Dive Brief:
- Boston and its regional transit provider, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, announced yesterday a citywide effort to give MBTA buses priority at signaled intersections to improve bus speed and reliability.
- The decision follows a one-year test program involving two MBTA bus routes at three intersections along Brighton Avenue that began running in July 2024. Since then, buses on this route saw a 21% drop in delays caused by red lights, resulting in 8% faster travel times.
- The city’s traffic signal vendor, Control Technologies, will work with LYT, a connected traffic technology provider, to use machine learning to track and predict bus locations, enabling Boston’s traffic management center to provide a green light as a bus approaches each intersection.
Dive Insight:
Improving travel time and reliability helps make transit a more attractive option for people in the region, the MBTA said in a 2023 document that lays out best practices for establishing bus priority projects. Almost half of transit delays are due to waiting at red lights, the Jan. 27 program announcement said.
“Traditionally traffic signals have been timed without prioritizing the flow of bus routes,” said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu in a statement. “This is another step to retime signals to keep traffic moving for all road users in our city.” In most use cases, a green light will be held longer, or a red light may change earlier than its normal timing, to allow an approaching bus to move through without stopping.
The MBTA, partnering with city and state authorities, has already created more than 40 miles of bus lanes and established transit signal priority at 110 locations in six regional cities.
Other cities have adopted transit signal priority systems along some portion of their routes. In the city of Los Angeles, some preference is given to light rail, bus rapid transit and other bus routes. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority works with the New York City Department of Transportation to reduce delays at some intersections by holding green signals longer or ending red signals earlier as needed.
The National Association of City Transportation Officials recommends transit signal priority along with dedicated bus lanes to make bus service more reliable and efficient. Improving bus service can lead to increased ridership, according to NACTO.