BOSTON, MA (WBZ-AM) -- A dedicated bus lane takes effect this week in Roslindale. The curbside lane of Washington Street, between Roslindale Village and Forest Hills Station, will be prioritized for MBTA and school buses weekdays from 5-9 AM, with bicyclists allowed to use the lane as well.
Back in December, a two day pilot program was tested for dedicated bus lane.
WATCH: MBTA Tests Dedicated Bus Lane In Roslindale
By Carl Stevens
This is a four-week pilot program to comprehensively test the effectiveness of a dedicated bus lane in Roslindale.
“Well, we had the trial in December that went well and we wanted to expand on that, build off the success of the trial expand for weeks Monday to Friday from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m.” said Patrick Hoey, senior planner with the Boston Transportation Department,
Hoey says it is too early whether or not they will make this permanent or include both outbound and inbound routes.
“It's possible. I mean we want to approach this incrementally because there are deliveries that have to be made, there are residents that need access to their homes things like that. We have to work around so restricting the parking. You know is something that we have to be conscious of,” Hoey said.
There are a total of nine bus routes that run through this area and nearly 20,000 people using it. MBTA General Manager Luis Ramirez says this task is to see if they can get people around better.
“We're not losing any travel lanes we're actually adding capacity by adding that second lane for use of the MBTA buses and the school buses.”
“I think what we're going to find is that this is the an option in the toolkit to try to improve the on time performance of buses throughout the city.”
Ramirez says most of the MBTA’s ridership are on buses and stressed the importance of changing their on-time performance due to congestion during rush hour.
All of this will be evaluated when it's over Officials plan on talking to commuters, motorists, cyclists and residents and business owners to get feedback about their experience and could be tried elsewhere.
Ramirez says he’s optimistic this will be a very good thing.
“I think once people see how it actually works and how it operates I think they're going to be more open minded and when they see that it helps move people faster through their city, I think it'll also be very positive for the community.”
WBZ NewsRadio1030's Ben Parker reports.