MBTA’s Better Bus Project to Receive the WTS-Boston 2026 Innovative Transportation Solutions Award

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WTS-Boston is proud to announce that the MBTA’s Better Bus Project has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Innovative Transportation Solutions Award. This honor recognizes an initiative, solution, project, or policy led by a female project manager that moves forward WTS International’s Mission to attract, sustain, connect, and advance women’s careers to strengthen the transportation industry and WTS International’s Vision of equity and access for women in transportation.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) developed the Better Bus Project to unite two complementary efforts to improve bus service across Greater Boston: the Bus Network Redesign (BNR) and a comprehensive Transit Priority strategy. Launched in 2018, the Bus Network Redesign is the agency’s first major rethinking of bus service in nearly four decades and will deliver a 25 percent increase in service. Guided by an equity‑first, data‑driven planning process and extensive community engagement, the redesign reimagines routes, frequency, and spans of service to better reflect today’s travel patterns. Now in the third year of implementation, the plan is closely coordinated with transit priority investments to ensure fast, reliable service. A key outcome of the redesign is a significant expansion of “Frequent Bus Routes” (FBRs) – buses arriving every 15 minutes or better, all day, every day – supporting everyday trips across the region, beyond traditional 9‑to‑5 commute patterns.

The first phase of BNR delivered a 60 percent increase in service across five routes, including four FBRs, primarily serving Chelsea, Everett, Revere, Malden, and East Boston. To support this expansion, the MBTA’s Transit Priority team worked in parallel to identify and implement street improvements before service launch. Transit Priority Project Manager Becca Wolfson led efforts to deliver queue jumps, bus lanes, and transit signal priority (TSP), supported by corridor analysis led by Margaret Kent of Kittelson to target locations where transit priority would have the greatest benefit.

With the support of the cities of Everett and Chelsea, the team implemented a new bus lane along 2nd Street to protect service connecting riders to Chelsea’s Market Basket and Boston Logan International Airport from traffic, improving access to jobs, food, and travel. Becca, Margaret, and a multidisciplinary team of MBTA staff and consultants, the majority of whom were women, designed the project, led outreach, secured approvals, and oversaw construction of one mile of bus lane in just over twelve months. Now implemented, the corridor saves each bus two to four minutes per trip, for a total daily savings of approximately 67 passenger‑hours over 171 bus trips.

The team also delivered queue jumps and TSP at two busy intersections on Broadway in Revere, where new centralized stops were required to support transfers following the elimination of a largely redundant route. MBTA Bus Transformation Project Manager Olivia Mobayed coordinated across MBTA teams, while Kittelson’s Bailey Lozner led technical design with signal support from Megan Hanshaw of HNTB. Implemented as a pilot, the project demonstrated strong performance and was made permanent by the Revere Traffic Commission after six months. Additional transit priority projects, including bus lanes, queue jumps, TSP, and in‑lane stops, are planned along key corridors of the bus network and will be delivered in the coming months and years.

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