Silver Line buses suffer large and highly variable delays on Washington Street near Dudley Station. Master’s student (now graduate) Guillerme Nakao studied the stretch of Washington Street from Melnea Cass Blvd to Dudley Station and identified two bottlenecks: the junction with Ruggles Street and the signalized intersection at Dudley St / Malcolm X Blvd, where insufficient green time creates backups that prevent Silver Buses from getting into Dudley Station. He recommends a change in traffic circulation for Ruggles Street to prevent cut-through traffic and changes to the Washington / Dudley intersection including minor geometric changes, a left turn restriction, pedestrian signal timing improvements, and a concurrent phasing plan that increases capacity for Washington Street. A simulation study predicts that these changes will reduce average Sliver Line bus delay by 2 minutes during the p.m. peak along with a large reduction in travel time unreliability.
Presentation – Dudley Sq Area Traffic Changes to Improve Silver Line Perofrmance