David knows that all vibrant and thriving cities have at least one thing in common … a convenient and frequent transit system that’s used by many people from all backgrounds and walks of life. You know who else knows it? Chris Cocks, CEO of Hasbro who recently said their next move will prioritize a location with convenient access to public transit. This could be a wake-up call for Rhode Island to commit to implementing its own vision and data-driven Master Plan for making transit really work for more people, businesses and our environment.
We then made our way on foot up to Providence Station served by Amtrak and MBTA passenger rail, passing by two adjacent sites now under consideration for a new intermodal transit center.
“For more than 10 years, The Providence Foundation has been a champion for building a modern, full-service, multimodal transit hub in the heart of Downtown, bringing bus and rail service back together and providing passengers with a safe, well-lighted and climate-controlled facility, with amenities like plenty of clean bathrooms, bike storage, phone-charging stations, real-time transit info and places to grab coffee or lunch.” He said.
But effective public transit of course is more than a terminal facility.
On our way back downtown, David was asking fellow passengers about RIPTA and how it works for them. After telling us how much they love their drivers, the one complaint we heard was the lack of service frequency which makes wait times and trip times much longer … sometimes four times as long as driving. And therein lies the challenge of attracting more people to use transit. For transit to really work for a city, it needs to provide the freedom that comes with frequent service getting you where you need to go when you need to get there, quickly, conveniently and affordably.
And that’s what the Transit Master Plan will deliver when implemented.
View more Rhodies-In-Transit HERE.
