City Queries Harvard Over Shuttle Noise

Most communities pride themselves on well-lit streets and efficient public transportation, but Cantabrigians say Harvard has taken civic improvements too far.

Monday night the Cambridge City Council ordered an investigation into the noise caused by the University’s Quad shuttle bus service and the glare caused by new lighting installed on Shepard Street, which runs south of Cabot House.

According to Dennis Collins, manager of constituent services for Cambridge, the city has received multiple complaints from residents who live near the Quad.

For now, Collins said he was unsure what action, if any, the city would take.

“It would depend on how they view the situation,” he said. “It could be just that person who is very upset that the lights are near their home.”

The city manager’s office will conduct the inquiry after first asking Harvard to review the issue, according to Diane Squires, a city official. The city could eventually send out inspectors to determine whether the lights are in fact too bright, and the shuttles too loud.

David Harris, general manager of Harvard’s transportation services department, said there have been no recent changes in shuttle services to the Quad, which have been running since the 1970s.

“We’ve never had any complaints related to the sound of the engines,” Harris said. “There’s no change in our routes where there should be any complaints about what’s going on that would be different from the past.”

Harris said shuttle drivers are only allowed to idle their engines for three minutes when waiting at a stop, after which they must turn off the engine. He said city ordinances allow bus drivers to idle their engines for up to five minutes.

Shuttle buses normally run to the quad from 5:45 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. on weekdays, and from 7:50 a.m. to 4:50 a.m. on weekends. But shuttles run 24 hours a day during reading period.

After 9 p.m., Harris said the shuttles switch to smaller 28-passenger buses, but he said these buses run the same diesel engines as their larger counterparts.

Harris said Harvard tries to purchase equipment that is the “least disruptive” and said transportation services acquired two new 28-passenger buses with quieter engines last month.

—Staff writer Christopher M. Loomis can be reached at cloomis@fas.harvard.edu.