Boston has announced plans to create a dedicated bus lane on North Washington Street between Causeway and Haymarket, a significant bottleneck for the 111 bus route serving Chelsea riders. This initiative could substantially cut commute times for the approximately 111 Chelsea bus riders who use this corridor.
The new dedicated lane would serve the 111 bus route as well as two Charlestown bus routes. According to Boston officials, the lane could reduce travel times by as much as 25 percent.
“We are planning on building an exclusive
bus lane on North Washington Street from the intersection at Causeway Street
after the bridge to Haymarket,” explained Vineet Gupta, director of planning at the Boston Transportation Department (BTD). “It would be a dedicated bus lane 24/7
on the inbound side. Right now, we’re working with the MBTA to install that bus
lane.”
Boston Transportation Department Director Gina Fiandaca noted that her office has been collaborating with Boston Mayor Martin Walsh and the MBTA regarding the North Washington Street bus lane, with hopes of completing the project as early as 2019. The stretch is frequently congested, Fiandaca noted, with passengers sometimes spending more time waiting on the bus during this final segment than they would need to walk it.
“This inbound bus lane will have the
opportunity to move along at a quicker pace than the rest of the traffic,” Fiandaca stated. “Another good part of this is in the future when the North Washington
Street Bridge is completed, it will have a bus lane as well. That will provide
a connection with this new lane to have one unbroken exclusive bus lane from
Charlestown when the Bridge is done.”
Implementation of the lane will require removing certain metered parking spaces and one commercial parking space, though much of the affected stretch already consists of bus stops and no-parking zones.
According to Gupta, definitive commute-time data for inbound traffic is not yet available, though collection will begin soon. Comparable projects offer encouraging precedent: a bus lane installed in Roslindale last year reduced commutes by 25 percent, and similar results occurred in Everett two years ago when a dedicated bus lane was added to Broadway.
Boston Mayor Walsh unveiled this plan among several announcements made at the Greater Boston Municipal Research Bureau meeting on March 7. The North Washington Street bus lane would represent Boston’s first dedicated bus lane operating 24 hours daily.