Transit Riders Plan Grassroots Protest of Tonight’s Boylston Street Bus Lane Removal
Boston residents are planning to gather in Copley Square this evening to protest the city’s planned removal of the Boylston Street bus lane, which improved bus speeds and reliability for the MBTA’s Route 39 but also attracted the ire of the politically well-connected Back Bay Association.
According to a flyer that organizers are distributing via social media (see below), the protest will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday evening in Copley Square, next to the bus lane.
“Back Bay millionaires want to remove the Boylston Street bus lane, and Mayor Wu is letting that happen,” the flyer states. “Demolition begins Tuesday at 7 p.m. and 20,000 daily bus riders will suffer. We’re here to stop that… Boston will not be bought.”
StreetsblogMASS reached out to one of the protest’s organizers, who requested not to be identifed by name but agreed to speak on background.
“We’re trying to make some noise and trying to get heard. We’re meeting in Copley Square, there will be a few speeches, and a sit-in protest. The city has said that they plan to bring in the road milling machines to begin removing the bus lane around 7 p.m., and our plan is to use our bodies to slow things down,” the organizer told us.
“The odds that we’re going to be able to stop the demolition are pretty low,” they continued. “But we don’t think that the city has actually listened to bus riders who have asked for this decision to get reconsidered. We’ve gotten a lot of nonsense.”
This story will be updated.
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