Christian MilNeil

Thanks to system expansions into more diverse neighborhoods, by 2021, non-white residents living in Bluebikes communities are slightly more likely to live near a bikesharing station than white residents.

Orange Line trips are now 4 to 5 minutes longer between downtown Boston and Forest Hills than they were at the beginning of this summer.

Officials approved two major expansions in fare-free bus service on Wednesday: in Boston, the City Council formally endorsed Mayor Wu's proposal to fund fare-free service on three MBTA routes in Dorchester, and earlier in the day, the Advisory Board of the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority (MVRTA), which serves Haverhill, Lawrence, and surrounding communities, voted to suspend fares on all of the system's local bus routes for a two-year pilot that will begin on March 1.

"I have seen lots of thoughtful creative ideas of how we could spend the money, but I do caution that the money may not go that far."

MassDOT plans to leave the cones in place over the winter and evaluate the new layout for permanent implementation next year after analyzing its effects on user safety, bike traffic, car traffic, and bus speeds on the MBTA’s Route 1.

Sunday was the World Day of Remembrance, an annual memorial for the lives lost to traffic crashes.

The project would build new two-way, curb-separated bike lanes along the south side of the Market Square roundabout (pictured above), the Lynn Common, and Market Street.

City officials have estimated that the project would benefit roughly 20,000 bus riders in Dorchester and Mattapan, reduce their collective commuting times by 800 hours every day, and, with less time wasted in traffic, allow the T to make over 100 additional daily trips on existing routes using the same number of buses and drivers.

The WRTA will be free to ride until the end of 2022; meanwhile, the agency will undertake a public process to design a new fare policy to implement when federal relief funding runs out.

The Mayor doesn’t control the MBTA, but she can make Boston’s transit system more equitable from day one.