Speeding Up Buses in Boston

Boston's buses lost 8 percent of their ridership in 2016, even as the city has put resources into the system. "The region’s most important bus routes tend to be the worst performers — mired in congestion and delayed by a boarding process that takes forever. The slowest bus route in the system, the 1, also has the fifth-highest ridership," Angie Schmitt writes for Streetsblog USA.

A few miles of dedicated bus lanes could make a huge difference in the speed of travel. "The LivableStreets Alliance has identified seven miles of congested streets where buses carry 92,000 passengers on weekdays — about a fifth of all MBTA bus ridership," Schmitt writes. These lanes would include a previous experiment on Washington Street. "In addition to bus lanes, the Alliance recommends implementing traffic signals that can hold green lights for buses and creating better passenger environments at bus stops,"

The alliance suggests a ride hailing fee, similar to the one in Chicago, to pay for these improvements.