Route 39 Transit Priority Corridor
We're working to improve the experience of Route 39 bus riders!
The Boston Transportation Department is planning improvements to the Route 39 corridor to reduce transit delay, enhance safety, and generally make the bus work better for Route 39 riders. Improvements could include changes to bus stops, re-timing signals, or changes to how traffic operates at intersections.
We will be conducting outreach over the summer to raise awareness of this process and get initial feedback on concepts. Sign up below to get updates and learn about upcoming public events!
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Have questions? Contact:
Give Feedback
Bus riders and other folks who travel along the route of the 39 bus know this corridor best. We want to hear from you! Fill out our bus rider survey to let us know where the bus is working well and where you see areas for improvement. We have the survey available in 4 languages, see the links to the right to take the survey in your preferred language.
Project Goals
Goals
Access
We want to ensure that all bus riders are able to wait comfortably at their bus stops and board the bus safely.
Reliability
We will look at infrastructure and signal improvements to help buses run on schedule.
Time Savings
We will study where buses are currently experiencing delays along their routes and explore solutions to save time for bus riders.
Project Background
Route 39 is a high ridership route that serves riders from Forest Hills to Back Bay Station. The route heavily serves:
- Jamaica Plain
- Mission Hill, and
- the Longwood Medical Area.
Route 39 travels primarily down Huntington Avenue, paralleling the Green Line E branch from Copley until Heath Street. After Heath Street, the bus branches off towards Forest Hills and connects riders to the Orange Line / Commuter Rail.
Safety, reliability, and efficiency are key to improve the rider experience for the thousands of people using the Route 39 bus every day.
This project is part of the Boston Transportation Department's Transit Priority Corridors program, which will target corridor improvements for different bus routes each year.
We conducted a post-implementation analysis of the Huntington Avenue bus lanes, which run from Gainsborough Street to Brigham Circle. These bus lanes, which were finished in November 2022, were evaluated for:
- bus rider time savings
- general traffic impacts, and
- vehicle speeds down the corridor.
Overall, we found that the Huntington Ave bus lanes help save riders a total of about 125 hours every work week, providing better mobility for nearly 5,000 daily trips. Individual bus riders are saving up to two minutes per trip, while automobile trips have increased by less than 45 seconds on average. Implementation of the bus lanes has also coincided with slightly lower vehicle speeds on Huntington Avenue, providing safer conditions for all road users.
If you are curious about how we conducted this analysis, you can view the data sets below!
Route 39 Map
Related Projects
Other initiatives happening in our study area
This plan aims to complete a missing link in the bike network between Tremont Street and Beacon Street.
We plan to add a one-way separated bike lane on Boylston Street in the Back Bay.
A project looking at near-term safety improvements for people walking and biking on South Huntington Avenue.
A past effort looking to develop engineered plans for the Centre South corridor in Jamaica Plain.
Route and schedule information for the route 39 bus.
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Have questions? Contact:
