This series looks at people whose lives will be impacted by RIPTA’s proposed service cuts.

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PROVIDENCE — Cousins Anthony Tinaro, 21, and Max Gilman, 20, take Rhode Island Public Transit Authority buses all around the state.

“RIPTA has been a big part of my life,” Tinaro said. Gilman agreed: “It’s huge for me.”

RIPTA’s Route 4 bus carries them to Providence College, where they are both juniors, from their hometown of Warwick.

The 4 line is one of dozens of RIPTA routes on which the agency plans to reduce service or eliminate entirely this spring because of an ongoing driver shortage. RIPTA has said service will be restored as soon as more drivers (about 20 positions) are filled. The agency’s board voted recently to increase wages for drivers, but it is unclear how higher hourly rates will impact hiring. 

RIPTA’s board has not set a date to vote on the proposed changes.

Gilman lives on campus but comes home to visit friends and family frequently. Tinaro commutes from Warwick to Providence almost every day of the week.

When they want to visit friends at the University of Rhode Island, “a super unrealistic drive for us or taxi fare,” Gilman explained, they hop on the bus.

“RIPTA has helped me get jobs, basically every job I ever had,” Gilman said.

But right now, one of RIPTA’s biggest roles in their lives is keeping them close.

“I try to see Max as much as possible. RIPTA really helps,” Tinaro told ecoRI News over the phone while hanging out with Gilman at PC last week. He said he had taken the bus early that day to get there.

With route cuts on the horizon, Gilman and Tinaro are concerned about how it will impact how often they can see friends, family, and each other.

Both cousins spoke at a RIPTA public hearing earlier this month to voice opposition to the changes.

Tinaro, an art student, takes an independent study course at PC on Sundays that he said will be harder to get to if the 4 is eliminated on that day.

Tinaro does have access to a car but tries not to drive it for environmental reasons.

“Last semester and this semester, I tried to really embrace it because I could see where the wind was going with climate change,” he said.

Gilman doesn’t currently have access to a car and said the cuts will in general make his travel more difficult.

Still, he acknowledged that he and Tinaro are on the lucky end of the spectrum of people impacted by the service’s changes.

“We’re looking at it from a really privileged point of view,” Gilman said. “It’s not just unreasonable, it’s unfathomable for some not to have the bus.”