R.I. Needs to Move in the Right Direction by Investing in Better Public Transit
Op-Ed in the Boston Globe: After years of underfunding RIPTA, it will take political leadership and a forward-looking funding model to strengthen the system.
Written by Scott Wolf, Grow Smart RI Executive Director and Farouk Rajah, RI Hospitality President.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE IN THE BOSTON GLOBE
Some key points from the Boston Globe article include:
We appreciate Mayor Smiley’s strong words at our April Transit Forum about the importance of transit and his promise to advocate for the funding RIPTA needs and deserves.
RIPTA’s recurring service cut proposals to cover budget shortfalls threaten the well-being of all Rhode Islanders, even though strong transit is key to economic growth, housing, sustainability, and public health.
The push to shrink RIPTA rests on urban myths:
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Transit is a business, not essential infrastructure.
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Roads and bridges are less subsidized than transit.
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RIPTA is uniquely inefficient and demands more scrutiny than the Department of Transportation
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Pandemic ridership declines justify cuts instead of investment.
Despite being the second most urbanized state in the nation, Rhode Island ranks among the lowest in annual per capita state funding support for transit, $19 per person, when compared to other urbanized states in the region: $68 in Connecticut, $101 in Delaware, $120 in Pennsylvania, $143 in New Jersey, $199 in Maryland and $239 in Massachusetts.
RIPTA has created a bold, data-driven Transit Master Plan to make service faster, more affordable, and more dignified. But carrying it out requires political will, while Rhode Island stalls with endless costly and onerous efficiency studies as 51 other U.S. cities and regions voted last year to expand transit and boost competitiveness.
State investment in public transit is key, and can be achievable through leveraging federal funding together with other innovative local funding models such as value capture, which reinvests development gains from improved service.
“This is where state attention should be focused, not on dismantling what is a proven lifeline to many hard-working Rhode Islanders and a catalyst for significant economic and housing growth.”