Nearly three years after winning a $20 million federal grant, the MBTA hosted its first public forum on Wednesday evening for a proposed transit-focused redesign of the Lynnway, a major highway that slices across Lynn's waterfront district.
The Lynnway is currently a 6- to 7-lane highway owned by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. It extends from the Rumney Marshes at the city's southern boundary to Nahant Beach, and it's a loud, polluted barrier that divides downtown Lynn from the city's waterfront.
Although the Lynnway today is lined with car dealerships, junkyards, and strip malls, the City of Lynn has ambitious plans to transform the area into a walkable mixed-use district that can capitalize on its proximity to the city's waterfront.
In its 2021 federal grant application, MassDOT and the MBTA proposed to redesign the Lynnway by sacrificing some of its existing lanes to make room for "center-running bus lanes with transit signal priority, a shared use path along the eastern edge of the Lynnway, improved bus stops, and improved pedestrian crossings" (the rendering at the top of this story is from that 2021 application).
But there was no mention of dedicated transit lanes or bike paths in any of the materials on view at Wednesday's open house.
"We're focusing today on existing conditions outreach, making sure we're starting from square one to get feedback on what might go into the concept design," Phillip Cherry, an MBTA Senior Project Manager, told StreetsblogMASS. "This is the first time we've had any kind of public forum for this project."
Better bus service for a growing district
Currently, three bus routes use this section of the Lynnway: the 441 and 442, which both run from Wonderland to Marblehead every 40 to 60 minutes for most of the day, and the 439 to Nahant, which only makes five trips a day.
The City of Lynn has adopted redevelopment plans that could add thousands of new homes along the Lynnway, and the T has plans to boost its bus service in Lynn so that many of those new residents would also be transit users.
Under the T's proposed bus network redesign, the Lynnway would become a new high-frequency bus corridor that connects downtown Lynn to the Blue Line at Wonderland.
For the time being, though, the junkyards and auto dealerships along the Lynnway don't generate much bus ridership.
According to ridership data on display at Wednesday's open house, about 750 riders a day use bus stops on the Lynnway today, compared to 2,350 bus riders who board buses at Central Square next to the closed Lynn regional rail station.
The busiest bus stop on the Lynnway is the one that's located next to the Walmart, where the loading docks at the back of the building look out over a new waterfront park.
At Wednesday's open house, StreetsblogMASS spoke with about a dozen attendees, but none of them were regular bus riders.
That's not representative of Lynn's actual demographics: roughly one in six households in Lynn do not own a motor vehicle, according to U.S. Census data.
The project's team acknowledged that weekday evening in-person meetings might not be the most effective way to reach transit riders, and they're also conducting in-person, multilingual outreach events at bus stops and at the city's Market Basket grocery store.
'Quality' bike facilities, pedestrian improvements a priority
Although there wasn't much feedback about bus service, Lynn residents at the open house expressed a strong preference for safety improvements along the Lynnway.
"I live on the Lynnway and I walked here," Lynn resident Susan Plawsky told StreetsblogMASS. "Right now my priority is walking safely, both during the day when there's traffic, and at night when there's less traffic but no light. When you have to cross the Lynnway, it's scary."
One of the project's key government stakeholders – the agency that actually controls the highway – agrees.
Dan Driscoll, the Director of Green Transportation for the Department of Conservation and Recreation, was also at Wednesday's open house.
"We're a partner (in the project) as the landowner, but we're not driving the project," explained Driscoll. "Obviously we care a lot about landscaping and adding greenery, and making it safer with things like quality, grade-separated bike facilities and pedestrian ways. Which I think everyone is committed to."
According to a project timeline poster at Wednesday's open house, the MBTA hopes to have a concept design this fall, then begin detailed design and engineering to begin a multi-year construction project in 2027.
