Jef Nickerson
Old Circular Gas Station parking lot at Atwells and Broadway, photo by Jef Nickerson
I don’t know what was going on at the Dunk last night, but when I walked home at around 10:30pm, there were cars EVERYWHERE. See the photo above of cars jammed into every inch of the Old Circular Gas Station parking lot (cars were busting out of the seems onto the sidewalk on the Atwells side as well, against the law).
So could none of these people have taken a bus and saved themselves the expense and annoyance of parking?
Well, maybe not:
- If your bus were the 35 to Rumford you’d be out of luck, the last bus leaves Providence at 7:00pm.
- Live up Atwells toward Academy Avenue? The last bus leaves Kennedy Plaza at 7:30pm.
- Douglas Avenue? Last bus out is at 9:40pm.
- 30 Oaklawn, last bus 9:15pm.
- Live in Attelboro, Seekonk, Swansea, Rehoboth, Fall River..? sorry, no bus for you.
As much as it would be nice to encourage people to ride RIPTA, for many people hoping to enjoy our fair city’s culture and nightlife, it is simply not an option.
Well I and my friend are taking the bus to Dunkin Donuts Center tonight. When I suggested the bus as an option, I was afraid I would get laughed at because my friends are not known for regularly getting around in Providence via public transportation (at least from a leisure standpoint). I was very happy that he enthusiastically endorsed the idea. Luckily we live in an area of Providence with two bus lines that run fairly regularly at night. The point of my story is that we as regular transit users think that the mentality of auto-reliant individuals will never change. However, we should not be embarrassed of trying to convince those that we know that buses are an option despite the perception. Our city will be better off for it.
Besides having viable bus service, events need to advertise the transit options. People all the time give driving and parking directions for events, but very rarely transit directions. If you get an invitation to something and right there on the invite it tells you how to get there by bus, at least the thought is put in your head.
I got an e-mail from the Bank of America Skating Center that states the following:
“Don’t Worry About Parking. Ride RIPTA down to the Bank of America Skating Center – conveniently just across the street from the Skating Center! Check out ripta.com for schedules and information. Hop on!”
The was an image with a BOA Skating Center ad on a bus that I could not paste. It’s a start, and it’s commendable that the skating center does this.
Sorry it got the message in the e-mail wrong. It’s:
“Don’t Worry About Parking. Ride RIPTA down to the Bank of America Skating Center. Most buses terminate in Kennedy Plaza – conveniently just across the street from the Skating Center! Check out ripta.com for schedules and information. Hop on!”
I saw that in my email this morning and said, “yay!”