‘Transformational’ bus system is coming to traffic-choked Blue Hill Avenue, city says - The Boston Globe

“There is nowhere else in the MBTA system where a transformational street investment could make such a difference in the lives of so many people,” said chief of streets Jascha Franklin-Hodge.

Wednesday’s announcement came after the city spent years soliciting feedback from community members that brought no consensus about how the street should be changed, the city said, but did show that it should be changed. Details about the final design, including whether it will include protected bike lanes, will be hammered out in coming months, said Franklin-Hodge. A federal grant will provide $15 million for the project; the rest will be covered by $11 million from the MBTA and $18 million from the city.

“We’re talking about . . . a major milestone in the city of Boston and across every level of government in our push to deliver the type of transportation connectivity and economic vitality that we believe every neighborhood deserves,” Wu said.

More than half of travelers on that stretch of Blue Hill Avenue during rush hour are bus riders, according to the city.

On Wednesday, Chris Murillo waited for the 31 bus near the Mattapan library to take him to Forest Hills, where he would catch the Orange Line before transferring to the Blue Line and then to another bus to get him to school in Chelsea. The whole trip usually takes about two hours, Murillo, 22, said.

Screens showing when the next bus is coming “would be a big help,” he said. “It makes sense to have a bus lane that’s just for the bus.”

At a nearby stop, Eloge Betchalo said the experience riding the bus along Blue Hill Avenue from his home in Mattapan to get to the Orange Line to take him to Boston Medical Center, where he works as an operating room assistant, is “not good.”

The 28 bus was taking so long on Wednesday morning that Betchalo, 24, was forced to splurge on an $18 Uber ride.

“Otherwise I’ll be late for work,” he said.

Bus riders will have to wait until 2026 to see construction begin on the center-running lanes. But, starting this spring, the city will make interim improvements to crosswalks, lighting, and potholes, and collect feedback to determine block by block where to put parking, loading zones, travel lanes, bike lanes, widened sidewalks, and green space along the street, said Franklin-Hodge.

Blue Hill Avenue is as wide as seven lanes at some points, including a large, concrete median, one parking lane on each curb, and unprotected bike lanes. Some bus stops are just a pole in the ground without any seating or lighting.

More than 3,000 hours are collectively lost by about 37,000 bus riders along the corridor each weekday due to traffic, said Franklin-Hodge. Two to five MBTA bus routes travel along Blue Hill Avenue at any given time between Grove Hall and Mattapan Square. Some of those buses, including the 28 and 22, are among the MBTA’s most popular routes, according to MassDOT data. Buses are the T’s least reliable transport option, with less than 75 percent of bus trips departing close to when they are scheduled, according to the agency, while frequency of service still remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Driving Blue Hill Avenue can be just as painful. Many times, cars are already limited to one lane with so many drivers double parked, Franklin-Hodge said.

The Blue Hill Avenue corridor used to have more reliable transit service in the form of an electric trolley line in the early 1900s before the tracks were “replaced by wide roadways in order to prioritize suburban drivers who were trying to cut through our neighborhoods and get to job centers,” Wu said.

“In some ways, we are talking about not just investment in a key part of our city, but also a restoration of what once was the prioritization of transportation access, which is the foundation for generational wealth,” she said.

A 2009 effort that would have installed dedicated bus lanes on Blue Hill Avenue and made the MBTA’s route 28 bus part of the Silver Line collapsed after residents pushed back against the increased fares that come with Silver Line service and what they perceived as a rushed process.

This time, the city tried to do things differently and collected some 2,000 comments from bus riders, residents, and small business owners over two years. Respondents reported unsafe sidewalks and crosswalks, double parking, excessive speeding, and difficulty reaching essential services because of traffic congestion, according to a city engagement report released last year.

The city says a crash on Blue Hill Avenue requiring ambulances and other emergency responders happens every three days on average, putting the corridor in the top 3 percent of Boston’s streets with the highest number of car crashes per half-mile.

The city secured the federal funds for the center-running bus lane design in 2021 after getting passed over for a federal grant for the project the previous year.

This will be Boston’s second street to get center-running bus lanes. The first debuted on a stretch of Columbus Avenue less than a mile long in 2021, turning a four-lane road into a stretch with one lane in each direction for cars on the outside and two lanes for buses in the center, painted red. The city and the MBTA outfitted the stretch with ramp-accessible elevated bus boarding platforms, lit shelters with seating, arrival time information screens, and traffic-slowing crosswalks and curbs.

A city analysis released last summer found that the Columbus Avenue center-running bus lanes save bus riders three to four minutes during each rush hour trip, and a survey of 178 bus riders riders showed 78 percent were satisfied with the lanes. After the bus lanes were installed, the city found 10 percent more vehicles obeyed the speed limit, traffic increased on some side streets, and cars sometimes illegally entered the bus-only lanes.

The fine for driving in a bus lane is $100.

Franklin-Hodge, the chief of streets, said he does not know when the Blue Hill Avenue reconstruction will be finished.

“There are too many design details to be finalized in order for us to make an accurate estimate of construction time,” he said. “It will take at least several years to do.”

Taylor Dolven can be reached at taylor.dolven@globe.com. Follow her @taydolven.