Photo: James Rojas/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The City of Boston is planning to remove the designated bus and truck lanes on Summer Street, which run from South Boston to South Station.
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The decision to remove the designated lanes comes after data collected by the city after a nearly year-long pilot program revealed that they were not justified.
“While the pilot provided valuable insights, the data does not justify a dedicated lane at this time,” the city said in a press release.
With the removal of the lanes means that the two lanes going in each direction will soon be back open to all traffic.
WBZ NewsRadio spoke to Wayne, a Marlborough resident who works in the area who was happy to see the lanes go away.
“It was confusing, you couldn’t distinguish what was the bus lane and what was the travel lane [so], cars would continously go into the bus lane and buses would go into the car lanes,” Wayne said.
Cepiriana, a South Boston resident, said the dedicated bus lanes on Summer Street actually caused more traffic.
“People largely ignore the bus lanes, I mean they have to turn right eventually, and when there’s a bus lane taking up the whole right lane, you never quite know when it’s safe to get in the bus lane and turn right so it creates confusion,” said Peter, a Taunton resident who works in Boston.
While the bus and truck lanes will be removed, the city is planning to keep the improved bike lanes and infrastructure for pedestrian travel and safety.
The city said that the Summer Street pilot successfully encouraged more people to bike between downtown and South Boston.
WBZ NewsRadio’s James Rojas (@JamesRojasMMJ) reports.
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