In the Summertime, Providence is a Public-Transit Paradise. Here’s Why.

by Barry Schiller

With high gas prices and the increasing threat of climate change, have you noticed the reduced traffic on our roads? Me neither. Still, gas prices are high and climate change is no joke. So it’s likely that folks are curious about getting around this summer [...]

From A Public Transit Advocate: Ten Reasons the RIPTA Bus Hub Should Remain in Kennedy Plaza.

by Barry Schiller

Much about the future of transit in Providence relates to whether or not the bus hub in Kennedy Plaza is moved.  Having failed to get support for several other sites in the past, RIPTA and its contractor for the transit-hub project, Next Wave, are now [...]

In February, We Celebrate Rosa Parks As a Champion of Transit Equity. But Rhode Island – and Providence – Have a Ways to Go.

by Barry Schiller

Rosa Parks, who famously resisted segregation on public buses in Montgomery, Alabama, was born on February 4. So this time of year has come to be associated with celebrating “Transit Equity.” While of course today’s Rhode Island buses are not segregated, we have not achieved [...]

Readers’ Voices 06.18

by Barry Schiller

The Narragansett Bay Commission that Nini Stoddard wrote about in the June 4 Eye [“Time to Find Out about your Wastewater Treatment Plant”] does a good job at treating wastewater, but I question the fairness about who pays for the $570 million they spent on [...]

Will RIPTA Be Saved or Savaged This Year?

by Barry Schiller

For those who use or care about public transit in RI it’s easy to see this as the worst of times.  Most of all because H5076, the Governor’s proposed FY2026 budget, fails to help close the deficit RIPTA faces, about $32.6 million, the largest pending [...]

RIPTA Bus Hub in Kennedy Plaza: This Group Wants it to Stay!

by Barry Schiller

The future of RIPTA’s downtown Providence bus hub remains unresolved, even though it has been discussed at least since 2014 when voters approved a $35 million bond to fund “enhancements and renovations” to transit hubs throughout the state. Kennedy Plaza, previously Exchange Place, is the [...]

What’s Up with the Downtown Transit Hub?

by Barry Schiller

A crucial meeting presenting options for the transit hub in Providence will be held at the Amica Mutual Pavilion, “The Dunk”, on May 13, 4-7pm.  The purpose is to obtain community feedback related to RIPTA’s plan to develop a new transit center that would replace [...]

Ready to Ride the Rails

by Barry Schiller

While some see trains as nineteenth-century technology, modern trains are perhaps the greenest way to travel over intermediate distances, and Rhode Islanders now have more opportunities to do so than in a long time. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) commuter rail service to Providence, which disappeared completely in the 1980s, is [...]

Hubbub Over the Bus Hub

by Barry Schiller

Where in downtown Providence should Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) locate its bus hub, the heart of its operations? Kennedy Plaza has long been both a transit center and a civic space.  Flanked by City Hall and the Federal Building and Courthouse, Exchange Place [...]