Bus lane removed from North Washington street

Full story at Streetsblog Mass.

From the article:

The change comes just weeks before the MBTA rolls out a new bus lane enforcement system, which is expected to improve bus service considerably – at least on the dwindling number of streets where dedicated bus lanes still exist.

63 percent of the 111's riders identify as Hispanic or Latino, and 90 percent of its riders are low-income, according to MBTA rider surveys.

MBTA officials noted that the bus lane's effectiveness had been hampered by construction on the Bill Russell Bridge, which constrained northbound traffic to share a single lane across the Charles River and contributed to heavy congestion at the bridge's entrance.

This spring, workers opened up its five-lane bridge deck (which includes a new dedicated southbound bus lane) after almost seven years of construction.

"We never had a chance to observe the bus lane under normal traffic conditions," an MBTA press representative told StreetsblogMASS. "We don’t have data to show how the lane would perform now that the bridge is back."