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laterbacon t1_itv8ffi wrote

I got rid of my car a while back and I mostly ride my bike everywhere, but I rely on the R line quite a bit to get me down into Providence. I like not having to worry about parking or paying attention to traffic but they could vastly improve the service without a whole lot of effort. The thing about transit is that if it's fast and reliable and affordable people will actually use it. It's somewhat encouraging the ridership on the R line has increased a lot since it's been free. I think free buses are the key to a good transit system since transit funding is largely tied to ridership. It's a virtuous cycle of making important bus lines free, increasing ridership, and getting more funding to improve service. It all requires buy in from the community though and too many people see transit as something that only "undesirables" use.

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