a shared bus + trolley transitway from Northeastern to Brigham Circle. Construct a shared bus+trolley transitway from Brigham Circle to Heath Street. It would give the 39 a leg-up in the long route. The E-branch operators already are used to 'shared' street operations. (I could see parking being a major concern in Mission Hill, too.) The other benefit is that this would help that longer Route 66 which has that slog through the entire region.
Commonwealth Ave (BU/Allston/Northern Brookline) - Convert the street running B-branch trackway to a shared bus + trolley transitway from Blandford to Packards Corner. Construct a new busway from Packards to Union Square. It would reëstablish the 57 as a successor to the A branch.
Wholly reasonable ideas - kinda wild ideas for the reactionary types
Washington St Silver Line (South End) - Convert this into a full Columbus Ave. style busway in the middle of the street. All the way from the Turnpike overcrossing down to where Washington and Warren Street meet. Some sections of Washington Street could have the street repurposed into having cycletracks and better parking regulations. Having the center busway also makes crossing Washington on foot much easier, where you're crossing in places between signals, too. My ideas for Washington Street Silver Line in Chinatown-Theatre District-Downtown Crossing are a bit wilder than "reasonable" but, put simply, involve a route change and would focus on contraflow bus lanes on Tremont and Washington.
Warren St (Roxbury) - The project should've been handled so much better in the 28X era. Warren St should have pretty significant bus priority given how many bus routes travel from Mattapan-Roxbury into Nubian Square. I think they could fit in a center busway between Nubian and Quincy/Townsend. Once you hit Quincy/Townsend, it seems like Boston could deprioritize through traffic to the parallel Humboldt and Blue Hill Ave and make one direction of Warren into a full busway and the other direction into a diverter kind of like the sketch below.
Bus island diverter concept (Red = safety islands or boarding island; purple = bus-only lane; green = bike lane)
Blue Hill Ave (Roxbury-Mattapan) - To opine for a bit, the biggest failure of the 28X project, to me, was killing the ability to do any bus lanes around the region (not just this corridor) for a couple decades. As far as that previous project and its administration, the saddest thing to me is that these are the neighborhoods and communities that have suffered from the most from the inequities of our transportation system.
A center busway from Warren Street straight to Mattapan Square/station area is a very easy design from a busway perspective - heck there even used to be a trolley line there. The street options are really how much space for parking and for the cycling facilities that would also likely be desirable here.
Mass Ave (Roxbury-South End) - A center busway from Melnea Cass to Symphony seems relatively straightforward. The transition from Symphony to Christian Science Center Plaza seems like the area in which you may transition out of a center busway.
Mass Ave (Fenway-Back Bay) - My thought is that this should be a transitway on the westernside of Mass Ave. Mass Ave is doing a lot in this section - serving local access, regional traffic to Boylston/Comm Ave/Beacon, access to the Pike from Cambridge & Roxbury, handling some of the Storrow traffic destined for Back Bay. It's one of the areas where, I don't see it not needing at least 3-lanes wide to allow for dedicated turn lanes, etc. to make it all work and not grind to a halt. Putting the transitway next to the western sidewalk means that you can improve bus stops, give the buses there dedicated space, and maintain some of the 3-lane wide vehicular space through this area.
Mass Ave (Back Bay to Central Square) - From Back Bay, I think the transition has to happen at Beacon Street to create a center busway again onto the Harvard Bridge. Mass Ave. in Cambridge is narrower, but, I think a tad less congested, so I don't know if you need as much dedicated space. I take a lot of inspiration from Ari. O.'s blog post here. Essentially, a center busway to MIT from the bridge, mixed traffic operations to Central Square station, and then a dedicated busway in Central Square to Cambridge City Hall.
North Washington/Rutherford (Downtown/North End) - Just make it a full busway all the way from the Route 1 ramps to Haymarket. I think it may again make the most sense to keep things on the western sidewalk so that you can maximize the use of sidewalk space and deal with the all of the regional traffic destined for downtown.