WAYNE KEZIRIAN
I read with interest the Jan. 9 Commentary piece by Zak Mettger (“Preserve the no-fare RIPTA pass”). Some of Ms. Mettger’s assertions are accurate and her piece taken as a whole hints at the complexity of the issues faced by the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority.
For instance, there is no question that her statement that RIPTA is “hurting for money” is correct. However, her statement that “RIPTA anticipates” that ridership among the low income elderly and disabled “will drop by 40 percent once the fare is imposed” is incorrect and misleading. The decrease in ridership that was anticipated by RIPTA has already largely been realized even though the 50-cent fare has not yet been implemented. That decrease resulted, as expected, from the re-enrollment process that was recently completed. It turns out that there were quite a few people riding for free who shouldn’t have been.
The 50-cent fare that will go into effect on Feb. 1 has been delayed twice but no meaningful alternatives have been proposed by its opponents. RIPTA is facing a budget crisis that must be addressed. It costs, on average, more than $4.50 for every trip a rider takes on a RIPTA bus and approximately 30 percent of RIPTA’s riders currently ride for free.
In the last fiscal year, these riders took 5.7 million free trips. That simply is not sustainable. In the context of RIPTA’s significant operating shortfall, I do not feel that charging low income elderly and disabled riders a modest per-trip fare is unreasonable. Even absent financial considerations, I believe that public transportation should be affordable and manageable, but not free.
Ms. Mettger presents herself as a person who rides RIPTA several times a day and who would end up paying more on a per-trip basis each month if required to pay 50 cents per trip than she would have paid if she purchased a full price unlimited monthly pass at the beginning of the month. She raises an issue which, if it had been presented earlier in the process, could have been addressed and resolved prior to the Feb. 1 rollout. I expect RIP-TA’s staff will consider that issue and present possible solutions to the board for consideration at its February meeting.
Even though it appeared late in the process, the quality and logic of Ms. Mettger’s commentary gives rise to hope that the ongoing discussions concerning RIPTA’s imposition of a 50-cent fare for low income disabled and elderly riders will shift from finger pointing, shouting and personal insults directed against the RIPTA board to a more meaningful discussion about how to make public transit in Rhode Island work for all who currently ride the bus and for those who would ride the bus if only the system was more welcoming and convenient.
Ms. Mettger’s comment that she is “pretty sure” that none of the RIPTA board members “could fathom how anyone couldn’t come up with a measly 50 cents for a bus fare” is not one that is likely to foster that type of discussion and was unfortunate, particularly given the exceptional, empathetic people who have volunteered to serve on the board.
—Wayne Kezirian, a lawyer, chairs the board of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. He has chaired the boards of both Travelers Aid Society of Rhode Island (now Crossroads) and McAuley Corporation, non-profit organizations that serve the poor and homeless of Rhode Island.