Support a South Boston Peak-Hour Bus Lane Pilot

It has been just over a year since the city of Everett launched its peak-hour bus lane on Broadway. Results show that the one mile stretch has cut trip times by 20-30% and the city is now working on bus stop consolidation, transit signal priority, and more bus lanes. Until this pilot project, there had been little action to improve bus speeds and reliability in the Boston region. 

A similar pilot took place on traffic plagued Washington Street in Roslindale. MBTA data confirmed that riders benefited from the bus lane, reducing travel time while in the lane by 20 to 25 percent during the worst hour of congestion (7:30 AM to 8:30 AM). For the 1,100 bus riders traveling through the corridor during that hour, that works out to 26 hours of passenger time saved on a typical day, or 38 hours saved on a day when road congestion was significantly higher than normal. 

Currently, about 25% of South Boston residents rely on the bus to get to work and that number is growing quickly according to the Boston Planning & Development Agency.

It is proven that peak-hour bus lanes are successful and we need the support from the City of Boston to implement a pilot in South Boston for the #7 and #9 Bus Routes. It is the municipality that is responsible for our streets and sidewalks and the MBTA is on board and ready to pilot these initiatives. Time and time again, we have public meetings and lots of discussion but zero action or implementation. We need to pilot these peak-hour bus lanes to show that we can move thousands of South Boston residents to and from work more reliably and efficiently, reducing waits at bus stops and shortening the commute time to and from our neighborhood.

Areas for consideration are Summer Street for the 7 Bus and West Broadway, East Berkeley St, Herald Street for the 9 bus. 

Let's work together and get this done! Sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/support-a-peak-hour-bus-lane-pilot-to-keep-south-boston-moving