Some North Shore residents are worried a new project to shrink the number of lanes on the Lynnway could have bad consequences for traffic and local businesses.
The state-funded Route 1A project, which was first introduced in May 2025, is a partnership between the MBTA and state transportation and recreation agencies. The project proposes cutting the number of lanes from six to four and adding bus and bike lanes.
Redesigning the Lynnway would “create a safer, more connected, and more multimodal corridor that supports the City’s long-term vision for the Lynnway and Lynn’s South Harbor,” according to the MBTA.
The project, slated to start in 2028, will get $20 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation plus state money. Five public events were held in May to present ideas for the project, and according to a recent public engagement summary, “the MBTA, City of Lynn, and DCR project team are reviewing this feedback and further refining the concept draft design.”
But Rick Starbard, former Lynn city councilor, says it will hurt businesses and commuters alike.
“I don’t know why they keep pushing this bus and bike lane thing on there, but it’ll be catastrophic to the businesses that are down there,” said Starbard. “It will add countless amounts of time for people who commute that every day, and I just don’t understand why they want to pursue this and waste the money to do it.”
Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson told GBH News that the Lynnway currently doesn’t serve the best interests of the community and the region.
“It was built to sort of speed cars through Lynn to and from Boston, and it’s a public safety issue, it’s an environmental justice issue,” he said. “It’s a deadly speedway that cuts the city off from our waterfront.”
But those who regularly commute on the Lynnway, like Lynn resident Darren Malloy, argue the project will only cause more traffic congestion.
“It just seems like they’re just creating a nightmare, and they’re going to be building more apartments on the Lynnway, which is going to create more congestion, obviously,” said Malloy, who spoke to GBH News in response to a social media post inviting opinions on the plan. “It’s like they’re creating more congestion with all these apartments and then eliminating lanes to create more traffic. Just seems backwards to me.”
Malloy adds that the whole project seems like it’s going in a “backwards direction.”
“I understand they want to go green and want to have less cars on the road, but the reality is people aren’t using public transportation,” he said.
With two fewer lanes, the Lynnway would see a 25% to 30% reduction in general vehicle capacity when up to 44,000 cars travel through the corridor each day, according to a report by Nahant Selectman Patrick O’Reilly called the Lynnway Multimodal Corridor Project Analysis.
The report also finds that the lane reduction could result in $1.51 to $2.46 million to be lost annually in productivity from added travel time.
Nicholson said he understands that living through construction can be “really painful and frustrating.”
“It is a state project and we certainly want to see the state listen to everyone’s concerns and do their absolute best to accommodate them,” he said. “Ultimately, safety is really a top priority. There’s been two deaths just in the last six months, and that is just not acceptable for our community.”
Point of Pines resident Santiago Enrique said he’s in favor of making the Lynnway safer for pedestrians and cyclists, but he doesn’t believe the current plan is the way to do it.
“I just don’t think it’s the right solution to just get rid of an entire lane of that stretchway,” said Enrique, who commutes on the Lynnway daily. “What they’re doing right now, which is giving an entire lane just to cyclists, I think is an overkill, and this is going to cause tons of traffic more than already is.”
A MBTA spokesperson said there have been three traffic analyses conducted along the Lynnway since 2016 to analyze how changes to lane allocation would impact traffic on the Lynnway.
“The MBTA’s most recent traffic analysis projected the project would add approximately one minute of travel time to the peak direction of travel (compared to the Future No Build) for the southbound and northbound direction in the evening commute and the northbound direction in the morning commute,” the spokesperson said in an email. “The analysis also projected an added 2+ minute impact in the southbound direction during the a.m. commute.”
Starbard, who also chairs the Greater Lynn Chamber of Commerce, said the project could also have a negative impact on business along the Lynnway, especially those whose deliveries require tractor-trailors.
“We also have Old Neighborhood Foods down there who transport their products by tractor-trailer, car dealerships getting car deliveries on tractor-trailers that can barely make the turns on the Lynnway now to back into these businesses,” he said. “Reducing it to one lane, especially if they’re gonna curb it off like they did the bike lanes, will just put these people out of business.”
Starbard adds that the possible increase in traffic could also affect these businesses.
“If traffic is gridlocked down there, who’s going to go down there?” he said. “People avoid the Lynnway like the plague, and that will impact businesses down there aside from them getting product in and out of their businesses.”
Lynnway Liquors owner Cliff Ansara said he’s concerned how the anticipated heavy traffic will also affect deliveries.
Nicholson said the City of Lynn has already seen some momentum on industrial growth, and he wants that to continue.
“For us to be able to handle that growth, we need the infrastructure that grows along with us,” he said. “It’s not just the Lynnway, but also the street grid we’re building out on either side of the Lynnway, which creates more access points to those properties that are down there on the waterfront, and also takes local traffic off the Lynnway.”
Nicholson adds that truck access for deliveries is “really important” and that the city has communicated that to the state as a priority.
In a statement, a MBTA spokesperson said its design “specifically accounts for the turn requirements for the significant and essential freight movements through the corridor….There are no changes to the roadway in the current design that will change access for delivery drivers.”
