MA: Boston Mayor Wu rethinking bike and bus lanes, other street changes made during her first term

After a second bus lane implemented by her administration was removed last month, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is following through on plans to initiate a 30-day review of all street changes that were made during her first term in office.

The scope of the review would include street infrastructure changes from the last three years, with an eye toward rethinking controversial bus and bike lanes that haven’t performed as intended and may have negatively impacted city roads, according to an internal city memo obtained by the Herald.

The intention of the review, per the memo, is “to hear from community leaders post-project installation to assess how each project is functioning and identify feasible and responsive changes that can be made.”

“The goal is to make adjustments to projects that improve functioning of roadways for all users without compromising core safety goals, and to demonstrate how community input shapes post-project follow-up,” the memo states. “We will prioritize quick changes, where possible, but make space for discussion of complex challenges with tradeoffs that need to be carefully managed.”

Wu’s decision to rethink her prior street reconfigurations, including the city’s controversial bike lanes, comes at a time when her opponent in the mayoral race, Josh Kraft, has said that, if elected, he would pause all new bike lane construction.

“As citywide bike infrastructure has been built out piece by piece across the last decade, our administration has had the responsibility to finish several critical links in the network to make them fully usable and safe,” Wu wrote in a letter attached to the memo. “These last links are often the most difficult community conversations involving significant tradeoffs.

“Many of these projects have been implemented successfully, in close partnership with residents and neighborhoods, and have quickly blended into the fabric of our neighborhoods,” the mayor said. “Others have not.”

The Feb. 21 memo outlines some questions that will drive the review, such as what data the city used to justify the original implementation of a given street reconfiguration and if it can measure whether its goals for that change were achieved.

The review will look at whether there were alternative plans or proposals that the city could pivot to, should a street change be deemed ineffective; if there were any other available options that weren’t considered; and whether that future work to fix inefficiencies can be done with existing city resources or requires paid contractors.

If contracted resources are needed, those conducting the review, led by Michael Brohel, the city’s superintendent of basic city services, will examine whether there are budget or procurement considerations, per the memo, which was first reported by StreetsblogMass.

The cost information for changes to replace prior reconfiguration along with what the city paid for the original work will be part of the review.

A Herald analysis of the city’s $4.7 billion capital plan for fiscal year 2025-29 shows 13 projects involving bike lanes exceed $121 million, but it’s unclear from the data how much of that is devoted solely to implementing lanes for cyclists.

At the time of the Herald report last November, Mayor Wu’s office said the city’s budget between FY23 and FY24 included $145 million in streets investments for capital upgrades, including sidewalks, repaving roads and ramps, and that bike lanes are built as part of larger projects.

As of mid-November, the city built 15 total miles of new protected bike lanes since it announced its bike network expansion and safer streets initiative in 2022, at roughly $150,000 per mile, or about $2.25 million, the mayor’s office said.

The mayor first announced her intention to initiate the 30-day review last month, in a letter to Back Bay leaders that also informed them that her administration had opted to remove a bus lane on Boylston Street, after observational analysis found that it “has not functioned as intended to justify the space allocation.”

The lane was initially installed as a temporary measure to ferry displaced MBTA Orange Line riders during the line’s month-long shutdown in 2022 but was then deemed a permanent fixture last summer.

TransitMatters, an advocacy group, said its data from the MBTA, following a public records response, differs from what the city has concluded, in terms of showing that the Boylston Street bus lane is “largely successful.”

“This decision is framed as a response to public concerns made by a loud few rather than public transportation users,” TransitMatters said in a statement. “Data does not back the removal, and the city fails to consider several important factors.

“TransitMatters is deeply disappointed by this decision and calls upon the City of Boston to pause the removal of the Boylston Street bus lane.”

The Wu administration also announced plans to remove a bus lane on Summer Street that previously ran through South Boston last September, while citing similar reasons, along with cars using it more than buses to “cut through traffic.”

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