The environmental benefits of reduced auto usage are clear and widely understood. Global warming emissions, air pollution and impacts on open spaces all can be avoided with cleaner, more efficient transportation choices.
What may be less clear are the economic-development advantages of having a transportation system that provides people mobility choices, particularly for commuting to work.
According to the latest available census data, 80 percent of Rhode Island workers commute to work by driving alone in a car. Let’s imagine that the 80 percent figure could be reduced to 50 percent. Some may think that this is impossible in our auto-centric state. However, several corporations located in downtown Providence achieve these very numbers today.
How do they do it? These companies have located in an area served by good transit and close to population centers. As a result, employees have choices to take the bus or the train, walk, bike and carpool.
If we were able to accomplish the 50 percent number, this is what it would mean for economic development in Rhode Island:
• At $2.20 per gallon, $120 million of Rhode Islanders’ hard-earned money would be saved, annually, because of fewer gasoline purchases. These funds are currently shipped out of state and out of the country. Instead, these funds could be spent on other goods and services offered by Rhode Island companies. Many people believe that gas will cost $4 per gallon in the near future. If this happens, annual savings would approach $250,000,000.
• Nationwide, the younger, creative work force prefers areas with good transit and mobility choices. Those communities that attract and retain this cohort will be the economic leaders in the upcoming decades.
• Rhode Island would be better positioned to attract and retain quality companies for two reasons. The first is due to the previous point. The ability of companies to attract young and creative talent is paramount to this success. Mobility choices help to attract talent. Second, more and more companies are trying to be greener. They believe, correctly, that it will help their marketing, their image and reduce their costs. To be truly green, a company must be located where its employees have commuting choices. If we invest in transit and mobility choices, Rhode Island can attract and retain more employers. If Rhode Island achieves the 50 percent goal, companies will want to be part of this success.
What do we need to do in order to achieve this goal? Two basic things: invest in transit, bike paths and pedestrian ways, and encourage companies to locate near good transit facilities and population centers.
If Rhode Island wants to participate in the New Energy Economy, it must begin to invest in a public transportation system that is visionary and that grows with demand. The first step is ensuring that the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority’s (RIPTA) annual budget is a state priority. This investment is needed not only to maintain our current system, but to give RIPTA a leg up on realizing a long-term vision. By growing this robust system of transportation choices, we can help our economy and do our part to save the environment at the same time.
During these last days of the Rhode Island legislative session, we call on the Rhode Island House of Representatives and Senate, as well as the governor, to do the right thing and invest in a transit system for the 21st century economy. •
Dan Baudouin is the executive director of The Providence Foundation; Chris Wilhite is the chapter director of the Sierra Club in Rhode Island.
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