When talk-show host Dan Yorke recently asked Grow Smart RI Executive Director Scott Wolf about a proposal to make RIPTA fare-free for a year, the conversation quickly moved beyond the question of bus fares.

Yorke began by wondering whether eliminating fares would increase ridership. But he also raised a broader question about why Rhode Island has spent so much time worrying about RIPTA’s operating deficits when public transportation can be an important economic asset.

“If this is an economic driver,” Yorke observed, “I don’t know why we wring our hands so much over deficits from RIPTA.”

Wolf agreed with the premise. For Grow Smart, a stronger public transportation system is fundamental to achieving smarter growth: creating economic opportunity, reducing household transportation costs, supporting location-efficient housing production and strengthening Rhode Island’s established downtowns, Main Streets and other places where infrastructure already exists.

Rhode Island, Wolf noted, has an unusual advantage. It’s the nation’s second-most-densely populated state and already has “the bones for an excellent transit system.” What has been missing, he argued, is the sustained investment needed to realize that potential.

That means thinking about RIPTA differently.

Wolf pointed out that multiple studies of RIPTA’s efficiency over the past two decades have concluded that the agency operates effectively but with inadequate resources. The issue, he suggested, is not simply whether RIPTA is an efficient social service, but whether Rhode Island recognizes transit as an economic catalyst and a good public investment.

The distinction matters. Fare-free service might attract additional riders, Wolf said, but more frequent and longer-running service would do considerably more to transform RIPTA into a transportation option for people who could drive but choose transit instead. The state’s Transit Master Plan calls for doubling RIPTA service (service hours and frequency) over roughly 15 years—a scale of improvement intended to attract people who don’t currently use transit.

Yorke offered a useful real-world test: Could someone in Cumberland realistically decide to take RIPTA to a Providence Friars game instead of driving? Parking downtown is expensive and inconvenient, and transit could eliminate the need to drive home after having a drink. But, as Yorke acknowledged, that choice isn’t particularly easy today.

Wolf’s response was that Rhode Island shouldn’t have to wait 15 years to begin making meaningful improvements. He argued that restoring the service cuts currently in place should be an immediate priority—and noted that the cost would amount to less than one-tenth of one percent of the state budget. “It’s a matter of will, not of wallet,” he said.

The conversation also touched on longer-term funding, including federal capital dollars and innovative “value capture” mechanisms that could dedicate a portion of new economic activity generated along high-frequency transit corridors to continued transit investment.

Fare policy can be part of that conversation. But Wolf’s larger point—and one that Yorke appeared to share—is that Rhode Island’s transit challenge is bigger than the price of a bus ride.

The question is whether we are willing to invest in RIPTA not simply because people need buses, but because a better transit system can help build a stronger Rhode Island economy.