Mount Auburn Street Bus Priority Pilot
The City of Cambridge, the City of Watertown, and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) collaborated on a bus priority pilot funded by a grant from the Barr Foundation. The pilot included elements of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on Mount Auburn Street west of Fresh Pond Parkway, serving the MBTA Routes 71 and 73, as well as shuttles and emergency vehicles, and will remain in place during evaluation and improvements, informing any longer-term design for the corridor.
The pilot began in October 2018. Painted bus-only lanes dedicated to buses and shuttles, and other changes, were implemented along with the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s short-term intersection improvements at Coolidge Avenue and Fresh Pond Parkway. The intended outcomes of the pilot were to make bus and shuttle service faster and more reliable on Mount Auburn Street, while making safety enhancements for other users and better organizing the flow of traffic overall.
As of August 2019, the City of Cambridge and Town of Watertown considered the pilot process to be complete. In the fall of 2019, the City of Cambridge and City of Watertown made the pilot changes permanent by installing more visible, longer-lasting materials in bus lanes. The municipalities may return to make minor changes to lane markings or signal timings as issues are identified.