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Krysten, 56, Retired

“I won’t be able to come out as often as I do. The only reason we went out to Smithfield is because it was on the bus line. Now I’m stuck out in Smithfield and they canceled early morning buses. Thursday I have to be at Rhode Island Hospital for 8, which means I gotta be up and out by 6:30 to get a connecting bus to be there for 8. Now they’re proposing no weekend service, how are we going to go food shopping?”

 

Axle, 22, Personal Shopper

“I don’t know what hours I’m going to be losing exactly, but I know that even before the bus cuts, I would struggle to get to work on time. Part of a functioning society is for people who want to go to work getting to work on time. How are people without cars supposed to go up through the world if they can’t get a job—you can’t really get a job without a car—and it’s just really frustrating because not everyone can drive a car. Even if you wanted to, even if you tried your best—like, I don’t have a license. It’s really difficult for me.”

 

Jose, 33, Operational Associate at DashMart

“The bus route used to go in front of my house, and now because of the budget cuts they stopped going in front of my house. I take the R line, and I wait an extra 20 minutes because now they only come every 40 minutes. The 71 is where I live by, and they canceled that route and shut it early on the weekdays. It makes it tough, but I still get around.”

 

Jamie, 30, Library clerk

“I want to ride RIPTA more now, but the buses honestly don’t go where I need to go. Also I am disabled, but there is no seating at the bus stops, so I cannot stand and wait for hours because the buses have so few lines as it is. We need more stops, and we need benches and overhangs to make them accessible.”

 

Urania, 43, Medical Translator

“Personally I see a lot of patients sometimes miss their appointments because as it is, even medical transportation right now is terrible. So when people really need to get to an appointment and they don’t even have the capability of going and standing there and waiting for a bus and knowing that for sure the bus is going to show, it’s a huge issue.”

 

Asher, 18, Monitor, Providence Summer Food Service Program

“My brother is going to be taking the bus to school like every day. The bus that we take already is one that just isn’t very frequent. It’s like once an hour. And so now with the cuts, it’s going to be even less frequent, because there’s just less buses and less drivers and everything. And so because of that, I know it’s going to be harder for him to get to and from school.”

 

Jennifer, 46, Youth Services Specialist

“This is going to impact how people can access their healthcare. RIPTA is the way I get to my doctors, you know?”

 

Michelle, 58, Library Manager

“Rent is skyrocketing, people can’t afford to buy cars and Ubers, so it impacts people’s ability to get to their jobs. We ourselves have employees here who use the bus to get to work, and these cuts would affect them. We’d also have less people coming in from the bus stop to use the library.”

 

This story was created in partnership with Journalism New England. The writers are all Providence Eye Community News Fellows and their bios are listed here.