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Market Street will soon have bright red bus lanes to improve reliability and speed

The red busways could help improve travel times on routes serving neighborhoods across the city.

In partnership with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), the Office of Transportation, Infrastructure, and Sustainability (OTIS) rolled out red paint on the Chestnut Street bus-only lanes between Broad Street and Second Streets in June 2022.
In partnership with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), the Office of Transportation, Infrastructure, and Sustainability (OTIS) rolled out red paint on the Chestnut Street bus-only lanes between Broad Street and Second Streets in June 2022.Read moreCity of Philadelphia

PennDot is painting about 1.75 miles of bus lanes red along Market Street in an effort to speed up buses with a difficult-to-ignore “keep out” cue for drivers of cars and delivery trucks.

The busways run from 20th to 15th Streets on the eastbound side of Market Street and from Juniper to Sixth Streets in both directions.

About 6,600 riders on an average weekday use SEPTA’s Market Street buses on routes that also serve neighborhoods around the city, so any increase in frequency of buses there should have “ripple effects” throughout the entire bus network, transit agency officials said.

“Reducing the number of cars driving and parking in the bus lanes should improve the reliability of our bus service,” said Leslie S. Richards, general manager and CEO of SEPTA.

PennDot, the city, and SEPTA are splitting the estimated $785,000 cost of paint for the Market Street bus lanes. Painters will use a treated epoxy paint that will last up to a decade in the wear and tear of traffic.

Last June, the three-quarter-mile bus lane on Chestnut Street was painted red in a similar joint effort. SEPTA said it has seen a reduction of bus travel times there.

To accomplish that work and resurfacing on Market Street, PennDot announced lane closures from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. the following morning on weekends between Juniper Street and Fourth Street. The work began this week and will go through March 31.

The project comes as SEPTA is nearing the final stages of its Bus Revolution, a comprehensive redesign of the bus network. Red-painted bus lanes are among the strategies available for keeping the vehicles from being stuck in traffic, a persistent problem.

Red dedicated bus lanes have been installed in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle, among other cities. Until late 2019, using red paint on streets was classified as “experimental” under federal regulations. Now it’s a vetted and approved tactic.

According to the National Association of City Transportation Officials, the implementation of red or terra-cotta-colored pavement has reduced vehicle incursions in bus lanes by 30% to 50%.