The ghosts of past public-transit plans have found their final resting place in a cardboard box in the office of Rhode Island Public Transit Authority CEO Scott Avedisian.
The box is filled with more than a dozen reports and proposals – elaborate renderings, black-and-white laminated binders of detailed analysis and oversized architectural maps. The earliest proposal dates back to 1976, with a cover letter addressed to then-Providence Mayor Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr.
A proposal floated last year by the R.I. Department of Transportation sought to divide up the central bus depot at Kennedy Plaza across three sites, complete with an underground tunnel under Washington Street. Some of the ideas came to fruition, but others, such as the ill-fated tunnel and a bus hub on the Statehouse lawn, never became reality.
So what makes RIDOT’s latest attempt to revitalize Kennedy Plaza and improve a languishing downtown transit system any different?
The Providence Multi-Hub Bus System unveiled in July splits up the main bus depot into three hubs, keeping about one-quarter of the routes at Kennedy Plaza and adding destinations at the Providence Station and a new hub on Dyer Street at the edge of the Providence Innovation & Design District.
Peter Alviti Jr., director of RIDOT, said the new plan takes the lessons learned from decades of discussion, data and false starts to create something that meets its intended goals of improving ridership, connecting different areas of the city and fostering economic growth.
“We’re at a point where it’s time to put the pencil down,” Alviti said. “We can discuss this for another decade and in 10 years, we will still be talking about the same stuff.”
The clock is ticking down, with a $35 million state bond for public-transit improvements sitting unused since it was approved in 2014. At the same time, improving a languishing public-transit system will prove critical to achieving Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s goal to power the state 100% with renewable energy by 2030.
But opposition to the latest busing proposal is mounting, with calls for RIDOT to scrap its plan and start over in a process that offers better opportunity for public input.
Whether the plan is a done deal is unclear. Alviti said transportation officials are open to “refining” the proposal, but he also insisted that RIDOT was moving forward. Avedisian, who supports the plan, quickly chimed in during a joint interview with Alviti that “nothing’s ever a done deal.”
Both insisted that this proposal has what its prior, failed predecessors lack in terms of planning, research and support from Raimondo and key “stakeholders.” Asked whether the governor was open to amending the plan as proposed, Audrey Lucas, a spokesperson for Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, said in an email “the governor is fully supportive of this vision and looks forward to continued public feedback.”
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NEW STOPS: Peter Alviti Jr., director of the R.I. Department of Transportation, stands in Kennedy Plaza in Providence and explains where new bus stops are planned as part of RIDOT’s planned Providence Multi-Hub Bus System. / PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM[/caption]
RABBLE-RIDERS
Which stakeholders are driving this proposal – and which have been left out – is at the heart of the controversy.
In presenting its proposal, RIDOT named a host of people and groups who have been privy to the process: Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza and the Providence City Council, downtown business owners, local developers, colleges and universities, and a host of area business and neighborhood organizations such as the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission, The Providence Foundation, Grow Smart Rhode Island and the RI Transit Riders.
“It’s disingenuous to say that we’ve not been meeting with the public on this issue,” Alviti said, adding that RIDOT has appeared at more than 16 organizational and public meetings since it released its plan.
But critics, including some of the groups named by RIDOT, say their opportunity for input came too late, and that they should have been consulted as the plan was being developed instead of afterward.
“They seem to be working in the best interests of some of the downtown businesspeople, and that’s only one of the stakeholders,” said Patricia Raub, coordinator for RI Transit Riders. “A good plan would bring together all the stakeholders.”
Raub and others named Joseph R. Paolino Jr., a former Providence mayor, as one of the business owners who has exerted undue influence.
Paolino, managing partner of Paolino Properties LP, was among a group of downtown property owners who in 2019 sued to stop proposed improvements to Kennedy Plaza, alleging they would hurt property values.
Asked about claims that his prior opposition shaped the new proposal, Paolino, who supports the plan as it stands now, said, “I hope my lawsuit has had some effect. Where buses go in Providence is going to affect me, and I hope it’s going to affect me in a positive way. Riders are people that live and work in my buildings, so I want it to be good for them.”
Alviti emphasized the economic and business-development benefits of the new plan, which targets Boston commuters and companies looking to locate in the growing I-195 District as key sources of its new ridership.
“We’re not just looking at how we can better serve the people who ride [RIPTA buses] today,” Alviti said.
Whether attracting new riders comes at a cost to the 51,500 weekday riders already using the system depends who you ask. Raub and other riders insist that splitting the now-centralized hub at Kennedy Plaza across three locations will add time, money and transfers for current riders, many of whom have no other options. More than two-thirds of riders of RIPTA’s newly created Downtown Transit Corridor routes are low-income, and more than half are minorities, according to RIPTA.
RIPTA analysis shows that only 1%, or 445 people, who ride RIPTA in downtown would have to transfer more often under its new plan. But that data is based on 2018 ridership and only accounts for riders who purchase transfer tickets, not those who transfer using the multitrip or monthly passes that regular riders tend to favor.
John Flaherty, deputy director of Grow Smart RI, questioned the data in a recent RIPTA board of directors meeting. His public-records request for access to the information used in the analysis was denied, which further points to lack of transparency in the process, he said.
Adding to his frustration is what he said seems like a repeat pattern in which RIDOT releases a plan without prior public input, only to be met with opposition.
“We want to see improvements take place, we’re eager for those improvements,” Flaherty said. “But we’ve squandered the better part of the last two years with this process in which RIDOT develops something on their own and rolls it out to the public, only to get pushback.”
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ON THE MARCH: The R.I. Department of Transportation’s latest proposal to create a multi-hub bus system in Providence that would decentralize routes from Kennedy Plaza and add new hubs at the Providence Station and on Dyer Street near the Garrahy Courthouse has met with opposition. John Flaherty, deputy director of Grow Smart Rode Island, leads a protest march in September from the downtown bus hub to the proposed transfer locations. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
REROUTING
Plans floated by RIDOT in recent years, including the tunnel idea and one calling for a central hub at the Providence train station, were also met with strong opposition. Whether it was public criticism that sank those plans is unclear – the Providence Station proposal relied heavily on private investment through a public-private funding formula that never materialized.
The series of transit plans pushed out by RIDOT in the last several years have left key groups in a position to react, rather than help craft what it believes to be a sustainable solution, said Cliff Wood, executive director of The Providence Foundation.
Pressed on what he believes is a better alternative to the current plan, Wood was hesitant to be specific. Instead, he said the “rational way” was to put all the options on the table and vet them publicly.
“I don’t want to see this rushed in a way that makes it a poor investment,” Wood said. “I really don’t think doing it in a way with more transparency would add that much time.”
The city of Providence also floated a proposal. The 2018 Smart Transit plan called for a host of improvements across the city, including two new transit hubs at Providence Station and on Eddy Street at Rhode Island Hospital, with a dedicated, right-of-way “transit emphasis corridor” with frequent service tying the new hubs together along with the rest of downtown. It never came to fruition.
Asked what happened to the plan, Elorza said in an emailed statement that the city is working with RIDOT on securing more money that will improve its proposal. However, Elorza also said he supports the new multihub bus proposal, although he would like to see improvements made to the plans for the Dyer Street hub.
The Providence City Council, meanwhile, recently passed a resolution stating its opposition to the plan. The resolution cites “adverse impacts on ridership, connectivity and the overall user experience,” as well as a lack of intent by RIDOT to “respond to the concerns raised by the local community.”
Alviti, however, pointed to changes since the plan was unveiled in July as evidence that RIDOT and RIPTA are taking public feedback into account.
The routes, though not released publicly, have been amended to minimize the number of transfers riders have to make, he said. RIDOT has also reexamined the feasibility of alternative locations for its Dyer Street hub, such as the Garrahy Courthouse garage or a series of nearby parking lots on Dorrance Street. Those locations were suggested in public feedback as better than the proposed Dyer Street site, which includes two unused buildings on about an acre of land owned by National Grid Rhode Island along the Providence River.
Alviti said private discussions confirmed that the suggested alternatives weren’t viable due to physical constraints of the properties, lack of interest from developers or property owners, or both. Asked why these alternatives were not subject to public vetting, he said it would be a waste of time because the proposals were “doomed to fail.”
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DIVIDED: Riders board a bus from the main hub at Kennedy Plaza in Providence. The R.I. Department of Transportation has devised a plan that would split up the main bus depot into three hubs, but it has drawn opposition. / PBN PHOTO/
ELIZABETH GRAHAM[/caption]
DYER DISAGREEMENT
Turning the long-vacant National Grid site at the edge of the I-195 District into a bus depot may have consequences for nearby businesses and residents, too.
Sharon Steele, president of the Jewelry District Association and a vocal opponent of the latest proposal, said the plan shifts safety and aesthetic concerns with Kennedy Plaza to Dyer Street, creating the same problems for nearby businesses and residents. She also feared that people waiting to take buses from the hub would spill over into the nearby Providence Waterfront Park, diminishing the park’s intended use.
Steele also questioned if National Grid is onboard with the proposal. Ted Kresse, a spokesman for the utility company, acknowledged that National Grid has had “constructive conversations” with RIDOT and RIPTA for the proposal for a new bus hub.
The conversations led to a tentative long-term lease and operations agreement that calls for National Grid to invest its own money in redeveloping the buildings on the property for its own use, with the state paying for the transit-related features in and around the property.
Exactly what the Dyer Street hub will cost is unclear, which also leaves the price tag for the entire proposal up in the air. A $35 million bond approved by voters in 2014 for “mass transit improvements” serves as the cornerstone funding piece, combined with a $12.5 million federal grant to upgrade the Providence Station, $7.5 million from Amtrak and $5.25 million from RIDOT, according to Alviti.
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The Providence Multi-Hub Bus System from the R.I. Department of Transportation would divide the central bus hub at Kennedy Plaza across three locations. About a quarter of current bus routes would still end at Kennedy Plaza, while almost half would end at a new hub at the gateway to the I-195 Redevelopment District on Dyer Street. The final quarter of routes would be redirected to a new hub at the Providence Station.
SOURCE: R.I. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
PBN GRAPHIC/ANNE EWING[/caption]
Although Alviti emphasized that the transit plan is an equal partnership and collaboration between RIDOT and RIPTA, it was RIDOT that published the plan, and RIDOT that will control the purse strings on the project. This has been another sticking point with opponents, who say RIPTA should be leading the project, given its expertise in public transportation.
“RIDOT is good at digging things,” Raub said. “This is not their forte.”
But the project’s ties to rail improvements at the Providence Station make RIDOT a better fit to lead the project, Alviti and Avedisian said. RIDOT is also spearheading numerous transit-related improvements: the Pawtucket/Central Falls Commuter Rail Station and Bus Hub, a partnership with Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and Amtrak to expand the express routes between Providence and Boston, and a redesign of the T.F. Green Airport station to accommodate regional Amtrak trains.
Meanwhile, RIPTA recently completed its long-awaited Downtown Transit Corridor, a $17 million project offering high-frequency service with six stops in downtown. While bus ridership statewide has dropped dramatically since the pandemic hit, passenger numbers on the downtown corridor routes have rebounded more quickly, indicating a necessity for the new project, Avedisian said.
And the Rhode Island Transit Master Plan, which outlines $75 million in capital projects designed to bolster transit across the state over the next two decades, is on schedule for final adoption and implementation this winter, Avedisian said.
Of all these pieces that complete the puzzle of creating a robust transit system, updating and improving Providence’s bus system is among the most important, advocates and opponents of the current plan agree. Which only raises the stakes of the proposal.
“We need to move past this archaic, old kind of central bus hub concept to something beyond what your grandmother rode on,” Alviti said.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.
Build it!
Sharon Steele is against everything