CITY: TAKE THE BUS
Congress Street eyed for dedicated lane
The city is eyeing one of its downtown thoroughfares as the next place to clear out lanes of car traffic in favor of dedicated bus lanes.
A study funded by $260,000 in cash handed over by the developers of upcoming skyscrapers will look into making a bus lane on Congress Street, running from North Station to South Station and the nearby Seaport.
The rubber will hit the road with the bus initiative sometime next year, with a public review process between next spring and fall, according to Mayor Martin Walsh’s office. Asked for further detail, Walsh’s staff pointed to a mention of the project in the “Go Boston 2030,” the voluminous transportation planning document the city dropped two years ago.
Plans for the Congress Street bus lane echo longstanding gripes with the difficulty for Commuter Rail riders connecting between North Station and South Station. Such complaints have led to renewed calls from advocates to build the long-discussed North-South Rail Link tunnel connecting the two, a project the state has deemed not worth its whopping $9.5 billion price tag.
The bus-lane plan is much cheapcontinue er, but Go Boston 2030 still pegs it at $21 million for design and construction. The plan would include dedicated bus lanes separated from normal traffic.
Asked about bus infrastructure, Walsh said in a statement through a spokeswoman, “I am proud that by working collaboratively with residents throughout Boston, we will to invest in projects that improve commute times, reduce congestion and reduce emissions, creating better transportation options for all.”
The money “to facilitate planning and design” comes through the Boston Planning & Development Agency from agreements with developers building skyscrapers at Winthrop Square, One Post Office Square and 15-19 Congress St.
Walsh’s office touted the use of bus lanes around Boston as a way of reducing the city’s brutal congestion issues, saying such projects already have improved bus frequency and reliability.
A bus lane up Washington Street between Roslindale Square and the Forest Hills Orange Line station has dropped the average travel time along the route during peak hours by 20-25%, officials say. In addition, the bus has added straphangers. The city and the MBTA also teamed up to put a new bus lane in place along the length of Brighton Avenue over the past few weeks.
The projects are part of an effort by city and the MBTA to focus on bus priority projects, including bus-only lanes and an effort to make traffic lights work in buses’ favor.