State gives green light to project to give trolleys, some buses more green lights

the idea is to entice more drivers to leave their cars at home and take mass transit. So if light rail/trolleys/buses are given a slight edge over automobiles which will result in faster commuting times, more drivers will considering making the switch.

Believe me, I sit on the Green line on Beacon street, stopping every other block for a red light. The temptation to ditch mass transit and just drive is always there - and on weekends, I do ditch the T.

Keep in mind that, in this case, the MBTA vehicle getting the green is on the main thoroughfare. Every time the C Line gets the green, so too do the majority of autos in that corridor, because there are more autos on Beacon than the cross streets (btw, that project excludes the intersection with Harvard). Same goes for the #1 bus in Cambridge -- the bulk of the auto traffic is on Mass Ave.

By giving the MBTA vehicle the green more often, you're also helping to reduce idling by the majority of the autos using that same corridor.

Ever driven in California? A lot more cars waiting for that 40 seconds than would be along Mass Ave in Cambridge.

Context is everything.

The platforms along the B line are so narrow, that closing one stop and doubling up the volume would be a safety hazard.

Have you ever stood at one of those platforms as trains get expressed through? Or there's a delay? Or worse, a train goes express AT that station, so all of the passengers from, say, before Washington Street have to get off and stand on the tiny platform?

It does not take much of a delay to make it so crowded that people are nearly falling off the platform into the street, or walking on the tracks to find a safe place to stand.

A lot of that ridership (and on the 57 bus also) is just hop-on, hop-off BU kids with monthly T passes. Let the BU shuttle do its job more.

In general, signal priority for Green Line and busy bus routes is a great idea, especially if it only means extending or advancing a green light by a few seconds. My only worry is that unless the traffic lights revert back to their normal cycle after the trolley/bus passes, we'll see huge build-ups in the other directions. We get that problem sometimes now when ambulances, fire trucks, etc trigger a light change. It doesn't revert back to a normal cycle afterward - whoever had the green light when the emergency vehicle came through gets skipped and has to wait another cycle (which can be awhile if there's turning lanes, all-way pedestrian signals, etc).

The normal way to solve that problem is to time the light so the green lasts more than 30 seconds, when traffic volumes warrant it. And *synchronize*, so that a pack of cars travelling down the major street doesn't just miss the end of every green light.

Human intervention can help when there's an unusual problem. But for typical situations, not only are automatic coordinated/sensored lights far more affordable, they're also better.