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State Rep. Teresa Tanzi

By January 16, 2025Rhodies in Transit

State Representative Teresa Tanzi is no stranger to multimodal transportation. While growing up, she was ahead of her time – delaying a rite of passage (getting a driver’s license) when most everyone else couldn’t wait.  Today, just 43 percent of U.S. 17-year-olds have a driver’s license.  The reasons vary from financial to teen culture to the environment.
As a young person, “It gave me freedom”, she said.
Later as a young adult living car-less in Utah, she took the bus everywhere, including to work … except on Sundays when it didn’t run.  Then, she hitch-hiked!

We caught up in Narragansett (on the #14 bus to Cool Beans Café) to discuss the state of transit in Rhode Island.

As the Representative for District 34 (South Kingstown, Narragansett), Rep. Tanzi has been a longtime champion for modernizing our state’s transportation system and providing her constituents with options for meeting their transportation needs, saving money and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2018, she supported Governor Raimondo’s initiative to develop comprehensive plans for better transit and for a statewide network of safe bicycle paths.  And, after much public input, the state’s very data-driven Transit Master Plan (TMP) and Bike Mobility Plan (BMP) were both adopted in December 2020.  The plan includes many improvements for mobility in South County, including increased trip frequencies, longer hours of service, faster express service to Providence, and new crosstown routes.
RIPTA has been implementing systemwide improvements from the TMP where it can, but it struggles financially due in part to its reliance on a declining source of support from a portion of the state gas tax.
According to the Federal Transit Administration’s National Transit Database in 2021, Rhode Island ranked among the lowest in per capita state funding for transit at $19, especially when compared with other urbanized states in our region, including Connecticut ($68), Delaware ($101), Pennsylvania ($120), New Jersey ($143), Maryland ($199) and Massachusetts ($239), rounded to the nearest dollar.
Still, RIPTA provides more trips, across a larger area, at a more effective cost-per-trip than transit agencies serving similar populations anywhere in America, according to the American Bus Benchmarking Group.
Looking ahead to the next State Budget, Rep. Tanzi who serves on the House Finance Committee will be eager to see what the Governor includes in his proposed budget for RIPTA, which forecasts a $31.5M deficit.  She has consistently introduced legislation to sustain transit and implement the state’s vision for its future.

View more Rhodies-In-Transit HERE.

SHARE THIS RIDE. And tell us, who do you want to see on the bus?! Tag @GrowSmartRI to let us know.

Learn more about Rhode Island’s Transit Master Plan, a data-driven, publicly-vetted and adopted vision for getting more Rhodies where they’re going when they need to get there, conveniently, affordably and with dignity.

Transit … where all walks of life can ride together.

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