Ever since Peter Alviti became Rhode Island Department of Transportation director in February 2015, removing bus riders from Kennedy Plaza has been more important to state “leaders” than properly funding public transit.

Mr. 20th-Century Transportation was rewarded for his efforts to further erode the state’s public transit system by being named chair of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority by a governor who seems to enjoy making low-wealth people, those with disabilities, the elderly, and high school students beg for a ride.

Alviti and his enablers have spent millions in taxpayer money in search of an out-of-the-way place to hide the people Joe Paolino and his wealthy downtown ilk find contemptible.

Kennedy Plaza has been updated twice during the past dozen or so years. Many of the changes were done to make people who don’t ride the bus more comfortable. Downtown landlords were even able to keep Kennedy’s Plaza public bathrooms closed long after the COVID-19 pandemic subsided.

While Kennedy Plaza has been upgraded, mostly to satisfy those uninterested in RIPTA services, bus routes have been cleavered, services cut, and people laid off. But Alviti and his cohorts remain focused on spending millions more to build a new bus hub away from the gaze of the rich and powerful.

At last week’s RIPTA board meeting, the agency proposed cuts or reductions in service to 58 of the 67 routes (about 85%) it operates, to help offset a budget deficit that the Statehouse allows to balloon. Sixteen routes would be eliminated, and dozens of other lines would see segments of their routes eliminated, weekend service canceled, or diminished frequency.

Nicole O’Loughlin, campaign organizer for Save RIPTA, put together a list of what that combined depletion would look like. It’s devastating.

Alviti, Gov. Dan McKee, and rest of the state’s powerbrokers watch the gutting of an essential service relied on by many people with no other way to get around and say this:

“Transit agencies around the country are facing a similar kind of discussion that we’ve been having here today and will be having for the next couple weeks,” Alviti said. “We, as an agency, need to adapt to the reality of those changes.”

Capt. Widen Highways also cited lower public transit ridership post-pandemic. But in other places not obsessed with cars and where public transit is supported, ridership is growing.

Ridership in the United States continues to increase, growing by some 17% nationwide from 2022 to 2023, according to a Federal Transit Administration report. The report noted the increase reflects more people choosing to take buses, subways, light rail, and other modes of public transit to work, school, errands, and weekend outings.

The American Public Transportation Association reported in May, in two reports, that U.S. ridership has rebounded to 85% percent of pre-pandemic levels, with transit agencies delivering 7.7 billion passenger trips in 2024 — 491 million more than in 2023.

Rhode Island ridership is down because state officials don’t understand or, more likely, don’t care about the vital role public transit plays in supporting low-income individuals, the blind, the deaf, and senior citizens; how it helps to reduce the greenhouse gases Rhode Island is mandated to cut; how it makes moving around the state easier for all.

Public transit also delivers a strong return on investment — $5 in economic output for every $1 invested, according to the American Public Transportation Association. Last year 51 cities and metro regions in the United States passed ballot measures to improve public transit as an investment in economic, environmental, and public well-being.

Grow Smart Rhode Island has noted that the Ocean State, the second-most urbanized state after New Jersey, “should be expanding and enhancing public transit, not sending it into a death spiral.”

The facts that RIPTA buses run late, service isn’t reliable, and many trips take more than twice as long as they do by car are the results of decisions made by the Statehouse. Smith Hill has long done nothing to improve, or even support, public transit, except use taxpayer money to fund studies it ignores and make small adjustments for show. That is why RIPTA ridership is in decline. It has been broken on purpose, and Alviti wonders why less people are using it.

If you actually want ridership, you have to provide service. You have to change with the times. Strong and reliable public transit is what Rhode Island — and the rest of the country — needs right now, at a time when planet-warming emissions need to be drastically reduced and when the growing inequality gap needs to be bridged.

Rhode Island ranks among the lowest in per capita state funding for transit at about $20 per person, according to the Federal Transit Administration. Connecticut spends about $70, Massachusetts about $240, and Delaware, the second-smallest state, about $100 per person.

RIPTA CEO Chris Durand has guessed the proposed cuts would be the worst the agency has ever experienced if they make it through the hearing process and are passed by a board of directors’ vote.

“Rhode Island has been underfunding RIPTA for decades, while also not properly investing in the need for expansion and climate change resiliency,” according to Save RIPTA. Amen.

Due to McKee essentially defunding RIPTA this legislative session and the General Assembly doing little to correct the governor’s shortsightedness, RIPTA was left with a $10 million budget deficit for the coming fiscal year.

To address this ongoing Statehouse failure, RIPTA leadership was forced to slash service on nearly every bus route statewide, representing the largest service cut in the agency’s six-decade history. The cuts include weekend service to Roger Williams Park Zoo and the trolleys connecting Newport’s North End, where many of the city’s low-wealth families reside, to its popular beaches.

Five more RIPTA public hearings are scheduled for today, Monday, and Wednesday. Make sure your voice is heard.

Frank Carini can be reached at [email protected]. His opinions don’t reflect those of ecoRI News.