City Council support of additional MBTA bus service in Alewife and East Cambridge

O-5 FIRST IN COUNCIL August 1, 2022 City of Cambridge COUNCILLOR AZEEM COUNCILLOR CARLONE COUNCILLOR NOLAN COUNCILLOR ZONDERVAN WHEREAS: The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) proposed the first iteration of their plans for a bus network redesign on account of shifting demographics, emerging employment districts, increasing traffic congestion, and changing travel patterns within the Greater Boston Area in recent years; and WHEREAS: The MBTA cites the following projected systemwide benefits from the redesign: • 25% more bus service • 70% more weekend service • 275,000 more residents would be near high-frequency service (buses running every 15 minutes or better, 5 AM – 1 AM, seven days a week) 115,000 residents of color and 40,000 low-income households would gain access to high-frequency service; and WHEREAS: These changes will impact routes that operate within the City of Cambridge, as was discussed during a recent Transportation and Public Utilities Committee hearing; and WHEREAS: Cambridge will see several positive changes with the redesign, including five new high-frequency routes, among them: • Kendall to Lechmere, Charlestown, East Somerville, Medford • Central to Longwood Medical Area, Jamaica Plain • Kendall and Central to Watertown and Waltham The redesign also adds more service in Central Square while reducing the need for buses to wait (layover) in the neighborhood; and WHEREAS: The changes outlined in the redesign also brought on a lot of concern from community members and city staff: • Reduced service on Concord Avenue in the Alewife Quadrangle o Where a significant amount of affordable residential development has recently been constructed o We expect more residential and commercial development in the near term • Reduction of service on Broadway, proposed to be peak only • Elimination of all routes from East Cambridge to Somerville (80, 87, 88) Change of Route 83 from Central to Kendall; now therefore be it ORDERED: That the City Council go on record in support of more bus service in the Alewife region as well as in East Cambridge; and be it further

ORDERED: That the City Clerk be and hereby is requested to forward a suitably engrossed copy of this resolution to representatives at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) on behalf of the entire City Council.