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Anybody else low-car or no-car in this state? I read all these articles about "millenials going carless" and such, but local people, even people my own age (early 20s), look at me like I'm crazy when I say I choose to go carless (not completely, my fiance has a car, but I almost never drive it). I think it might be because our public transportation isn't the best.
I ride RIPTA every day. It gets me from A to B. I can get almost anywhere I need to be in the city in 40 minutes or less during the day. The busses run less frequently at night, which can be a pain when I have a night class, but I can still function just fine and maintain independence without a car. When I lived in Warwick, it was another story. The service to my area was passable at best, and rip-your-hair-out awful at worst. Don't get me started on my experiences going carless in the suburbs, I could go on all day.
What are your experiences riding RIPTA, and how does it compare to other cities? From my limited experience as a tourist elsewhere and stuff I've heard/read secondhand, many cities have much better transit service than we do. Does anyone with more wisdom than I know why our transit is so mediocre (other than the fact that a subway system is impossible)? Is it low ridership, lack of funding, corruption? Is anything an average rider can do to improve the system or should I just make the best of what I have?
Anybody else low-car or no-car in this state? I read all these articles about "millenials going carless" and such, but local people, even people my own age (early 20s), look at me like I'm crazy when I say I choose to go carless (not completely, my fiance has a car, but I almost never drive it). I think it might be because our public transportation isn't the best.
I ride RIPTA every day. It gets me from A to B. I can get almost anywhere I need to be in the city in 40 minutes or less during the day. The busses run less frequently at night, which can be a pain when I have a night class, but I can still function just fine and maintain independence without a car. When I lived in Warwick, it was another story. The service to my area was passable at best, and rip-your-hair-out awful at worst. Don't get me started on my experiences going carless in the suburbs, I could go on all day.
What are your experiences riding RIPTA, and how does it compare to other cities? From my limited experience as a tourist elsewhere and stuff I've heard/read secondhand, many cities have much better transit service than we do. Does anyone with more wisdom than I know why our transit is so mediocre (other than the fact that a subway system is impossible)? Is it low ridership, lack of funding, corruption? Is anything an average rider can do to improve the system or should I just make the best of what I have?
Is it worse than other similar sized cities? I would sort of doubt it.
RIPTA provides pretty good good service for the size of the state and also for in city transit. Larger cities with metros like DC, etc. would have better. No city I know of has great suburb to inner city transit since suburbs- by definition- are car dependent. Maybe someone else knows of one the same size as Providence.
Providence has very good service compared to like cities( Worcester, Springfield, Hartford, New Haven, Albany, Rochester, etc.). Weaknesses are fares, highest in New England, and lack of frequent night service and lateness of service. RIPTA has slowly been eroding weekday night service and Saturday night service. RIPTA shuts down by 8 pm on Sundays. To be fair they have increased weekday frequencies on a number of routes.
Agree with others: for a metro area of its size, transit really isn't bad by national standards. But that is a very low standard! If you're used to Boston, NYC, DC, then RIPTA will seem pretty miserable.
Also, no question that public transit here is getting worse due to RIPTA cuts, so even if it's still good for an area of this size, anyone familiar with RI will grumble that it's going downhill (it is).
Personal Pet Peeve: I've considered moving to the Edgewood part of Cranston, and thought it was nice that I could take the #1 bus along Post Rd to and from the airport. Then I looked more closely at the map: #1 terminates at the Ann & Hope Outlet store on Post Road, about 1/2 or 3/4 mile from the airport. You can see the airport transit center from there, it's just a straight shot a bit further down Post. WTF?!? Who in gods name would have a public bus service end within sight of the airport rather than keep going 1 more stop, especially when you just spent a ton of money building a new 'multi-modal public transit hub' at the airport! Yes, the #20 bus serves the airport, but did they neglect to build the new transit center with room for _two_ buses to park? I don't get it. THAT is the kind of insane but sadly common thing that causes non-natives like me to wonder who the heck is running this place.
Agree with others: for a metro area of its size, transit really isn't bad by national standards. But that is a very low standard! If you're used to Boston, NYC, DC, then RIPTA will seem pretty miserable.
Also, no question that public transit here is getting worse due to RIPTA cuts, so even if it's still good for an area of this size, anyone familiar with RI will grumble that it's going downhill (it is).
Personal Pet Peeve: I've considered moving to the Edgewood part of Cranston, and thought it was nice that I could take the #1 bus along Post Rd to and from the airport. Then I looked more closely at the map: #1 terminates at the Ann & Hope Outlet store on Post Road, about 1/2 or 3/4 mile from the airport. You can see the airport transit center from there, it's just a straight shot a bit further down Post. WTF?!? Who in gods name would have a public bus service end within sight of the airport rather than keep going 1 more stop, especially when you just spent a ton of money building a new 'multi-modal public transit hub' at the airport! Yes, the #20 bus serves the airport, but did they neglect to build the new transit center with room for _two_ buses to park? I don't get it. THAT is the kind of insane but sadly common thing that causes non-natives like me to wonder who the heck is running this place.
Glad to see a sensible decision, though it still seems hard to see why that wasn't done in the first place.
Ann and Hope was once the shopping mecca of suburban Rhode Island and the line long served the needs of shoppers. The line was extended to A & H before T.F. Green was enlarged and before Walmart. The concept of mass transit to the airport was only acted on when it expanded in 1997, before that the East Greenwich bus ran by it on the Post Road. The 20 was extended to serve its needs.
I've been trying for a long time to figure out how they can accurately "count" the volume of riders on a lot of routes. I've taken the buses off and on for over 20yrs. There are so many routes where people get on one bus, then remain on because that bus happens to change over to the next bus they want. But they just pay once. If they had to pay/use transfer when that bus switched routes then they would be 'counted' as a fare on the second route, but they are only 'counted' on the first bus. At least if they are using fares to figure their numbers. Which I just assumed was at least a major part of that.
Maybe I'm off in my thinking, but it is something I've always wondered about. Anybody know how they figure their passenger volume on routes?
I wish RIPTA would come into at least So Attleboro, but it really needs to go to the Emerald Sq Mall in No Attleboro. I'm told RIPTA cannot get permission to cross the state line. So I don't understand how the Attleboro bus can go to Pawtucket. I have to go to Providence quite frequently now, and would like to take the bus. However a bus on an efficient schedule. Getting into Pawtucket to get it can be very dangerous because I have to cross RT1 and then walk about 3/4 of a mile from Mass. Not far but its a dangerous walk. My times never seem to hook up with the Attleboro to Pawtucket bus. Still I'd have to cross Rt 1 for that one also.
Today driving in and around Providence, I have really had it with the conditions of the roads. Mass is bad enough, but the city of Providence is a disgrace, with its lack of maintaining surface streets. It's not just from this winter, it is from years of neglect. Many of the streets should be condemned.
So I wish RIPTA could expand and become a more efficient system. However I have always felt there is a reason why it is kept back so to speak. Someone's want limited service to downtown Providence from outlying suburbs. I figure all those parking lots downtown, many people are really forced to drive into downtown. It certainly keeps those parking lots in a position to really rip people off and they do. I think that's wrong.
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