Guest MINDSETTER™ Dan Lawlor: Providence Streetcars a Questionable Public Investment
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
I love trains. I love riding the MBTA to South Station and the Amtrak Northeastern to New Hampshire. Yet, despite my love of trains, I am not wild about the latest rapid transit proposal for Providence. The proposed Brown College Hill to Brown Jewelry District Train Line, excuse me the “Providence Streetcar System,” seems like a questionable public investment.
Why not a URI to TF Green Train line? Why not Woonsocket to Providence? Why not CCRI Knight Campus to West Warwick Street Car System? I am all for trains. I am all for public transportation. However, more public transit for people who don't really need it is not something I'm in favor of.
I say this as a graduate of Brown and a native Rhode Islander, who has spent much of my life in Providence, North Providence, and Johnston. A friend who works on Killingly Street in Johnston would benefit just as much, if not more, from better public transit strategies as a friend on College Hill.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTWe are too small and too poor a state to use public investment for streetcar showpieces for the global elite. If we're serious about economic development opportunities, re-imagining public transit hubs in the suburbs and cities surrounding Providence is vital. As gas prices rise, and cars become more expensive, people should have more options to access public transportation that is easy, efficient, and safe. Bus and train lines should connect colleges and hospitals to airports and hotels, business parks should be linked to village restaurants and hotels. We're one state, we should act like it.
A case in point: A lot of attention has been given to the proposed street car system for Providence. As the Metropolitan Transit Study notes, the proposed street cars network would connect “Meds to Eds,” linking “the Hospital District, through the newly developed Jewelry District, and up to College Hill.”
A strong proposal, but simply further connecting neighborhoods that are connected. What about cities with limited easy connections to the business parks, hospitals, or colleges? What about Woonsocket? What about West Warwick?
“Meds to Eds” is a fine framework – but why not apply it statewide? Why not ask URI, CCRI and RIC students what strategies would make public transit easier and more accessible for them? Salve Regina, Roger Williams, Bryant and PC are all part of the puzzle. If we're going to make public transit for some college students more efficient, our goal should be to make it more efficient for all of the state's students, and all the state's hospitals. Growth is related to creating and improving infrastructure that makes the whole state more accessible and attractive.
As the RI Transit 2020 Report concludes, “Rhode Island must invest in transit to develop and maintain a seamless, integrated, high quality transit service that builds on and complements the existing system.”
In that spirit, let's build transit to help all the state's college students and all the state's hospitals- not just a slice of them.
