New red bus-only lanes coming to Center City, South Philly roadways

Three, of what PennDOT and the City of Philadelphia consider, “critical transit corridors,” will see red bus-only lanes installed in the near future.

As, on Monday, city officials announced that the project is already underway.

According to a statement from the City of Philadelphia, PennDOT crews have begun work that will see red, bus-only lanes installed along Chestnut Street between Broad and 21st streets, on Walnut Street between Broad and 19th streets and Oregon Avenue between 5th and Front streets.

“PennDOT understands the value that transit brings to our communities,” said PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll in a statement on the project. “And if we can do something simple – like painting bus lanes red to help deter double parking and make it easier for people to choose transit – it just makes sense to do it. We’re proud to partner with the City and SEPTA to make this happen.”

Officials said these “bus priority lanes” will be implemented along with a scheduled PennDOT repaving projects.

All three of these critical transit corridors were identified in 2021 as priority corridors for improvements to bus service, officials said.

“SEPTA is proud to partner with the City of Philadelphia and PennDOT to expand our region’s bus lane network,” said SEPTA General Manager, Scott Sauer in a statement. “These bus lanes immediately improve the customer experience by enhancing bus reliability and trip times while increasing traffic safety for SEPTA’s riders and operators.”

Philadelphia, officials said, has seen success after painting red bus-only lanes along Chestnut Street from Broad Street to 2nd Street, and, on Market Street from 20th Street to 15th Street and on Erie Avenue from Germantown Avenue to Old York Road.

City officials said, in a statement, that a study of the bus lane portion of Chestnut Street found the bus-only lanes helped improve bus service my reducing how often other drivers improperly used the bus-only lane and it cut down on instances of other drivers double-parking in the bus-only lanes.

Buses in the red bus-only lanes on Chestnut Street that were part of this study, officials said, saw travel times reduced by 12%, while, at over the same period that was part of the study, bus travel elsewhere across the city saw travel times increased by 4%.

Officials also said they expect to see further successes in the red, bus-only lane initiative now that drivers that illegally park in bus lanes can be fined through a new Automated Bus Camera Enforcement Initiative that uses A.I. to detect violations.

However, officials didn’t say just when these new lanes would debut.

So far, the streets that will get the new bus-only lanes have been milled and, officials said, they will be painted following a resurfacing project.