First MBTA bus lane on Broadway in Chelsea will improve commutes for riders

The city of Chelsea and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) have completed the new all-day bus-only lane, bike lane and pedestrian improvements on Broadway from City Hall Plaza to 3rd Street.

The bus lane is effective immediately.

“Improving bus service reliability for Chelsea has been a top priority for the MBTA in the wake of the pandemic,” said MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak. “In addition to these enhancements, we have been working closely with the city of Boston to construct an all-day, outbound bus lane on North Washington Street to ensure that routes like the 111 can get to and from Haymarket Station as quickly as possible.”

The Broadway bus lane is a key component of the MBTA’s Rapid Response Bus Lane Program. The Rapid Response Bus Lane Program is a transformative MBTA-municipal collaboration aimed at improving service reliability in order to better implement social distancing measures for MBTA riders and operators on the system’s busiest routes in the wake of the pandemic. Bus lanes can reduce crowding on buses and limit the amount of time riders spend near others while on the bus. In some cases, bus lanes can improve service frequency to further mitigate crowded conditions.

“Chelsea residents depend on MBTA buses every day of the week for transit to work, for travel to the grocery store and for accessing critical services,” said city of Chelsea City Manager Thomas G. Ambrosino. “Enhancing this bus service directly and positively impacts the health and well-being of all Chelsea residents, including many essential workers, by reducing delays and overcrowding along these important routes.”

The bus lane directly benefits several critical MBTA routes that have had above-average ridership since Massachusetts Gov. Charlies Baker declared a state of emergency in March. On average, approximately eight percent of current MBTA bus riders are transported each weekday by the four routes impacted by this bus lane. Based on pre-pandemic ridership data, this third-of-a-mile-long bus lane could one day benefit as many as 24,000 riders.

Project components include:

• An all-day bus-bike lane along Broadway (and a segment of Washington Avenue) from Chelsea City Hall Plaza to 3rd Street;
• A bike lane along Broadway from Everett Avenue to Williams Street with design funded by the MBTA and construction funded by Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Shared Streets and Spaces grant program; and
• Pedestrian safety and bus stop accessibility improvements at Bellingham Square, Broadway and 4th Street, and Broadway and 3rd Street.

The MBTA’s Rapid Response Bus Lane Program is based on close partnerships with state and municipal roadway owners, and other projects that have been completed already or are slated for completion this fall include Sweetser Circle, Broadway (outbound) and Main Street in Everett; Broadway (inbound) in Revere; North Washington Street in Boston from Cross Street to Causeway Street; and along Washington Street in Somerville. Design for these projects is supported by the MBTA’s on-call design contracts with implementation predominantly funded by the MBTA with assistance from each municipality.

The MBTA’s Transit Priority Group was created in 2019 with support from the Barr Foundation to further bus priority projects around the region. Since its creation last year, the group has partnered with municipalities to implement nearly four miles of dedicated bus lanes, alongside transit signal priority and other speed and reliability improvements.