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Commission denies councilor’s request to remove Broadway bus lane during construction
Summary
The commission denied Councilor Tesh’s request to temporarily remove the dedicated bus lane on Broadway during nearby construction, citing MBTA coordination, safety and significant capital work required to alter the red lane markings.
The Chelsea Traffic and Parking Commission voted to deny a request from Councilor Tesh to temporarily remove the dedicated bus lane on Broadway for the duration of a construction project.
A staff member who described recent conversations with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and internal logistics told commissioners removing the red bus lane would require “a significant amount of capital work to remove the red” and would be “quite complicated” given ongoing construction. The staff member added, “we really can't be encouraging people to just ignore a bus lane because they're not going to see that in isolation, so that would be quite a dangerous move from a, like, traffic management side. So I would like to deny this request.”
A commissioner moved to deny the request; the motion was seconded and the commission voted in favor of denial. The denial was framed as a safety and operational decision tied to coordination with the MBTA and the practical difficulty of altering lane markings during active construction.
The commission did not adopt any alternative traffic-control measures during the meeting; staff noted continued coordination with MBTA and said any future changes would require a more detailed operational plan and likely capital work.
