Two innovative proposals are being explored to help solve downtown Providence’s parking squeeze: and both rely on the state’s bus system to make them go.
One is a series of peripheral or underutilized commercial parking lots that would provide rates far cheaper than those in the center of downtown, with parkers shuttled by Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus to their destinations.
The other is a proposed garage for the Heritage Harbor Museum, which could use some of its parking spaces as a park-and-ride area for commuters, who would then take RIPTA the rest of the way into downtown.
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Both ideas are just in the talking stages.
While peripheral parking long has been discussed, the idea is being pushed by Ocean State Clean Cities Coalition, which already has identified parking lots with about 100 spaces, according to Stephen Woerner, the volunteer group’s coordinator.
The idea would be for RIPTA to pick up the drivers for an estimated 8-minute trip into the city, ideally using the system’s 19-vehicle fleet of trolley-like buses that have been providing low-cost trips throughout downtown since 1999.
Clean Cities is part of a national group affiliated with the federal Department of Energy that has the twin goals of reducing air pollution and decreasing reliance on foreign sources of fuel. The trolleys run on compressed natural gas.
Meanwhile, Kenneth Orenstein, a consultant to the Heritage Harbor Museum, said that facility needs 350 spaces for its own visitors and staff on Eddy Street, but might double that amount to serve the expansion of the nearby Jewelry District, as well as perhaps to provide a RIPTA park-and-ride facility.
That idea also would depend on RIPTA being able to shuttle passengers downtown, again most likely with the trolley system, which operate on two routes that pick up passengers every 12 to 15 minutes.
"RIPTA is critical; there is no way to build your way out of the parking supply to satisfy demand," said Orenstein. "You want people out of their cars altogether."
And the bus system seems to be enjoying a rebirth akin to that of Providence itself: with a new hub and terminal nearing completion at Kennedy Plaza; the success of the trolley system, which has 60,000 riders a month; and a new $20 million maintenance facility.
But Lee Beliveau, director of marketing and communications for RIPTA, says the system is facing continued economic hard times: in July, it will double trolley fares to $1 because a federal grant is running out. And in the next budget cycle, the overall RIPTA faces a big deficit.
"Transportation in 2004 is in a crisis situation," Beliveau says. "We are looking at a $7.5 million dollar hole in our budget."
Thus, just when the demand is highest for RIPTA service, its chronic financial troubles could prevent it from the kind of expansion that could make it even more vital.
RIPTA is heavily dependent on subsidies, because fares pay only 27 to 30 percent of the system’s $50 million budget.
