It’s Tuesday morning and once again I am riding a RIPTA bus from Central Falls to Providence, on my way to my therapy program. It’s a long ride, meandering along Pawtucket Avenue to North Main Street to Kennedy Plaza, and then finally to a stop at the corner of Broad and Empire Streets. I take this particular ride twice a week on route to a rehab program in Providence’s Jewelry District near Rhode Island Hospital.
I sometimes feel as if I spend half my life riding a RIPTA bus. I have never learned to drive, always living where there is a reliable bus to take me where I need to go. Usually, if there’s something I need to do that requires a car, there’s always someone to help me do it. Or I do without. When I was working, I always made sure there was bus service to my job. If I need to shop—again, find a bus.
I’ve been thinking a lot about riding the bus because RIPTA is in dire straits. Thanks to the arcane manner in which it’s funded—via the gas tax and federal dollars and not via a direct line item in the state budget—RIPTA is once again looking to cut service across the board. This is an ironic move—ridership is up, which means fewer people are driving cars. Which means less gas purchased. Which means that funding decreases. RIPTA has tried to make up the shortfall in the past by raising fares but there’s only so much that people can afford to pay.
Since I’ve been out of work because of my disability, I spend a lot of time traveling to doctor appointments and to therapy sessions. Those appointments have to be scheduled around times that a bus is available for me to get there. Which may sound strange to those used to driving cars. So, imagine if you were told that you could use your car only at specific times, usually one to two hours apart, and that you had to travel a roundabout route to get to your destination.
That’s RIPTA.
Most of the proposed cuts are in the Providence area, of course, since that’s where most of the riders are. Most of them involve things like curtailing Sunday and holiday service, ending bus service after 10:00pm, and making the times between buses longer.
One possibility that will affect me directly is the elimination of Route 75, which runs from downtown Pawtucket through Central Falls along Dexter Street, and eventually ends at Lincoln Mall. Although it is not a bus I take every day, I do use it to go shopping at what’s left of Lincoln Mall—Target, Job Lot, the shoe store. Without the #75, I would have to venture into downtown Providence and take the #54 to Woonsocket, which stops at the mall. This would make a half-hour trip into 1 ½ hours.
But since it already feels like I spend half my life on the bus, maybe I wouldn’t notice.
Imagine if that’s what you had to do to get to work, let alone shopping.
That’s RIPTA.
RIPTA passengers who live in South County know all about RIPTA’s vagaries. If the proposed cuts go through, South County, already bereft of frequent, reliable bus service, will be particularly affected. From what I’ve read, one bus that links Providence with Galilee may lose about one-third of its runs, and the few other buses in the vicinity are also going to be affected.
This forces those who rely on what’s left to be especially creative in finding transportation to where they need to go. Unfortunately, RIPTA is wrong no matter what it does in South County: without a large ridership, it seems foolish to maintain or increase service; without reliable bus service, there isn’t a large ridership and almost everyone depends on cars.
I suppose the easy solution most people will propose is that more people drive more cars. Why have a public transportation system that relies on taxpayers for funding that can’t pay for itself? The problem is of course that the economy being what it is, not everyone can afford a car. And there are those who, for whatever reason, can’t drive, those who are blind, or who have seizure disorders, or other problems.
I’m not sure that RIPTA has much choice but to cut service. It has already raised fares as high as it thinks the market will bear, and it is planning layoffs. In order to prevent future deficits and keep services running in the future, the General Assembly will have to change the funding formula. In the meantime, riders like me will have to hope that the cuts won’t affect them personally.