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For months, as officials and residents debated a controversial plan to remake Blue Hill Avenue, community meetings and government discussions have circled around the same questions: Would the plan save significant time for beleaguered bus riders, who face notoriously sluggish trips on the corridor? And, on the flip side, would it make commutes slower for drivers?

A 1,029-page traffic analysis prepared for the MBTA last year offers some answers: Yes and yes. But the document was not shared with the public, even as the divisive project obtained tens of millions of federal dollars and moved closer to execution.

The traffic report, obtained by the Globe Thursday through a public records request, lays out notable gains for transit users, projecting that riders on the popular 28 bus route would save as much as 10 to 15 minutes during peak hours if city and state officials go ahead with their plan to reduce traffic lanes and add a dedicated center-running bus lane. Drivers, meanwhile, would see their commutes slow, including by nearly six minutes when traveling northbound on Blue Hill Avenue during the morning rush on weekdays, according to the report. The analysis, prepared by engineering firms wsp and Fuss & O’Neill, also details the plan’s efforts to make a dangerous stretch safer for walkers and bikers, adding 24 crosswalks and 5.6 miles of bike lanes.

“In relocating bus operations to the center of the roadway, the proposed project will greatly improve the travel experience for bus riders,” the report concluded. “The anticipated increases in vehicle travel time will encourage drivers to consider other modes of transportation and will ultimately help the City of Boston reach their mode shift targets.”

It’s not unexpected that the redesign plan — which is not final — would add time for drivers while reducing waits for bus riders. But the analysis puts numbers to a neighborhood concern that has been roiling for years. The data would have been helpful to see before the numerous hearings and meetings held on the project over the last few months, public officials and activists said. Two city councilors and one state representative who have been closely involved in the project said they had not seen the analysis until the Globe shared it with them on Thursday; some officials were not even aware it was conducted.

“To have to get it from you, it’s amazing,” said City Councilor Miniard Culpepper, who alongside many of his constituents has been a vocal opponent of the center-running bus lane. “We didn’t even know it was in existence.”

“I can’t say” there was an effort to hide it, Culpepper added, but “I can certainly say there wasn’t an effort to make it public.”

In response to Globe questions, MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said Thursday that “highly technical work products such as this early analysis are not generally posted publicly.” He added that the MBTA is still working with city officials to improve the Blue Hill Avenue design “with the goal of minimizing traffic impacts as much as possible.”

For years, transit planners have been pitching a center-running bus lane along Blue Hill Avenue from Mattapan Square to Grove Hall, a design they say would free up the bus to move faster and allow for badly needed safety improvements while having minimal impacts on drivers. But that plan has never proven popular in the surrounding neighborhoods. Communities along the avenue rejected a similar plan, called the 28X, in 2009.

For Mayor Michelle Wu, the Blue Hill Avenue project has become a political quagmire, particularly as a vocal segment of Black voters expresses disappointment with her tenure. Critics from Mattapan, Roxbury, and Dorchester worry it would slow traffic and hurt businesses along the corridor.

“No one is disputing that it would be a good idea if the 28 would go faster,” said Dianne Wilkerson, a former state senator who has been actively opposed to the project. “We just think that there are some other ways to do it, rather than destroying the entire economic underpinning of the avenue.”

Some, however, particularly young transit riders, say a faster bus would be life-changing, allowing them to get to work, school, and recreation more quickly. Transit activists say the corridor, which is home to some of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods, deserves faster and more reliable ways to get around.

“This is about equity,” said state Representative Russell Holmes, a Mattapan Democrat who supports redesigning the avenue. “The road has been designed primarily for car drivers. ... But you’re trying to balance 40,000 car drivers and 40,000 transit riders.”

He acknowledged there might be some “tradeoffs” in the plan, including slower commutes for drivers, but said he is advocating for a design that will preserve two traffic lanes in each direction to keep cars moving. Holmes said he was aware the report was being done but had not seen it until this week.

“What’s driving our decisions is data and not emotions,” he said. “The existing conditions are horrible.”

City Councilor Brian Worrell, who also had not seen the report until Thursday, said government officials should be “as transparent as possible.”

“The fact that they’re not releasing the traffic study is telling me that the traffic study’s not good,” Worrell said. “We don’t know the plan because you’re not releasing all the information.”

Both the city and the MBTA had the report in their possession; both provided the report to the Globe on Thursday in response to separate public record requests. The project “has been a joint effort of the MBTA and the City of Boston in terms of community engagement, key design elements and traffic impacts,” said Pesaturo, the T spokesperson. He said the analysis cost the MBTA approximately $300,000.

Marcela Dwork, a spokesperson for Wu, said the report — dated Aug. 29, 2025 — was “not yet vetted” and emphasized that “the design will continue to evolve.”

She did not respond to questions about whether the mayor supports the center-running bus lane as currently designed. At a council hearing last month, city transportation officials sounded noncommittal about the project’s future and said they would meet with the MBTA to discuss next steps.

“The City supports investing needed resources to deliver the highest quality of life throughout every neighborhood,” Dwork said in a statement Thursday. “The Mayor is in regular contact with and working closely with [MBTA General Manager Phil Eng] to incorporate community concerns into design details and get this important project right for the people who rely on this corridor every day.”

Christopher Schmidt, 41, called his first e-bike ride in 2021 a “transformative experience,” a way to reach new parts of the city and break less of a sweat. He let everyone and their mother take a spin on his e-bike, convinced his friends to buy their own, and now has a collection of about 30 e-bikes in his “lending library.”

“The experience that I had on an e-bike just feels like magic,” Schultz said. “It brings a lot of the joy that you had of riding a bike when you were 7 years old.”

After Governor Maura Healey announced new rules to regulate e-bikes this week, Schmidt said he was “happy to see Massachusetts taking the bull by the horns,” bringing some order to the roads.

On Monday, Healey filed the Ride Safe Act — a collection of rules to regulate where and how e-bikes, mopeds, and scooters can operate. The proposed legislation would regulate devices based on speed capability rather than device type.

The new legislation builds on recommendations from a statewide commission, prohibiting higher-speed devices from zipping down sidewalks, bike lanes, and other high-risk areas, while increasing enforcement. Moped use would be restricted to riders ages 16 and older.

“Micromobility is already a part of how people get to work, school, and around their communities, but right now, the rules are unclear and inconsistent,” Healey said in a statement. “We are seeing too much reckless behavior, more crashes and close calls, and too many people, especially pedestrians and young riders, are at risk.”

On a sunny afternoon in the Fenway neighborhood this week, the scene was typical of the unchoreographed dance of micromobility devices in Boston these days. Mopeds and e-bikes sped by, weaving in and out of bike lanes, whizzing past people riding traditional bicycles. Cyclists and moped drivers dipped into the main roadway cutting in front of cars. Electric scooter riders and cyclists routinely invaded sidewalks, real estate set aside for pedestrians.

Elsewhere in Boston, cars and trucks routinely double parked in bike lanes, blocking cyclists. One rider on a moped sped down a bike lane in the wrong direction, right past a police officer who just looked down and shook his head.

The popularity of e-bikes has surged in the past decade. Ten years ago, it was a “magnificent event” for Massachusetts chain Landry’s Bicycles to sell one e-bike in a week, said regional manager Mark Vautour. Now, he says, the store sells about 10 a week at the Boston location alone. Vautour was generally positive about the new regulations and predicted “the market is going to continue to grow.”

E-bikes are broken into three categories: Class 1 can reach 20 miles per hour using pedal assist, Class 2 can use a throttle to reach that speed, and Class 3 can reach up to 28 miles per hour with pedal assist or sometimes a throttle.

In places like Somerville, micromobility has become especially practical for parents like Klaus Schultz, 44, who helps run a weekly “Bike Bus,” an organized group ride for families to bike with their kids to school. (Safety in numbers.) Schultz’s cargo e-bike, featuring a box for his 6 and 8-year-olds to ride in front, is his primary mode of transportation, allowing him to get to playgrounds, swimming lessons, soccer practices, and the grocery store.

Schultz said restricting mopeds from bike lanes will make the paths safer for other cyclists. “It seemed like too powerful a vehicle to be on that kind of path,” Schultz said.

Some critics have argued that stringent regulations would hamper the widespread adoption of e-bikes, which cut down on traffic congestion and tailpipe climate emissions.

The Boston Cyclists Union has called for better road design while opposing tighter regulations of e-bikes, saying it would hurt people who can’t afford cars, including delivery drivers, many of whom are immigrants and working-class residents. That said, the union’s communications manager Mandy Wilkens said the organization supports “clarity around class 3 e-bikes and faster vehicles, and we’re glad the Healey administration has developed legislation in line with the Special Commission on Micromobility.”

In Fenway, just outside of the Timeout Market, cyclists renting Bluebikes during the late afternoon rush were digesting the news, but seemed generally receptive to change.

“On a good day, I’d rather bike than take the T,” said Abby Smiley, 24, a master’s student at Boston University, who supported Healey’s proposals.

Smiley stopped to take out a bike while holding a small bouquet of flowers. She said cycling for her is significantly faster than public transit, but she worries about mopeds in bike lanes. “I definitely see an issue because there’s intense speeding.”

She also said mopeds can brake quickly, startling cyclists.

“If it’s motorized, it shouldn’t be on the sidewalk,” said Joey Oltman, 19, a sophomore at Northeastern University, who also appreciated Healey’s proposals, adding that mopeds on sidewalks and in bike lanes discourage him from riding.

Reports of accidents involving e-bikes have mounted in recent years, but overall statistics are notoriously hard to pinpoint as many police departments don’t distinguish between traditional and electric bike crashes. The “Vision Zero” database, which tracks street safety, also only says “bikes” when citing accidents.

Healey’s proposal calls for improved crash data collection to help target safety improvements and infrastructure investments to minimize accidents. It would also establish a statewide working group to guide future policies.

“We can’t fix what we don’t measure,” Brendan Kearney, executive director of WalkMassachusetts, said in a statement. “By modernizing vehicle definitions and closing the gap in crash reporting, the Ride Safe Act gives communities another tool to design safer streets.”

Boston police investigated a deadly crash between a pedestrian and an e-bike delivery driver in front of the Boston Public Library on August 6, 2025. Lane Turner/Globe Staff

Bike advocate Jerry Zhou, 22, who recently purchased the lowest-rated e-bike that requires pedal assist, also welcomed Healey’s proposals.

“As someone who’s also a pedestrian, as someone who is a biker, as someone who wants to see more people on bikes, I think it’s good to have these regulations,” Zhou said. “It’s good to see that the state is keeping up to date with how mobility is changing.”

Zhou referenced New Jersey’s new rules, which are set to establish some of the country’s most restrictive e-bike laws, effective come July. The Garden State will require registration and a license to operate even the slowest electric bikes. Insurance requirements for the different classes of bikes remain a bit murky.

Zhou called the Massachusetts regulations “more lenient and more reasonable.”

“I applaud the state for doing what is necessary, but not going beyond what is needed,” Zhou said. He’s hoping new regulations will “tone down perceptions of e-bikes as dangerous” while keeping them as a viable transport option.

He added that, while adding rules of the road for e-bikes is welcome, the real danger remains cars and trucks. “A 3,000-pound car or 4,000-pound SUV can do so much more damage than a 40-pound bike can,” Zhou said.

Back in Fenway, Abby Cohen, 25 affirmed Zhou’s call for more focus on cars and trucks. Cohen commutes through Roxbury and said the roadways often feel unsafe.

“Even if pedestrians have the right of way, or bikes have the right of way, there are a lot of Massholes,” Cohen said.

Lauren Albano can be reached at lauren.albano@globe.com.