NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — Don MacDonald walked off the 14 bus at Salt Pond Plaza to wait for a buddy to pick him up so he could go to work on a recent afternoon.

He had found out the day before, from someone else on the bus, that the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority would be ending the segment of the 14 line that goes to the plaza, a part of a cost-cutting measure the agency plans to implement at the end of September.

When the lifelong Rhode Islander said he would just have to start taking the 69 bus more, an ecoRI News reporter informed him that line would also be impacted by the service cuts — coming every 90 minutes instead of every 60.

MacDonald laughed a little to himself. “Sounds about right,” he said. “I just get ready to use it, and they cut.”

MacDonald, a fisherman, said he uses the bus to get to work. Without a driver’s license, he said he relies on RIPTA and rides from friends to get around. Ride-shares are too expensive for him, he noted.

“It kinda sucks,” MacDonald said, sighing.

MacDonald is one of many riders who will be impacted by RIPTA bus cuts that are scheduled to start Sept. 27.

RIPTA is planning on reducing service — by cutting some buses, reducing schedule spans, decreasing frequency, and getting rid of segments — on 46 different lines. It’s a modified version of an earlier plan that included even more reductions in service, including cutting 14 lines altogether.

The new plan doesn’t eliminate any one line, but it will still affect riders.

Rep. Teresa Tanzi, who represents South Kingstown and Narragansett, spoke to ecoRI News after RIPTA’s board of directors voted to implement the cuts, expressing deep concerns and opposition to the plan.

“I was falsely optimistic when I heard the news that there was going to be a change,” she said, following an announcement of a temporary $3 million allocation to the agency, which it will eventually have to pay back, and a rollback on cuts. “The deeper I dug into it, I recognized that what they were saying wasn’t even true. There are entire segments that are being removed.”

In addition to removing the segment that services the Narragansett shopping center, route 14 will no longer operate on weekends or holidays.

Tanzi is worried RIPTA may enter a “transit death spiral” that will lead to reduced ridership, reduced revenues, and then further reductions in service.

Some advocates have noted that RIPTA is already hard to use in some areas, especially those outside the urban core.

Heather Nightingale, an employee at Pet Supplies Plus at Salt Pond Plaza, said she has already had trouble taking the 69 from her home near the University of Rhode Island, to the point that she often finds rides to work.

As it stands, she must get on the bus two hours before her shift starts if she wants to make it to work on time.

Still, she said, there is often a crowd waiting for the bus on the benches near the RIPTA stop. Workers at the bakery a few doors down said they often get customers who wander in while they’re waiting for their bus.

David Barry was one of those riders waiting for the bus recently. He had been on the phone with his wife when the 14 drove by and missed it. He can’t drive because of a disability and uses the bus to get around, he said.

Barry already had to pay for an expensive ride-share when he missed the bus earlier that day. The bus is much more affordable; he has a discounted pass because of his disability.

In July, he attended a public hearing on the proposed cuts, but didn’t testify because he wasn’t sure anyone would listen to him.

The service change “affects people that don’t have options,” Barry said, “the people who have less.”