EcoRI: Ignoring Problem Won’t Make It Disappear: R.I. Public Transit Needs Statehouse Help
https://ecori.org/ignoring-problem-wont-make-it-disappear-r-i-public-transit-needs-statehouse-help/
GoLocalProv: McKee Leaves Riders Out In the Cold – Amy Glidden
https://www.golocalprov.com/news/mckee-leaves-riders-out-in-the-cold-amy-glidden
Rhode Island Current: Citing a lack of drivers, RIPTA mulls cuts to service this spring
EcoRI: RIPTA Board Looks at Service Cuts as Driver Shortage Continues
https://ecori.org/ripta-board-looks-at-service-cuts-as-driver-shortage-continues/
The Public’s Radio: Ian Donnis’ Rhode Island politics roundup for Jan. 26, 2024
LIZA BURKIN, lead organizer with the Providence Streets Coalition: “Last week, Gov. McKee’s State of the State speech focused on several worthy goals – improving school attendance, raising household incomes, implementing the Act on Climate, and solving the housing crisis. It’s impossible to see a path to achieving these goals without a robust public transit system, yet the governor’s proposed budget doesn’t even do the bare minimum to keep RIPTA running. Tens of thousands of Providence high schoolers and college students statewide depend on RIPTA to get to class. Behind housing, transportation is the second highest household expenditure, and emissions from cars and trucks make up 40% of Rhode Island’s greenhouse gases. Last year, Speaker Shekarchi passed a sweeping package of legislation focused on housing production. One of the bills going into effect in 2024 is a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) pilot, planning mixed-use communities near public transit with easy access to jobs and services. This is an exciting opportunity to foster vibrant, walkable communities where people can live and work without complete dependence on a car for mobility and survival. But if RIPTA operations fall off a fiscal cliff as projected this year, there will be no ‘T’ to pursue TOD ambitions. That is why our 2024 goals are laser focused on RIPTA and the impending driver and fiscal cliff, which began hitting home Thursday with the agency announcing drastic cuts in service due to the ongoing driver shortage caused by egregiously inadequate wages. Inaction will be felt for generations if we allow public transportation to languish at this critical moment. We encourage lawmakers in the General Assembly to end the decades of chronic underfunding and finally give RIPTA the resources it needs to move more riders – and the state – in the right direction.”
Rhode Island Transit Riders 