The following announcement was provided by the Watertown Department of Public Works:
As of Nov. 15, after several weeks of calibration, City of Cambridge staff and the Mount Auburn Street Bus Priority project partners consider the implementation of the Mt Auburn Street Bus Priority Pilot to be complete. Traffic and congestion look to be relatively typical for this time of year. Thank you once again for the month of patience and understanding while we first implemented changes and then made fixes and adjustments at Coolidge Avenue and Fresh Pond Parkway.
Early data (still to be further analyzed and confirmed) suggest that bus riders are experiencing significant benefits, as intended, in the direction towards Harvard Square. In addition, they suggest that all drivers and bus riders are experiencing benefits in the direction towards Watertown and Belmont.
As mentioned in our last update, we are now entering the first evaluation phase of the project where we look at available, short-term MBTA and travel time data and solicit your input. Starting today, we want your feedback on how Mount Auburn Street has been working for everyone since the implementation was complete on Nov. 15. “Everyone” includes people driving, biking, walking, riding buses or shuttles, being dropped off, and making deliveries. To tell us your thoughts, please go to the survey by clicking here.
We expect to leave this survey open for the month of December. We will also be flyering the surrounding neighborhood and using social media to attempt to reach those not on this email list. We will analyze survey results and available data for an initial report back to stakeholders later in the winter. In the spring we will carry out a more thorough data collection effort to complete the post-implementation project evaluation and report back on longer-term plans for the roadway.
Throughout the evaluation stage, the City of Cambridge and project partners will continue to monitor how Mount Auburn Street operates for everyone – people driving, biking, walking, taking transit – and make minor adjustments as needed.
To force the bus lane to be empty of cars in the middle of the day makes no sense whatsoever.
Correct this obvious mistake.
But no, of course you won’t.
Have had more trouble getting from Arlington St (200) block to intersection at Mt Auburn St than ever at 8:15 am to get 744 Mt Auburn St where I do volunteer work Monday mornings. Some days I have to circle around to Belmont St and go on from there. Coolidge Square traffic is horrific now and will get worse if lanes are cut.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Remember to fill out the survey, too.
I commute on the 71 to Harvard Sq every morning to work and the bus lanes have been great, especially outside of Mt. Auburn Cemetery. The bus used to have to wait several light cycles at Fresh Pond Parkway but now we zip right through. It definitely makes the ride at least 10 minutes faster. If only something could be done about the traffic at the other end of the line in Watertown Square.
Why not keep all 4 lanes and make one lane a bus/bike lane going East from 6-9am and then West from 4-7pm?(or both ways if going West is an issue for those timeframes). Also, fix many of the pedestrian crossings. Now we have an incentive to take the bus more than a car down Mt Auburn St or at least more passengers hopefully and more buses. (I carpool and do not take the bus) This will be the only way to maximize the road/rider while allowing for good emergency traffic lanes, normal flow of traffic outside of these hours.