TransitMatters Reveals The MBTA's Slowest And Most Bunched Buses

BOSTON, April 11, 2024 — The NextGen Bus team at TransitMatters is excited to announce the release of our first Pokey/Schleppie Awards report identifying and analyzing the top 10 slowest (pokey) and top 10 most bunched (schleppie) buses in the MBTA network. Inspired by the original Pokey/Schleppie report from NYPIRG’s Straphangers Campaign, this report identifies the most unreliable routes and suggests bus priority infrastructure implementations, operations modernization, and policy and planning changes to create a better bus network for riders. These proposals include the adoption of more bus lanes (including center-running bus lanes), Transit Signal Priority (TSP),  headway management, all-door boarding, automated enforcement, and enhanced circulation planning. In conjunction, these measures can reduce bus bunching, increase speed, and improve rider experience while making the bus a dignified transit option.

TransitMatters recognizes the role other stakeholders play in this process, including various municipalities, the MBTA, community organizations, and in some cases MassDOT, DCR, and elected officials. These stakeholders have begun to lead efforts that prioritize buses, but additional collaboration, cooperation, and coordination are needed between them to see impactful results. Furthermore, improvements to our bus network will not be possible without addressing the MBTA’s financial constraints. A sustainable, dedicated funding source for the MBTA has yet to be identified, posing challenges for getting projects that prioritize buses off the ground. Plans and initiatives for bus improvements can only be valuable to our bus network if funding is available to execute them. The MBTA must be supported rather than shamed to ensure effective improvement in bus reliability.

The goal of this report is to not only confirm riders’ experience, but also to promote collaborative efforts by the MBTA, municipalities, community organizations, and other stakeholders to transform our bus network into the reliable system riders deserve. This report highlights where improvements to our bus network can be most impactful and provides the opportunity for stakeholders to come together and do the necessary work to create a system that riders can rely on. TransitMatters is hopeful that this report will spark the change we hope to see for our bus network. We look forward to being involved and supporting leaders in their endeavors to prioritize buses.

This blog post was written by Katie Calandriello, TransitMatters’ NextGen Bus, Mobility Hubs, and TransitMatters Labs Project Manager and Policy Analyst. For media inquiries, please email media@transitmatters.org or contact kcalandriello@transitmatters.org for your NextGen Bus questions.

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Photo Credit: James Wang

Podcast 16 - Former MassDOT Secretary James Aloisi on the state of transit in Boston

Former MassDOT Secretary James Aloisi joins us to share his thoughts on the MBTA fiscal and management control board - how focusing on the bottom line distracts from improving and expanding our transit network - and how we can achieve a robust, efficient and egalitarian transportation system in an era of public sector austerity.

What reform could the T make to improve service? What does revenue mean and how do we get there? What can cities do? Can the private sector or “innovation” help us use real-time data more effectively to create a better regional transportation network? We review lessons from past political struggles, including the “four constituencies” of any project and challenges of trying to do things differently within structures designed to preserve the status quo. 

James Aloisi remains a leading voice in local transportation politics. Follow him @JimAloisi and read his articles in CommonWealth Magazine to stay informed.

The Transit Matters Podcast is your source for transportation news, analysis, interviews with transit advocates and more. By offering new perspectives, uniting transit advocates and promoting a level of critical analysis normally absent from other media, we can achieve a useful and effective transportation network.

Transit Matters. Subscribe or sign up to volunteer because we can't do this alone. Follow and engage us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, or email feedback@transitmatters.info. We always love to hearing from fellow transit riders, and we have some very exciting things in the works so stay tuned. 

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Podcast 15 - Amateur Planner on BRT, the MBTA report, Allston ...

Ari Ofsevit, transit operations professional and the Amateur Planner (@ofsevit), joins us once again to discuss how Governor Baker's MBTA Commission Report (full pdf) used unfair comparisons and erroneous data to push a specific right-wing agenda, whether privatization makes any sense at all (and why certain people argue for it), and a vision to actually stabilize the T and improve transit in Boston.

We focus heavily on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), with "gold standard" BRT being advocated in a recent report by the Barr Foundation. We explore what better bus service could look like in the context of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Chelsea and other cities where it's needed.

A new neighborhood might be developing in Lower Allston over the next few years if the $250 million MassPike realignment project goes ahead. What would it look like? What should we learn from other "new" neighborhoods like the South Boston Waterfront? How can we build a true high-quality transit network for Allston? Ari has a plan for reducing the scale and cost of the new highway structure (part two) so that we can focus precious funds on transit and streetscape needs.

And the MBTA starts work on a winter resiliency plan. Have you been stuck on an Orange Line shuttle lately?

The Transit Matters Podcast is your source for transportation news, analysis, interviews and more. We focus on sustainable transportation planning, operations and policies in Boston and beyond. Transit Matters is a joint project of local transit advocates Marc Ebuña, Jeremy Mendelson and Josh Fairchild.

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