Memorandum
Date July 20, 2017
TO Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization
FROM Karl H. Quackenbush, Executive Director
RE Work Program for Traffic and Parking Analysis to Support Dedicated Bus Lanes
Review and approval
That the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), upon the recommendation of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), votes to approve the work program for Traffic and Parking Analysis to Support Dedicated Bus Lanes presented in this memorandum
Agency and Other Client Transportation Planning Studies and Technical Analyses
11416
Massachusetts Department of Transportation, Office of Transportation Planning
Project Supervisor: Scott Hamwey
Principal: Nicholas Hart
Manager: Annette Demchur
MassDOT §5303 Contract #94643
The MPO staff has sufficient resources to complete this work in a capable and timely manner. By undertaking this work, the MPO staff will neither delay the completion of nor reduce the quality of any work in the Unified Planning Work Program.
Dedicated bus lanes are typically sited on urban streets where large traffic volumes subject frequent and crowded bus services to high levels of bus passenger delay. Siting dedicated bus lanes in these environments can result in significant improvements in bus travel speeds, reliability, operating efficiency, and customer satisfaction. In conjunction with other transit-supportive roadway strategies and long-term, transit-supportive planning goals, dedicated bus lanes also attract new riders and create more compact, walkable, transit-oriented neighborhoods.
The continued growth in demand for improved MBTA services, coupled with the challenging funding environment for major capital expansion projects, suggests that one of the best approaches to increasing the reach of high-quality transit is through low-cost improvements in bus operations. As a result, Central Transportation Planning Staff (CTPS) engaged with MassDOT on a Prioritization of Dedicated Bus Lanes study in an effort to identify which roadway segments in Greater Boston would provide the greatest benefit to bus passengers if existing roadway space were to be reallocated to accommodate dedicated bus lanes. In the study, CTPS identified 10 roadway segments that would provide the most effective benefit to bus riders, as measured by an estimate of the current average weekday rate of delay that they encounter.
The purpose of this study is to provide continued support for the installation of dedicated bus lanes on Greater Boston roadways. Staff will accomplish this by analyzing traffic and parking on seven of the 10 roadway segments that were identified in the Prioritization of Dedicated Bus Lanes study, and one additional roadway segment that was identified at a later date.1 This project is conducted under the assumption that existing on-street parking can be reallocated to provide space for dedicated bus lanes along each segment. The eight roadway segments that will be studied are as follows:
The objective of this work is to support MassDOT’s strategy for providing municipal stakeholders with resources to inform the reallocation of existing roadway space for dedicated bus lanes in the Greater Boston region.
The work required to accomplish this project’s objectives will be carried out in the three tasks described below:
Staff will collect parking data along the eight identified roadway segments and their surrounding areas by completing the following four subtasks:
Staff will conduct an initial site visit to catalog parking locations, regulations, and capacity along each roadway segment. Staff will also use information from the initial site visit to prepare data collection forms and develop field staff assignments for collecting parking use and license plate information.
Using the information gathered in subtask 1.1, staff will create data collection forms and develop field staff assignments for collecting parking occupancy and license plate information in each study area.
Field staff will record the occupancy of each parking spot in hourly increments from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Field staff will also record the license plate information of each vehicle.
Using the license plate information collected in subtask 1.3, staff will determine the home location of the vehicles parked in each study area.
In the previous Prioritization of Dedicated Bus Lanes study, staff provided an estimate of bus passenger delay for each study area. Using more recent data, staff will update the estimated amount of delay encountered by bus passengers in each study area by completing the following three subtasks:
Staff will compile the most recent traffic data from the CTPS INRIX database to estimate roadway delay in each study area.
Staff will compile the most recent passenger load data from the MBTA’s composite-day automated passenger counts to estimate the average number of bus passengers for each trip traversing each study area.
Staff will estimate bus passenger delay in each study area using data compiled from subtasks 2.1 and 2.2. Summaries of bus passenger delay will be provided on a trip-by-trip basis during the weekday morning peak period along with aggregate weekday, morning peak, and evening peak totals.
Updated estimate of bus passenger delay in each study area
Staff will document the results of the study according to the following three subtasks:
Staff will produce a technical memorandum that outlines the methodologies and data sets used to complete the study.
In the Prioritization of Dedicated Bus Lanes study, staff produced maps of each study area to highlight the roadway geometry of each roadway segment. Staff will update these maps to incorporate the information produced in this study, including parking locations, parking regulations, parking occupancy rates, adjacent land use, bus passenger delay, and bus stop boardings and alightings. Staff will develop separate graphics to depict the home location of vehicles parked in each study area.
Staff will produce a slide deck that contains key findings and summaries from the study. MassDOT will use the slide deck as a resource to inform municipal stakeholders about the reallocation of existing roadway space for dedicated bus lanes in the Greater Boston region.
It is estimated that this project will be completed eight months after work commences. The proposed schedule, by task, is shown in Exhibit 1.
The total cost of this project is estimated to be $95,000. This includes the cost of 40.8 weeks of staff time and overhead at the rate of 105.66 percent. A detailed breakdown of estimated costs is presented in Exhibit 2.
KQ/NH/nh
1 Three of the prioritized roadway segments will not be assessed in this study for the following reasons: a bus lane has already been designed for reconstruction of the North Washington Street Bridge on the segment between North Washington Street at the Route 1 off-ramp and North Washington Street at Valenti Way in Boston; a parking study by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council has been completed for the segment between Washington Street at Forest Hills Station and Washington Street at Cummins Highway in Boston; and the City of Cambridge is studying the segment between Massachusetts Avenue at Western Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue at Memorial Drive in Cambridge. The additional roadway segment to be included is between Park Street at Pearl Street and Hawthorne Street at Broadway in Chelsea.
Task |
Month | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
|
1.
Collect parking data |
From month 1 to 4.9.
| |||||||
|
2.
Update estimate of weekday bus passenger delay |
From month 1.9 to 4.9.
| |||||||
|
3.
Document results |
From month 4.5 to 8.8.
| |||||||
Task |
Person-Weeks | Direct Salary |
Overhead (105.66%) |
Total Cost |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M-1 | P-5 | P-3 | P-1 | Temp | Total | ||||
|
1.
Collect parking data
|
0.4 | 1.2 | 5.4 | 2.2 | 11.8 | 21.0 | $17,119 | $18,088 | $35,207 |
|
2.
Update estimate of weekday bus passenger delay
|
0.0 | 0.0 | 3.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.4 | $4,054 | $4,283 | $8,337 |
|
3.
Document results
|
3.6 | 4.8 | 8.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 16.4 | $25,019 | $26,436 | $51,455 |
|
Total
|
4.0 | 6.0 | 16.8 | 2.2 | 11.8 | 40.8 | $46,193 | $48,807 | $95,000 |