MBTA Bus Route 77

Been taking the 77 to commute both ways since I moved to Arlington.
Generally, I kind of hate the MBTA buses for various reasons, but this one’s not so bad. It comes with regularity, and so long as you avoid the depths of rush hour, it’s not really even all that slow. The Arlington portions, especially, clip along pretty well whether you’re going into Cambridge or out of it.
The worst parts are:
1) There are too many stops in Cambridge. Combined with the tons of lights on Mass Ave., it means that in many parts of the Cambridge route, the bus stops 2 – 3 times every 2 blocks, which is just brutal. I’ve timed it and I can usually walk faster than the bus proceeds through lights once I get into Cambridge (around Rindge).
2) Bus hopscotch when buses get stacked up together. Two MBTA buses approach near-​simultaneously. One is full of people, one is completely empty. You want to get on the latter, so you decline to get on the former. Then, the latter bus, who did not have anyone on board request a stop, zooms ahead of your stop, leaving you stranded. Maybe you shouldn’t have declined to get on the first bus? But sometimes, they’ll both stop, even if no one is getting off. And once, I had the second, emptier bus stop in the middle of Mass Ave, parallel to the first bus that pulled up at the actual bus stop, to pick people up. Kind of nice since it was empty, but probably horrible for all the people driving down Mass Ave at rush hour.
Also, while I doubt anyone is reading this review except to evaluate said route and service, I deducted a star for the fact that the drivers do not give a kitten about cars that they share the road with. It’s nice for bus riders, sure, but I’ve seen more near-​accidents caused by buses threatening to clip cars than by cars driving in an unsafe way around buses. I see this happen probably every other day while riding the bus, and probably every other time I’m driving down Mass Ave and see a 77 somewhere on the journey.

Ok, so I have taken Bus 77 for well over 10 years. My biggest beef with this bus is when not 2 but 3 all come in a row… If you miss all 3 you are cooked and have to walk up the street to take the subway. Otherwise you’ll be freezing your butt off in the middle of the winter waiting forevah for the next bus!
Why can’t they time leaving the station at various times? I called the MBTA about it, and they blame it on the lights! Please…
The bus drivers are really nice but once in a while you get someone with a heavy foot. You barely get on and don’t have time to sit before you’re flung all over the place! I’ve caught more people in my lap than I care to remember!
Anyway, thanks for getting me to where I needed to go all these years!

The bus itself: typical MBTA, varying condition and drivers.
The route:
2 stars for rush hour. Overcrowded, slow as it makes all stops, buses tend to bunch, always massive traffic jams around Porter Square.
4 stars otherwise. Arrives often enough that one usually doesn’t have to wait long; gets between Harvard and Arlington in a reasonable time.
Lots of high and middle school Arlington students use it, so try not to get on in Arlington when the school day ends. (around 3 PM)

Today I find it hard to believe I ever loved the 77! Now I avoid it at all costs. It is almost always late and overcrowded. The only ok times to take this bus are super early or super late, otherwise get ready to be stuffed on a bus for too long of a ride.

Nice AC most of the time. Right on time, out my front door, to the places I want to go! Open MBTA gives you real time arrival times to your GPS location.

Love this bus! My daily commute was from Rindge Ave to Harvard Square. The buses were frequent and on time, and I met some awesome folks and felt right at home. Oh, there’s lots of cuties, too :). On a particularly rainy day, when my high heels had me exhausted, and my bag was heavier than usual, a friendly gentleman gave me his seat. Very refreshing after my NY commute where my bus was famous for no one offering a seat to a very pregnant woman carrying groceries. I loved the vibe on bus 77. One night, I met social justice activists. A wonderful woman wished me luck for my upcoming humanitarian mission. And, I’ll never forget my first night taking the bus home — temp was 27 degrees and my books were heavy, I was chatting with a kind woman and telling her where I was staying. I got off my stop and started walking the wrong way. The bus driver stopped the bus, opened the door, and the kind woman and some other passengers called me back: ‘Wait, you’re going the wrong way! Turn back!’ They then pointed out the right way. I hope the wonderful people who helped me read this. Thank you for your kindness!

I’ve been living in Arlington for almost half a year now, so I had to update this review again to say that the 77 bus is literally my lifeline. Anytime I need to get anywhere, the 77 bus is how I start my journey.
Yes, I could take the 80, or the 87, or the 79… but none of those run nearly as frequently as my good old friend, the 77 (except on Sundays). During peak hours in the morning and evening, there’s a 77 bus zipping by every 6 minutes (except on Sundays). At most other times during the day, they’re running every 8 – 12 minutes (Yep, you guessed it… except on Sundays). I say «most other times» because sometimes they do run late, in which case you might be waiting up to 20 minutes. On these occasions, you’re likely to be greeted by a pack of two or three 77 buses chasing each other down Mass Ave (except on Sundays).
The 77 runs until about 12:30 to 1 AM-​ish, which is pretty good considering it’s servicing sleepy Arlington, where most everything closes by 10 PM!

I need you. I can’t live without you (unless I just decide to walk). But it can be tough to love you. I know there are three major bottlenecks, but you don’t have to get hung up on all of them. Some of the waits are atrocious. Especially with the Red Line construction. Part of the problem is that Cantabridgians do not queue up at Harvard in an orderly way, and so someone who just got off the T may (will!) just brush in front of someone who had gotten there first and as much as 25 minutes before (or more).
The 77 is a great ride, really. No complaints about the stops or the view. About the drivers who sometimes just don’t want to stop and pick people up, or the fact that some buses pass others, many many many complaints.
I hope that the intended improvements to Mass Ave in East Arlington actually improve the ride as intended. But really, I just see a year of even more blindingly intense commuter migraines.

Having recently moved to Arlington from Brighton Center, My primary mode of transportation has switched from the 57 Bus to the 77. I ride it to the Red Line in Porter every morning, and on the weekends it’s my link to my social life.
This bus is reliable, stays fairly close to it’s published schedule, and I have never waited more than 15 minutes for it to arrive. It occasionally gets stuck in traffic on Mass Ave in North Cambridge, but other than that, this bus is a vital transportation link for Arlington.
Oh, and I find the drivers on this route to be very pleasant.

This bus knows how to roll.
Reasons why I love this bus:
1)They come in packs and on time (not like the 1 bus)
2)They always appear when you need one (not like the 1 bus)
3)Fewer winos than on the 1 bus (not like the 1 bus)
4)They stop at the place I bought my bike (not like the 1 bus)
5)They don’t go through Central Square (not like the 1 bus)
6)It is divisible by 7 and 11 (not like the 1 bus)
7)It is not the POS 1 bus (not like the 1 bus)

There is always a bus for you on this route. Even on the weekends when the service is limited. The wait is minimal no matter who long you wait in comparison.

This bus runs so frequently that I had to give it 4 stars. This is a HUGE standout considering other bus lines sometimes decide not to come by at all.
Last week I hopped on the 77 to go to Arlington Center and a few minutes past Porter, our bus got pulled over, by a cop on a motorcycle for speeding and running a red light. It was amazing. Not so much while it was happening. But yeah, amazing.

I am being perhaps too generous with this rating. Consider this a 3.5 rating, really, but I’m happy there is the 77 bus in any case, so I’m rounding up.
This basically runs along Mass Ave between Harvard Square all the way through Arlington. As an Arlington resident, I’m glad we have it.
But oh I do wish we had indicators at our bus stops or something telling us how late the bus will be. They don’t run on schedule, and they often cluster (no 77 buses for a half hour, and then suddenly THREE AT ONCE!)
Very handy bus, well-​traversed. I just wish we knew when it was coming. Often times in the evenings it’s faster to walk between Harvard and Arlington center than to wait for the bus, and considering that’s about 4 miles, that doesn’t make much sense, does it?

The 77 bus is a mixed bag of nuts. More walnuts and pecans than cashews and macadamia nuts. Note to reader: That’s an insult because I don’t really like walnuts or pecans.
— Walnut = I’ve run after the 77 with luggage because it sped past me while I was at a regulated stop. The bus just didn’t want to slow down.
+ Cashew = On the other hand, when you do get on a bus (7 times out of 10). the drivers are generally nice to other people. helpful to old ladies with bags. cheerful. etc.
— Pecan = Doesn’t seem to run on time inbound.
+ Macadamia = Runs past 1AM, so I can hitch a ride from Harvard on nights when it’s too cold to walk. or I’m having issues walking.
— Walnut = The bell is broken a good amount and when I scream «back door». and get the rest of the bus to scream «back door». the driver just doesn’t feel like stopping. (It all makes sense.)
— Pecan = People coming from Shaw’s use 9 million seats for their groceries on a packed bus.
— Walnut = I was almost hit by a 77 and the jerk had the nerve to beep at ME when there was a walk sign. Yep folks, I was actually walking during a real walk signal.

If you were/​are a fan of Calvin and Hobbes, you recall the recurring prop of a plain cardboard box that Calvin would use for all sorts of imaginative and fantastical purposes. It was a time machine. It was a rocketship. It was a secret emergency meeting house for G.R.O.S.S. It was a Transmogrifier. And, probably most memorably, it was a Duplicator (complete with Ethicator), a sort of homebrewed cloning device, which Calvin would use to… ah, well, duplicate himself, to get out of chores, homework, etc. Of course, mayhem ensued, and the Duplicator started to regurgitate Calvins at an alarmingly exponential rate. Most distressing.
Though dire in the Calvin and Hobbes universe, this is not necessarily the case in ours, esp. w/​r/​t to public transport. You can never have too many buses dispatched along a particular route. Even if it seems like overkill, and buses play leapfrong all the way up Mass Ave, it’s better than a paucity of buses (I’m looking your way 86), am I right?
So, it seems like somewhere beneath Harvard Square, a little before the pickup area at the underground busway, there’s a machine quite similar to Calvin’s Duplicator, spitting out 77s with great frequency and welcome rapidity. North Cantibridgians, Arlingtonians, rejoice! You shall not want for buses, nor wait that long either. Generously bountiful, the 77 is the gold standard by which all other MBTA bus routes must be judged.
Scientific progress — it indeed goes «Boink»!

I’m not really a bus person, largely because I have no sense of direction and the fact that you have to pay attention to where you are in order to make sure you get off at the right place on a bus presents a bit of a challenge for me, which often leads to me «jumping the gun» with the bell and walking much further than I needed to. That said, the 77 bus is awesome! Since it runs up and down Mass Ave (from Harvard Square to Arlington Heights), it’s hard to get too off track if you miss your stop. Buses are frequent (every 10 – 15 minutes), and give you great access to all of the wonderful places on Mass Ave. It kind of reminds me of that bus you can take along the Strip in Vegas, since you can get to so many cool places on the 77. It’s also saved me from getting soaked on many a rainy day, and safely delivered me to Harvard square last winter a number of times during the couple of weeks when most of the sidewalks were a sheet of ice. Thanks 77 for making my world a happier place!