Proposed bus cuts will make transit unusable
This is the last week for Cambridge residents, public officials and transit riders to submit comments opposing the MBTA’s plans to drastically cut bus service in the neighborhoods along Concord and Huron avenues.
Many people may not be aware that these cuts have been proposed, since the T is trying to hide its plans. The agency’s proposals to reduce bus service in West Cambridge are lost in the fine print of documents promising “A better bus network: more connections, more service, more frequency.” True, some neighborhoods in the metro area might see more service; but this “bus network redesign” project proposes major service cuts for the West Cambridge area.
According to postings on the T’s website, the West Cambridge neighborhood as a whole would lose half of its current weekday service. The area north of Fresh Pond, along Concord Avenue, would lose 75 percent of its service.
In fairness, an MBTA official claimed in a recent public meeting that the agency isn’t planning to cut service in the neighborhood. But the materials posted on the “Better Bus Project” website indicate quite clearly that these cuts are proposed. Either the materials on the website are inaccurate, or the official’s verbal statements are; in cases such as this, I’ve always been taught to rely on the written materials, not the verbal ones.
This neighborhood is served by three bus routes: the 74, 75, and 78. Here are details of the MBTA’s plans, according to its website:
- Route 75, which operates from Harvard Square to Belmont Center via Huron Avenue, would essentially see no change in service. This route operates about every half-hour for most of the day on weekdays and Saturdays. On evenings and Sundays, service is every 40 to 45 minutes. The T’s proposal does envision improving Sunday service to every half-hour.
- Route 74, which operates from Harvard Square to Belmont Center via Concord Avenue, would be eliminated. Like the 75, this route operates about every half-hour for most of the day on weekdays and Saturdays; all those trips would be discontinued. The T’s website doesn’t call for additional service on nearby routes to replace the discontinued trips; indeed, other service would be cut as well.
- Route 78 operates from Harvard Square to the Arlmont neighborhood on Route 2, at the Arlington–Belmont town line. This route follows Concord Avenue for its entire length in Cambridge, then turns right on Blanchard Road at the Belmont line. It operates about every half-hour on weekdays, and that would be cut to once an hour. Evening and weekend service in now roughly hourly, and would not be changed.
The magnitude of the cuts becomes apparent when you examine how different sections of Cambridge would be affected. Because the three bus lines take different paths through the city, some parts of the neighborhood are now served by two of the routes, and other areas by all three. With two routes cut, the effects will multiply.
Hardest hit will be Concord Avenue between Walden Street and the Belmont line, including the section north of Fresh Pond. This area is served by buses 74 and 78, with weekday “base” service about every 15 minutes. With the 74 eliminated entirely and the 78 service cut in half, the proposed service would be just once an hour. This is the only transit available for a neighborhood that has many medical offices as well as a regional Social Security office. In addition, much new development has been built and proposed here. Instead of transit-oriented development, we’ll build the development, then remove the transit!
The section of Concord Avenue between Harvard and Huron avenues will lose half of its service. This area is served by all three routes, with six buses per hour in the weekday base. The T’s proposal would reduce this to three buses per hour. Since schedules on the different routes can’t be fully coordinated, the current service is about every 15 minutes; under the T’s plan, it would be about every 30 minutes. Either way you look at it, this is a cut of 50 percent. (This also applies to the Vassal Lane neighborhood, where many residents can walk to either Huron or Concord avenues, whichever bus comes next.)
There are unanswered questions about evening service. These buses now run until after midnight, seven days a week, although the exact hour varies by route. Hidden away in the T’s online materials are lines implying that the remaining Route 75 service will end at 10 p.m., and the limited surviving service on Route 78 will end at 7 p.m., five hours earlier than it does today. The document does say that “some routes” might run later than these times, but it provides no further details.
Good transit service – including good bus service in neighborhoods that are far from subway stations – is essential to the city’s stated goal of reducing automobile use and ownership. For medical and other reasons, not everyone can walk or bike. Good bus service brings shoppers to neighborhood businesses in Harvard Square, and it provides a feeder service for people who take the subway into Boston. Most importantly, it gives basic mobility to our community. Take away the bus service and there may be no alternative but to drive a car. Or to simply staying at home.
And when driving becomes the only option, your trips will be diverted away from dense areas such as Cambridge and Boston to suburban areas with unlimited parking.
Nor is it always possible to fit one’s itinerary around infrequent transit service. Leaving home, I can usually plan my departure around the bus schedule (although I may end up way early at my destination). Coming home, my travel is at the mercy of factors beyond my control. A phone call at the end of the workday, a long line at a retail establishment, an extra lab test ordered by my doctor – or even a glitch on the red line – can cause me to miss a bus connection. If the next bus is a few minutes away, that’s not so bad. But if the next bus isn’t for another hour, I’ve got a long wait. Enough of those long waits, and I may rethink whether I want to take transit at all.
Unless you’ve been a regular bus rider, you won’t have a full understanding of how minor changes in bus service can have a significant impact on the feasibility of using transit. And after looking at this proposal, I must wonder if any of the MBTA’s planners have ever needed to rely on the service they want to change.
My family has for years been able to live in our neighborhood without owning a car. But if transit is no longer an option, we will almost certainly have to buy one.
Thus I urge all transit riders in Cambridge, and all city officials (including elected representatives, appointed boards and planning professionals) to vigorously oppose these planned bus cuts.
Comments on the T’s proposals can be submitted online through Sunday. For more details, go to mbta.com/bnrd; to submit comments, the website is mbta.com/bnrdfeedback or email can be sent to [email protected].
Charles Bahne, Reservoir Street
Thank you for clearly explaining the public transit calamity that is proposed for the service connecting neighborhoods between Harvard Sq, the Alewife Quad, Belmont Center and “Arlmont.” The proposed reductions in service will, as you say, make the bus impractical as an alternative to driving. Some people may say that our area isn’t high need or dense enough to be prioritized for transit service, but they ignore the many destinations along Concord Ave the bus serves: affordable and senior housing, two nursing homes, medical buildings, shopping, the existing (and planned future) dense housing and workplaces in the Quad, Danehy Park and Fresh Pond. This is shortsighted, to say the least, and feels punitive and pointless.
This is the best analysis of the intricacies and importance of bus service that I have ever read. Clearly, the residents of Concord Avenue and the surrounding areas deserve better from the MBTA.
It’s all good! We don’t need those buses anymore. We will be biking around the entire town with those super fab bike lanes being built!
I like your positive attitude, EastCamb! But what we really need is “multi-modal transit” in which people of all abilities and transit modes are able to traverse our city comfortably, reducing the need for cars. Please oppose the planned cuts.
So as we put in place “road diets” and eliminate lanes for cars now buses are being eliminated as well ? Wow.
You’d think it would be the exact opposite where bus routes were being added to make it easier. Ugh
billb – in case you did not notice, I was being sarcastic.
The vocal bike group got what they wanted. It’s demographic that is young, healthy, and mainly affluent. The folks riding the bus may not have the opportunity to be so vocal.
And just like in the corporate world – unless you scream and make noise, nothing gets done!
The snarky comments about bike lanes are unworthy of a well-researched piece about cuts to bus service. Many people of all ages and abilities are multi-modal — we drive, take transit, bike and walk depending on a variety of factors. Mode shift encourages us to choose options that reduce both emissions and congestion — there’s no reason we can’t have a safe bike network and a transit network that offers an attractive alternative to driving (and hunting for parking). Time and again it has been proven that adding lanes to roads does not reduce congestion; in fact, it does the opposite. For people who absolutely must drive, the desire . should be to get more other drivers off the road. That parking space I don’t use when I bike or take transit will be waiting there for you when you have to drive. Peace.
This is really disheartening news Jan. The option to need / require a vehicle will increase because of these changes…
Bad weather days etc will make it near impossible to commute to a job on bike alone and the bus was THE backup. Sigh…
This isn’t the only area whose bus service is being cut or otherwise rendered less useful. East Cambridge is losing three of its four buses (the 80, 87 and 88), two of which also serve North Cambridge and all of which serve much of Somerville. The 83, the sole bus serving the growing low-income population on Rindge Ave, won’t be going to Central Square any more but will instead go to Kendall Square.
As the author says, people who don’t actually use public transit to get around may take the touted doubling of allegedly high-frequency bus lines as a fabulous thing and never look to see whom they serve and where they go. They may believe the T’s promise that the new proposal’s increased reliance on multiple transfers to reach our destinations will run like clockwork, because they’ve never experienced the bunching that the T has not cured. They don’t think about what it’s like to carry a week’s worth of groceries when you aren’t young and fit, maybe because you were silly enough to get old or become disabled, or deal with getting small children from here to there.
I think the people who planned this didn’t have a good grasp on where people without a lot of means need to get to, like affordable grocery stores (for example, Market Basket in Somerville would lose its current bus and get an entirely different one instead, totally cutting off the people who have been counting on it for years or forcing them to navigate longer walks and/or multiple transfers while toting heavy groceries), medical appointments, and government offices of various sorts. The MBTA deserves praise for being willing to rethink its route system, but the planners need to hear how this proposal does not serve people who don’t have other options, including large numbers of low-income, elderly and disabled residents.
And our city government needs to step up and advocate for us. If they want us to stop using cars, then they have to be visibly sticking up for the alternatives we will need in order to get around without them. Show up to the public meetings and speak up; Somerville sure does.
Jan, PRC, Doug, and others,
Please be sure to make your comments known to the MBTA by midnight Sunday (tomorrow!).
The T had an online public hearing last Tuesday. There were a lot of comments from residents of East Cambridge and Somerville, but I was the only one to speak about West Cambridge. If we’re going to keep our buses, we need as many voices as possible
Thanks for your support,
Charlie Bahne
Charles, honestly it’s just a gut punch. We’ve so called sold our family on the benefits of bike lanes dedicate bus lanes even though we don’t fully agree with them for various reasons already discussed.
But now to learn this its devastating. Yes we can speak up, sign petitions etc but you get to a point and just give in and move. (For the people that have the means to). Ugh.
You’d expect/hope the elected officials implementing these huge changes, road diets would be advocating / ballistic about the removal of all these public bus transportation routes…
CORRECTED EMAIL ADDRESS: I realize it’s late, but I just discovered I gave a bad email address in my original letter. The correct email address to submit comments is . Sorry about the error.
Charlie Bahne
This is so depressing. Our family and childcare help rely on these buses on rainy and snowy days to get kids to schools, activities etc.
Each bus can take 60 cars off a road, and while some people may bike instead, I have a feeling we wont see a 1:1 ratio of cars off the road to bikes on the road when there is lousy weather, and sadly the pollution may well get worse.
Losing the 74 is going to cause severe issues for people using the medical facilities on that route, where many of the specialization doctors associated with Mount Auburn Hospital are located, as there is no shuttle buses etc.