281 Flex (Woonsocket/Manville)

Alrighty, so if the 87 largely covers the most important parts of Woonsocket, what about outside the 87’s coverage area? Well, meet the 281.

The Flex zone in light orange. Darker orange is the 282 Flex

Alrighty, so first off, no scheduled stops. Yikes. But, what important places would it cover, if it did have scheduled stops? Well, let’s make a map. Why not have fixed stops like this?

Fixed stops on Flex?

Perhaps, it’d be something like this, originating at Diamond Hill Plaza (the 87’s terminus), with scheduled stops at Market Square, Walmart, and CVS’s headquarters. Of course, it could be changed. After all, this is Flex, we’re talking.

The good: It’s a sizable Flex zone covering the one-way-crazy city of Woonsocket, along with nearby Manville and some parts of North Smithfield. Mostly anything important can be accessed via this Flex zone.

The bad: C’mon, reservation only? Oh brother. See the above map for opinions. At the least, there could be a downtown-CVS HQ route, say, numbered 88 like proposed in the 2013 COA documents? Plus, the area has largely inadequate fixed route service, like the aforementioned lack of service to CVS. Also, why not have a Woonsocket/Cumberland express? that runs from, say, one of Cumberland’s villages to downtown via I-295 and RI-146 or US-6/RI-10? But at least make this on-demand.

Nearby points of interest: All of Woonsocket, Manville Village.

Overall, conceptually it’s not bad. But, as I said with the 242, c’mon. At least have it be on-demand like with GATRA GO. Plus, the area could use better fixed service, especially to places like CVS headquarters.

Rating: 4/10

chelsea

Author: chelsea

i own this site and write.

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