Welcome!
We have the opportunity today to define our transit future.
We can see the outlines of one potential future – with continued growth of single rider automobile use – in the standstill traffic, bumper-to-bumper “rush hours,” and declining air quality of today. If unchanged, these current trends will lead in 15 years to the traffic-stopping equivalent of today closing an entire lane of I-95 during rush hour. If this trend continues unabated, future economic growth will be severely curtailed by the stranglehold of congestion.
Or we can imagine, and build, a different future for our state. A future where people can, and do, leave cars at home, taking advantage of an easy-to-use, integrated, modern transit system serving all Rhode Islanders. People would move about more easily and quickly, with less expense. Traffic would actually flow on streets and highways. Economic productivity would increase, and air and water pollution would decrease. And with the reversal of auto-centered, land-consuming practices, room would remain in Rhode Island for space, for fields and forests, for those features which make Rhode Island special.
This is not an impossible dream. It is a very real possibility. But it is one that will require change if it is to be realized. This report argues, and argues strongly, for change.