Silver Line to Chelsea

After watching the video, I looked at Google Maps typical traffic a bit and was surprised that the Tobin seems to stay green weekday afternoons.

Page 6 of ftp://ctps.org/pub/Express_Highway_Volumes/01_Route_1_North.pdf has hourly traffic counts for the morning peak from 2007. I was surprised to discover that the peak hour only had 3,600 vehicles crossing the Tobin southbound, which would probably fit just fine into two of the three lanes. A southbound bus lane on the Tobin would change where the queue gets stored, which might slow other traffic to the north which exits onto Route 16 or even further north, but if traffic hasn't increased since 2007, a bus lane on the Tobin Bridge probably wouldn't reduce the number of single occupancy vehicles crossing it.

It appears that if there were a bus route that stopped at the busway's Eastern Ave, Box District, and Bellingham Sq stops, and skipped Market Basket, that the US 1 southbound on ramp at the Arlington St / 5th St intersection would be quite easy for the bus to get to. The reverse direction US 1 to busway route isn't so convenient, and getting from Eastern Ave to the Arlington / 5th intersection involves a certain amount of going north to go south.

If the morning Tobin congestion could be dealt with somehow, I'm wondering if it would make sense to run a one way loop that would start at Haymarket, follow 111's route from Haymarket to the Park St @ Hawthorne St bus stop in Chelsea that both 111 and 112 serve, then travel along Central Ave making at least one of the stops 112 serves, then stop at Eastern Ave, Box District, and Bellingham Sq and continue onto US 1 back to Haymarket. If this is going to be done, it might make sense to start with assigning it four 40' buses during the afternoon peak, if that's successful, expand it to the morning peak, and if that's also successful, expand its hours further. (If it eventually runs 18+ hours a day 7 days a week, I think that might be good, but I also think starting with just the hours most likely to attract strong ridership would be good. And if Boston builds Congress St bus lanes someday, it might also make sense to extend this route to South Station.)
 
Sooooo. Any word on 1) Introduction of electric buses 2) Accurate countdown timers 3) Charliecar kiosks at all SL3 stops?

Also I can't wait for the Lounge at Winisimmit. Wish it was in bldup.
 
djohnstonb said:
Sooooo. Any word on 1) Introduction of electric buses 2) Accurate countdown timers 3) Charliecar kiosks at all SL3 stops?

Also I can't wait for the Lounge at Winisimmit. Wish it was in bldup.
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I'll re-ask but

1) Prob not until 2019 for the procurement to start. Then its 1-2 years after that depending on manufacture and acceptance by the T. Its in the CIP so funding has been allocated for it. Its just a matter of time now.

2) Not sure what the deal is. They keep saying the bridge was the issue but how much more accurate data do they need? :) I'm starting to wonder if it something else.

3) Not until AFC 2.0 . The T thought it was a waste of money to put vending machines this year, only to rip them out by 2020 when AFC 2.0 comes along. However, the T says we will be the first to get the new machines since we do not have any.
 
Let's say hypothetically there was to be dedicated bus lanes from SLW to Eastern Ave. Is it possible based on the infrastructure that exists today?
 
Born in Chelsea in 1951, left in 1974. When I read about the plans for SL3 all I could think of was "What a crock!" I am not the least bit surprised by this "too cheap to build a subway line " BRT crap.

The 116/117 used to run up Central Ave to Wood Island back in the day and it was the best way into Boston. Even the occasional drawbridge opening wasn't too long.
 
I had an idea this morning to mitigate SL3, 112, and 77 bridge issues.

Simply put, make it so that only one drawbridge can be up at a time.

When the Chelsea St bridge is up, buses take the other bridge.

Thoughts?
 
This is pretty interesting. I dont ever take the silver line so I was curious how this all tied together. Someone filmed the entire silver line route from Chelsea to South Station. Overall it looks very efficient because a lot of it is traffic separated until you get to the tunnel, then you spend just as long in traffic as the whole trip takes. Besides having to use the Ted, it looks pretty good.

A new tunnel would be great for addressing this issue now on the bus route as is, then later it can be included into the conversion to rail. Anyways they seem to have done a great job with what they had.

https://youtu.be/_17NGyHtq2s
 
I wonder if we'll ever seriously consider splitting the two tubes into 4 separated lanes, with a reversible 2 / 1 / HOV configuration a la the Holland tunnel.
 
^ should totally do this!
Are the Sumner Callahan MassPort?
 
CSTH said:
I wonder if we'll ever seriously consider splitting the two tubes into 4 separated lanes, with a reversible 2 / 1 / HOV configuration a la the Holland tunnel.
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So the 1+HOV configuration is used in the direction of rush-hour traffic?
 
Shepard said:
So the 1+HOV configuration is used in the direction of rush-hour traffic?
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I think you have to go 2 + HOV in the peak direction, 1 lane in the other.

Of course, if you restrict opposite-peak traffic too much, you will still bog down the buses because they have to loop no matter the time of day.
 
The Lincoln Tunnel Exclusive Bus Lane (XBL) is an AM-only Inbound-only contraflow lane (from NJ into the Port Authority Bus Terminal(PABT):

lincoln-xbl-a.jpg

It is scary as heck if you're the car in the leftmost outbound lane, BUT IT WORKS! Operating 6am to 10am weekdays since 1971, it now moves 1,850 daily buses and something like 70,000 people (38 per bus)

So you might not do it in the PM rush. You'd just need to figure out how to get buses "over to the left" when in East Boston, so they could take the right lane of the Callahan as a contraflow inbound, and then how to get up to Haymarket (as our PABT "lite")

The coolest part: Just like the "emergency lane" into the TWT, the ramp that Callahan Contraflow buses would use to get up to the surface ALREADY EXISTS:

It is an easy "right" (if you're going the wrong way at the North End portal of the Callahan)
https://goo.gl/maps/ySZxjn7XJEU2


And here it is where it could turn right from North St onto Cross St
(view looking at the current "authorized only" gate from Cross St)
https://goo.gl/maps/K2wivgo4iww
 
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Right. It would be tricky, but I think it's feasible. So in each rush hour you'd have 2 traffic lanes and 1 bus (SL + Logan Express + Peterpan etc.) lane in the rush direction, with the other lane being all traffic in the non-rush direction.

Especially hard to link up with HOV lane in soutboston.
 
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