Professor Justin Hollander of the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning is leading Tufts students in partnership with Worcester community groups and local residents on a campaign to improve public transportation in Worcester, Massachusetts. The campaign aims to garner support from Worcester residents as well as local politicians and develop a proposal with suggested improvements to the bus system.
“The city of Worcester isn’t really well served by public transit,” Hollander said. “Bus routes are very unreliable, very infrequent and they get stuck in the same traffic that cars get stuck in.”
The city is served by the Worcester Regional Transit Authority, which operates 54 buses in Worcester and 36 surrounding communities.
Jacob Seidel is a Worcester resident and a leader of Strong Towns Worcester, an organization that aims to fix, what Seidel described as, problems with the “Suburban Experiment.” Seidel said that while the Worcester Regional Transit Authority leadership is trying to make improvements to the existing bus system, issues still persist.
Seidel emphasized that due to a lack of funding, the system faces challenges such as bus driver shortages.
“I was tracking the bus on the app as it was supposed to be getting closer to picking me up, and it didn’t show up. Another bus didn’t come for an hour,” he said.
Adam Thielker, Worcester resident and Riders Action Council member, said that it can take up to four hours to get around Worcester because when the riders get on the bus, “the first place you’re going to end up is the hub,” Thielker said, talking about the hub-and-spoke model that the Worcester bus system utilizes. In this model, buses take riders to a central hub before connecting them to another bus to get to their final destination.
Slow bus routes also make it more difficult for people who rely on public transit as their sole method of transportation.
“There’s a lot of inequalities that are exacerbated because people don’t have access to better public transit and can’t get to better jobs,” Emilia Arabbo, a Tufts undergraduate working with Professor Hollander on the initiative, said.
Buses in Worcester are fare-free, meaning riders do not have to pay to ride the bus, and will be through at least 2025.
“That’s been a real lifesaver for the system,” Thielker said.
However, proponents believe that the Worcester Regional Transit Authority could do more to improve the bus system.
“It could be more expansive and could reach more places,” Nyapal Chuol, another undergraduate working with Professor Hollander on the campaign, said.
A more expansive system could include aspects of the Bus Rapid Transit system like bus only lanes, signal prioritization and buses that stop less frequently.
“If we don’t get a handle on transportation here in this city, we are going to be choked,” Thielker said, discussing the rising congestion in Worcester due to its growing population.
An additional option would be to create “express buses” that would have about a dozen stations in major areas of Worcester like colleges or downtown locations, Hollander said.
“Any alternate modes of transportation, anything that can be done to slow cars down and get people out of cars, especially by providing other good, safe means of getting around the city would be great,” Seidel said.
A team of Tufts students traveled to Worcester earlier this semester to speak with Worcester residents and bus riders.
“It’s just about hearing what a community wants and working to achieve that,” Chuol said.
During the conversations with bus riders, they heard “a lot of frustration with the way the bus system is run,” Arabbo said. “They complained about disrespectful bus drivers … and unsafe waiting conditions.”
Chuol emphasized the importance of public transportation for “opportunities for marginalized communities and for quality of life in general.”
Hollander and these Tufts students plan to continue engaging with Worcester residents and local groups to increase support for Bus Rapid Transit. They are crowdfunding donations through a Tufts website to continue their work.
“I know this is a big project, but there’s no point in not moving forward as aggressively as we possibly can with it, because this is something that needs to happen,” Arabbo said.
“Even the slightest improvement is a great improvement,” Thielker said.
