A few days into the Orange Line shutdown, most of the MBTA's shuttle bus plan is running smoothly, but there are some problem spots cropping up on the route.
NBC10 Boston visited a few of them on Tuesday, starting with the Stony Brook station in Jamaica Plain. The buses have to make a wide turn to get out of the station, so drivers have to stop well before the traffic light to make sure the buses have enough room.
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Crews painted new lines on the roadway to signify this to drivers, but residents say not all of them are listening. Police were out directing traffic at the intersection Tuesday.
Heading from Stony Brook to Ruggles, a lot of the shuttles had a tough time merging into traffic in places where there were no bus lanes. They also had to stop at a lot of long lights.
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At the intersection of Dartmouth and Columbus, where riders coming from Back Bay station can pick up the Orange Line shuttle, there are a lot of traffic issues. The bus lane on Columbus is causing traffic to bottleneck, and a lot of drivers are unaware a portion of Dartmouth is open to buses only. Cyclists and pedestrians are also traveling through the busy intersection as police try to direct everyone.
"This intersection is like Times Square during the shutdown," one commuter said.
Finally, at State Street near Government Center, many drivers were still trying to drive in the bus lane Tuesday. One police officer was stopping every one of them to let them know State Street is open to buses only between Congress and Washington.
At Boston's Transportation Center, traffic engineers are monitoring all of the routes in real time. They are adjusting traffic signals to speed things up when they can and calling in issues as they see them.
