The City of Lynn, Massachusetts, along with state agency partners, this week announced the completion of a series of quick-build multimodal road treatments along North Common Street, South Common Street, and Market Street in Lynn, including shared bus-bike lanes and dedicated bike lanes.
These quick-build changes are a part of the Baker-Polito Administration’s efforts to support safe, sustainable transportation modes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bus facilities are in effect immediately.
“This is a vital link for moving Lynn residents through their city and to other critical connections, whether it is to the Northern Strand Community Trail or the Blue Line at Wonderland,” Acting Massachusetts Transportation Secretary Jamey Tesler said in a statement. “In 2019, in partnership with the City of Lynn, we launched the Lynn Transit Action Plan to identify strategies to make transit service faster and more reliable for Lynn residents. After the plan recommended this project, we worked quickly to advance it to design and construction, and thanks to the city’s dedication and leadership, Lynn residents will now have faster, more convenient and more comfortable trips on buses and bikes.”
The need for bus priority on North Common Street was identified as a recommendation through MassDOT’s Lynn Transit Action Plan, an ongoing planning initiative in partnership with the City of Lynn to make it easier for Lynn residents to get where they need to go with public transit. The Lynn Transit Action Plan aims to identify strategies for faster, more reliable transit services for the city, into Boston, and throughout the North Shore through improvements to bus, subway, ferry, and commuter rail service. According to MassDOT, at the time of analysis, bus riders experienced delays of up to four minutes during peak travel times along the 0.75 miles-long roadway.
The project also provides traffic calming benefits that improve safety for all road users by better organizing previously wide streets along several sections. Narrowing lanes through striping has been shown to encourage slower speeds and greater safety. The bike lane elements are a key connection between the Northern Strand Community Trail near Western Avenue and downtown Lynn.
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SOURCE: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
