Add Malden to the growing list of Boston-area communities that have set aside space on busy streets for dedicated bus lanes.
The city, in collaboration with the MBTA and MassDOT, has painted a red shared bus-and-bike lane on Florence Street northeast of the Malden Center Orange Line station to benefit the MBTA's routes 104, 105, and 99.
Two of those bus routes - the 104 and the 105 - also benefit from new bus lanes painted earlier this year along Broadway and Sweetser Circle in the adjoining city of Everett.
The MBTA estimates that Malden's new bus lane will benefit over 3,100 bus riders every weekday.
The project also added a short section of buffered bike lane leading away from the Orange Line station on the opposite (eastbound) side of Florence Street, and upgraded pedestrian crossings into the Malden Center Orange Line station.
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Florence Street was originally designed and built as a higher-speed, four-lane arterial roadway as part of a 20th-century urban renewal program.
In recent years, numerous parking lots along Florence Street have been redeveloped as transit-oriented apartment buildings with ground-floor retail spaces, creating more demand for a safer, more walkable streets in the downtown area.
The project was funded by MassDOT's Shared Streets & Spaces Program, which has been renewed and expanded several times since it was first announced in late July. The program has now granted $10 million for projects in 103 municipalities across the Commonwealth to help communities adapt their streets in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
