Kallman said that RIPTA’s report shows that removing financial barriers can increase ridership significantly.Īccording to the report, ridership among disabled people “in the R-Line zone increased at a rate two times greater than the systemwide rate, or by about 240 more trips per month,” highlighting the effect of removing financial barriers for disabled people, who use the regular fixed-route bus along with last-mile public transit that offers door-to-door service.Īlthough selecting the R-Line for the pilot had “the greatest impact on the greatest number of people,” the pilot may have given “a better picture of what moving to free fare would look like” if RIPTA had chosen another, less popular line, Raub said. “The people who take the bus at this point tend to be low-income people coming from” marginalized neighborhoods. The pilot program is “also a matter of transit equity,” Raub said. She explained that the program can increase mobility for people who do not drive and incentivize car users to ride the bus instead - “which, from a climate perspective, is also a really good thing,” she said. Still, “fare-free arrangements are really beneficial for a range of different people for a range of different reasons,” Kallman said. Rhode Islanders should not expect public transit to pay for itself, Kallman said: “Part of our responsibility as a state in our budget is to make sure that we're funding the operations, the service, the drivers and the infrastructure appropriately,” she said. She noted that RIPTA may have to cut back on service, including the number and frequency of bus routes, if it continues to operate the pilot “without any additional funding.” “RIPTA is weighing the costs and benefits of providing fare-free service on one or more routes.” Permanently expanding the program “would add to an existing (budget) gap of $300 (million),” she wrote. of the story and the feelings of the Service'. Over the course of a year, the lost fares would add up to “almost 5% of the entire RIPTA fixed-route bus operating budget.”Īccording to Perry, “RIPTA is on the verge of exhausting its federal relief dollars and is looking for a new revenue source to implement the Transit Master Plan,” which outlines strategies to improve transit in Rhode Island. Peck also noted that the Daily Herald article's 'sting in the tail' the only one in an otherwise. “If the R-Line riders during the pilot had been paying the $2 bus fare, RIPTA would have earned about $400,000 each month,” she wrote. ![]() But RIPTA spokesperson Cristy Raposo Perry wrote in an email to The Herald that the $2.5 million allocated “will not offset the full cost of the pilot program.”
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