Back in February,  the South Boston Waterfront Sustainable Transportation Committee, made up of MassDOT, the City of Boston, the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, the Massachusetts Port Authority, and A Better City, announced the six-month pilot that opened the South Boston Bypass Road to non-commercial traffic had ended.  On Tuesday, April 5th, MassDOT held a meeting to discuss the findings of the pilot program.  

You can see the data here.

The pilot is now in its second phase where public feedback is gathered and the data is analyzed.   One thing we noticed in the data is Cypher Street – just this week on twitter we were contacted about a “02127’s dirty little secret.”  You can read about this here. More to follow on this! 

So what does that mean.  Well, for one thing it means that the bypass road is closed to non-commercial traffic while “data is analyzed.”  We ask the question, “why can’t you analyze data and keep the road open?”  We guarantee the data will show that people used the road and it helped to alleviate traffic.  But for now we are restricted from using Bypass Road.  Boo!

What exactly was the pilot program:
The six-month pilot program was launched on August 17^th and opened the South Boston Bypass Road to non-commercial traffic at all times in the section from Richards Street to West Service Road, and opened the South Boston Bypass Road in the eastbound direction from I-93 to Richards Street during AM peak hours (6:00 am to 10:00 am).  The pilot also opened the I-93 Northbound HOV lane from I-93 to the Ted Williams Tunnel to all cars at all times.

So now the South Boston Waterfront Sustainable Transportation Committee will review the results and hold a public meeting in March to share their findings.

From a press release from South Boston Waterfront Sustainable Transportation Committtee:

The initial data from the pilot shows that the changes had no adverse impact on traffic mobility in the South Boston Waterfront.   A notable change of volume was in the eastbound direction of the South Boston Bypass Road between Cypher/ Richards streets and West Service Road where volume increased approximately 21% since the start of the pilot, equating to about 100 more vehicles per hour using the road during the AM peak period.  The initial data for I-93 Northbound HOV lane from I-93 to the Ted Williams Tunnel also suggested additional improved usage of the road without significant adverse impacts on travel time for motorists.

Following the closure of these facilities to non-commercial traffic, the Massachusetts State Police will begin a progressive enforcement campaign to remind motorists of the traffic circulation changes.  After a brief transition period, the post-pilot data collection phase will begin and run through March.  A formal report documenting the findings of the pilot, including pre, during, and post-pilot conditions will be finalized in the spring of 2016.

So there you go!