As we’re all now painfully aware, RIPTA’s growing budget crunch will likely lead to massive service cuts next year. But other than cutting costs, nothing going on at the state level right now is addressing the key question of how to pay for stable, reliable transit.

Today’s ProJo reports several possible answers posed in Sierra Club’s recent transit study. Many of these ideas could work in Rhode Island.

Proposed transit cuts go right to the bone, but RIPTA really has no choice. On the one hand, RIPTA is beset by high fuel prices to run the buses. On the other, the money to pay for that fuel comes from a fixed per-gallon sales excise, which accounts for 70-80% of RIPTA’s revenue, yet does not automatically adjust for price rise. When gas prices go up and people drive less, RIPTA loses vital revenue, both to cover their own rising fuel costs, and to accommodate the added demand of people hoping to ride instead of drive.

Already on the brink, RIPTA now faces a severe shortfall — right when we need them most. With no love from the state, and having already shaved costs to the bone, RIPTA now has no choice but to cut the bone itself, and soon. Current proposed cuts will eliminate a fifth of all service, starting with service to those riders who are known to have cars: park-and-rides and far-flung daily commuter services are first on the block, eliminating service to four towns, including all of Burrillville. Next up are local routes past the city line, infrequent route spurs and detours, and lower-volume night and weekend service.

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How do you blow a .49 on a breathalyzer? Does that mean that half of your blood is alcohol?

For the answers to these questions and more, we turn to 34 year old North Providence resident and former Brown University presidential chef Stanley Kobierowski, who recently crashed into an electronic message board on I-95 near the mall in what turns out to be the drunkest attempt to drive, or do anything except die, in the history of Rhode Island.

In fact, according to variousw booze-ologists unearthed by the ProJo, this dude should not have been concious:

“For the average individual, there is a very severe risk of death when you start to approach a reading of .4,” said James Harasymiw, director of Alcohol Detection Services in Big Bend, Wis….

“He is in a very small class of people because most people — even heavy drinkers — would be unconscious or approaching death to get up to .5. The danger with this guy is that with that kind of tolerance, you may appear to be fine one moment and unconscious the next.”

Harasymiw calculated… that the man would have had to have had roughly 24 drinks — defined as a 12-ounce glass of beer or a shot and a half of whiskey — over six hours.

For those of you keeping score, that translates out into a whiskey shot every ten minutes for six hours straight. more »

Board Votes to Hold Public Hearings on Proposed Fare Increases

RIPTA’s board of directors voted at it April 7, 200th meeting to hold public hearings on proposed fares increases. Sharp hikes in the cost of fuel are behind the fare increase proposal. “Unfortunately, we have to seek fare increases to compensate for some of the steep increases in fuel costs. Fuel costs have more than tripled since FY 2002 when we paid on average 87 cents for a gallon of fuel. We’re now averaging about $3.27 a gallon for the current fiscal year. Fare increases won’t absorb the full impact of the higher cost of fuel, but they will help, said RIPTA General Manager Alfred J. Moscola.

If approved, the proposed fare increases would raise the base fare from $1.50 to $1.75 and include the following changes:

Details and hearing dates after jump

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I’ve just been informed that our beloved RIPTA has just brought Google Transit to Rhode Island (and in so doing, confounded the sites “city (comma) state” naming convention, as we are listed as “Statewide, RI”). For those not familiar with Google Transit, there’s actually no need to visit the site directly. Whenever you use Google Map’s to “get directions” for RIPTA accessible locations, you’ll be presented with a “Take Public Transit” option. Instead of driving directions, Google will show you what bus(es) to take along with their expected departure time(s). For example, suppose you’re flying into TF Green to attend tonight’s Local 121 Primary Shindig, you can do this. Public transport enthusiasts rejoice!

Not so much to do in North Kingstown. ‘cept take a radar gun to the Acela every afternoon:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQWsoAngKEg&feature=related]

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JioK-HxRHfE&feature=related]

RIPTA could certainly be far better — if it got sufficient funding for once — but catches way more crap than it deserves.

With the state budget in such dreadful shape, we’re looking for extra-budgetary ways of encouraging more people to ride RIPTA. This is in honor of the House Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources, and their passage of a bill I introduced that would let state employees take a RIPTA pass, instead of the parking space that they are guaranteed. We hope it would yield several hundred more regular riders, and it’d save the state a little money.

Def NSFW.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNlOL8tBVL8]

(Josh Miller and Art Handy have introduced the ‘U-Pass’ bill, that would require public universities to arrange programs that’d let their students to use their student IDs to ride for free — easily paid for by a reduction in new parking lots and garages which can cost upwards of $25,000 per space.)

Ralph Nader’s gotta find a new favorite airline. (Actually, I think he once called Southwest his favorite for-profit corporation, but can’t find the citation.)

Until a few weeks ago, my only beef with Southwest was the hokey comedy routines their attendants always ram down the ears of their passengers. But the news that’s been trickling out of the FAA hearings on Southwest’s negligence is, err… a bit more disturbing than those failed attempts at humor:

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. aviation regulators on Thursday proposed to fine Southwest Airlines Co a record $10.2 million for allegedly failing to inspect planes for structural cracks.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Southwest continued to fly uninspected aircraft even after the carrier notified the agency that it had missed a mandatory deadline to complete the work.

Brussat’s column today. To quote our friend David Byrne: some good points, some bad points — both in the column, and at Kennedy Plaza. But I think Brussat hits the nail on the head, here:

But a bus station next to a skating rink flanked by two parks and surrounded by civic, residential and commercial buildings add up to a lot more than many American or even European civic squares offer. We mustn’t sniff at what we have. It is not too crowded. It could, of course, be better maintained. Yet perhaps it can still be improved.

Timm Carney is a public transportation junkie, and in his continuing series on the varied bus routes and trolleys throughout our great town, here is his Mister Rogers-like take on our own Green Line, the Ripta Trolley. Whimsey! more »

WJAR has a brief news blurb on it. Here’s an eyewitness report from me:

We were sitting at the intersection of S. Main and College Street, next to the superior court, on our way to Tuesday night pub quiz at Trinity Brewhouse. The car in front of us went to turn across the river toward Westminster, and came to a screeching halt, narrowly avoiding a major crash. They were almost run over by a small red truck, which was going so fast up the hill that as it hit the steep incline on college street it literally flew into the air before hitting (a tree, maybe) on the side of the road and doing a 180. This is all right outside the courthouse. Within seconds, Police had surrounded them, and as soon as the truck stopped, the two people inside had jumped from the car to the ground, face down. One looked hurt from the crash.

It was one of the craziest things I have seen happen with my own eyes.

Another bystander reports that:

I was behind City Hall…We heard a screech and they were skidding around the corner- nearly crashed into Big Nazo. [They were then] followed by cops to Kennedy Plaza.

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By Timm Carney

Departing just feet from the Intermodal RIRTA bus terminal in Kennedy Plaza at pole “E” the 31 Cranston eventually terminates feet into Cranston at the Brewery Parkade. This is my route. I live in the Armory and the 31 passes within a block from my place. All my RIPTA adventures start on the 31 and so shall this column. The 31 is a colorful and surprisingly efficient route.

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