GoLocalProv | News | Coalition Criticizes Senate President Ruggerio’s RIPTA-RIDOT Merger Proposal

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Amy Glidden and Patricia Raub, Visitor MINDSETTER™

RI Transit Riders doesn’t help Senate President Ruggerio’s current name for Scott Avedisian to resign and for RIDOT to take over RIPTA.

We have now not at all times agreed with Avedisian’s choices, however throughout his administration, RIPTA has been enhancing its efficiency as of late. The Company has now raised wages for drivers and is actively recruiting further workers within the face of a nationwide scarcity of drivers. RIPTA has improved its misplaced service document considerably since early fall. It has begun to implement the State’s Transit Grasp Plan (TMP), which can improve public transit for folks all through the state and assist Rhode Island meet its local weather objectives.

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If President Ruggerio is really involved about public transit in Rhode Island, we’re shocked he didn’t attain out to stakeholders, together with RI Transit Riders, earlier than deciding to subject his assertion. If President Ruggerio actually desires to assist RIPTA, he’ll help laws on this session to allocate the extra funding wanted to completely notice the goals articulated within the TMP. President Ruggerio will even work with the Normal Meeting to offer a sustainable supply of funding for RIPTA that isn’t depending on the fuel tax. There are lawmakers already engaged on the problem who might be consulted, together with riders and stakeholders like us who’re keen to assist.

We urge President Ruggerio to rethink his proposal to have RIPTA, with its give attention to riders and public engagement, taken over by RIDOT, a car-centric company with no public engagement and an extended historical past of controversy. We notice that RIDOT eliminated a passenger terminal from the plans for the Pawtucket Central Falls Station, an error that RIPTA is now remedying. The Multi-Hub plan, which the general public overwhelmingly opposed and defeated, is one among RIDOT’S extra infamous failures. RIDOT didn’t seek the advice of riders nor collaborate adequately with RIPTA in planning that mission. This leaves us with no confidence {that a} RIDOT-controlled RIPTA will likely be in the most effective pursuits of riders.

And in our worsening local weather disaster, RIPTA has a useful function to play. Even RIPTA’s diesel buses are higher for the local weather than electrical vehicles, and increasing and electrifying bus service will do loads for local weather objectives. However what we’ve got been seeing as a substitute is an ongoing neglect of RIPTA. This is without doubt one of the largest ways in which the state’s local weather potential is being squandered. Given RIDOT’s document, placing RIPTA underneath RIDOT will simply lengthen our neglect of local weather objectives.

Wherever buses are involved, constructive change begins with listening to RIPTA’s riders, not making arbitrary choices in session with outdoors actors. With RIDOT in cost, public transit in Rhode Island will worsen, not higher. We might be glad to work on transit points with President Ruggerio and others sooner or later, so long as riders are at all times consulted.

Amy Glidden and Patricia Raub, Co-chairs, RI Transit Riders is an impartial, volunteer-led, grassroots group that was fashioned to protect, broaden, and enhance public transportation in Rhode Island. 

Associated Articles

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• RIPTA Driver for 37 Years Joseph V. Sabitoni Dies at 80
• McKee Defends RIPTA Slicing Specific Seaside Runs for City Households
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• Windfall Police Investigating Stabbing on RIPTA Bus
• RIPTA Underneath Fireplace for Failing to Reply Questions About Information Breach
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• RIPTA Worker for 25 Years, Lisa M. D’Arezzo of Johnston Dies at 53
• Lengthy Time RIPTA Bus Driver Robert E. Davis, Sr., Dies at 86
• RIPTA Defends Hiring Fung’s Agency for Lobbying
• “Each Rhode Islander Ought to be Involved,” Says ACLU’s Brown on RIPTA Information Breach Lawsuit
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• After GoLocal Report of No-Bid $84,000 Contract to Fung, RIPTA Board Strikes to Dissolve Settlement
• Ruggerio Desires to Flip Over RIPTA to Company Overseeing the Worst Roads in America
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• RIDOT’s Alviti Says “Let Me Inform You One thing Pal” to Constituent at Public Assembly
• McKee, Alviti, Elorza Urged to Enable On-line Enter & “Take heed to Transit Riders” in Bus Hub Choice
• ACLU of Rhode Island Submitting Lawsuit Over RIPTA Information Breach
• UPDATED: Governor McKee Blasts RIPTA for Failures in Letter to Board
• RIPTA’s Busiest Bus Route Is Now Free, Beginning Right now
• RIPTA Bus Drivers “Overworked and Underappreciated,” Says Union in Calling for Adjustments
• RIPTA Slashing Service Throughout the State On account of “Historic Workforce Scarcity”
• Fund RIPTA Drivers Now: We Want the Governor to Put Cash The place His Mouth Is
• RIPTA Board Chair Defends Avedisian and Company’s Efficiency

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