🚌 Fare-free buses are having a moment

It's Tuesday, Boston.

♻️ It actually is that easy being green. At least if you’re shopping at one of these eco-friendly stores in Greater Boston. Keep the Earth Day celebrations going by showing some love to these local faves.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• May MBTA shutdowns

• Harpoon’s playoff pop-up

• Cringey bumper stickers

Up first...

TRANSPORTATION

Fare-free buses for the win

It’s no secret that Mayor Wu would make all public transit free if she could. And while freeing the entire T by herself isn’t in the cards, she and other local leaders have been working to free one of the lower-hanging fruits: buses.

We’re over halfway through the city’s fare free bus pilot program, and it’s already showing signs of success. Here’s what you need to know:

🚌 Quick recap: Last March, Boston began using COVID relief funds to eliminate fares on the 23, 28, and 29 MBTA bus routes running through Mattapan, Dorchester, and Roxbury.

💵 Some riders are saving money each month. According to a city survey of pilot participants, over 40% of riders reported saving money last fall, with one quarter of respondents saving $20 or more monthly. How much money riders save varies given that some transfer, some have a monthly pass, and some have access to other discount programs.

⏰ They’re also saving boarding time. No more waiting in line while someone digs around for their Charlie Card means less time idling. It also means you can open both the front and back doors for boarding. One focus group participant wrote: “Everyone just rushes in quick, and in two seconds the bus is driving off. It’s definitely quicker.”

🤷 That said, it’s not perfect. Although a majority of respondents reported being “Satisfied” or “Extremely satisfied” with the fare free routes, issues surrounding crowding and reliability persisted. Some riders thought crowding had gotten worse on the fare-free lines. And travel times remained about the same because of the increase in ridership. But overall, riders hope the program will continue beyond March and expand to other lines, too.

👀 What’s next? Look across the river. Mayor Wu told WBUR’s Radio Boston that she and the City of Cambridge are in talks about making the Route 1 bus from Harvard to Nubian Square fare-free. “Those conversations are in progress,” Wu said. “We’re not quite there yet, and this would involve the MBTA signing off as well. But we know this route is a key to the regional economy.”

❓ Next steps? A full report will be released once the program is complete in 2024. The next year of evaluations will include discussions with bus operators and community leaders, assessing neighborhood, economic, and environmental impacts, and more.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🎨 Boston’s mural game is only getting better. The city recently named Street Theory as its new mural consultant. The creative agency, based in Brooklyn, N.Y., will oversee the creation of new murals and public art projects. If you’ve heard of them before, it’s probably because they’ve worked on 11 murals in Boston already. Some of their next projects will be three basketball court murals at Malcolm X Park and another at the Shelburne Community Center in Roxbury.

🚇 April showers bring May MBTA shutdowns. Or something like that. The T just released a litany of May service disruptions on the Blue, Red, Orange, Green, and Silver lines, as well as several Commuter Rail lines. Most of the disruptions are on the weekend, but if you’re a Red Line rider traveling between JFK/UMass and Braintree stations, buckle up for over three weeks of weeknight shutdowns starting at 8:45 p.m. Double check the full list of May service disruptions here.

🦺 There’s a new safety sheriff in town. Governor Healey named Patrick Lavin as MassDOT’s first-ever chief safety officer. Lavin will oversee and coordinate safety efforts on the MBTA, along with other transit systems across the state. Lavin is familiar with the T’s issues: He helped work on a scathing 2019 report on the MBTA’s safety failures. The announcement comes a few days after Healey replaced three members of the MBTA board of directors.

🍺 Heading to TD Garden for the C’s and B’s this week? Check out Harpoon Brewery’s pop-up beer garden on Canal Street. The pop-up opens three hours before each playoff game and is fully equipped with lawn games like cornhole and giant Jenga. So if just standing around with a beer isn’t your thing, you’re covered. In addition to Harpoon favorites, you can also get drinks from UFO Beer Company, Clown Shoes Beer, Long Trail Brewing Co., and Arctic Chill Hard Seltzer.

ONE LAST THING

Cringey stickers

The verdict is in: ‘This car climbed Mount Washington’ bumper stickers are cringe.

About 40,000 of the iconic New England stickers are handed out every year to drivers on Mount Washington’s Auto Road, and the internet has had enough. TikTok comedians have poked fun at the drivers who put the stickers on the car, with some saying the trek isn’t that hard for a car and others saying the drivers tend to be menaces on the road.

The trip up Auto Road used to be a lot harder before it was paved, but still has some guardrail-less drives on steep roads that cause some drivers to turn back (and return the sticker).

QUICK POLL

⛰️ Do you think these stickers are cringey?

🚗 Thanks for reading! The car I drove in high school had plenty of bumper stickers that are way cringier, so I think I have to sit this one out.

🌳 What’s the state tree? The correct answer from Monday’s pop quiz is the American Elm.

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