Category: Public Transit

WARNING: copious amounts of caps and cursing incoming. Reader’s discretion advised.

Dear god, this one was a troublemaker. Enough so to where it took me multiple attempts to even ride it. Let’s run through them, shall we?

ATTEMPT #1: So I was on the 71 and I pull the cord for Pawtucket and- wait, what? WHAT?! The fucking driver just DROVE OFF without even stopping like he’s supposed to?! What the FUCK gives?! Like, I get you’re probably late and all, but you gotta pick people up too!

ATTEMPT #2: Alrighty, round 2! So, I got off the 80 with about 10 minutes to spare, NOT MISSING IT THIS TIME! And, holy crap, the bus actually stopped. And, with that, I boarded the bus. To sum up the “difficulty” of the route, if the 54 is the route from Hell, the 73 is more likened to trying to catch a shiny Abra in Pokemon without any level of preparation. Not the worst, but definitely an annoying bug to squash.

So starting off, we pulled out of Roosevelt Avenue onto Exchange Street, which then became Goff Avenue. From here, we turned down Main Street, turned again to stay on Main Street, then it became the route’s namesake – Mineral Spring Avenue. Normally, this road is a traffic nightmare, if my experience on the 58 is to go by. But, unlike this route, the 58 doesn’t go into Pawtucket. Going straight down, we crossed over the Northeast Corridor (which had a MBTA train led by an F40PH passing under as I was going over!)

Going down Mineral Spring, it was a bit of everything to be seen. Houses, old mills, businesses of various types. And, at least traffic was free-flowing. And, huh, this thing actually gets ridership. Surprising. Nevertheless, we pressed on down Mineral Spring, passing Smithfield Avenue and, eventually, Route 146.

However, we didn’t meet RI-146 at Mineral Spring. Instead, we met with it after going down Charles Street. No express today! So, we pressed on up Charles Street and RI-246, to then deviate into Twin River and the Lincoln CCRI campus. And FINALLY, the route was over.

The good: It’s a one-seat ride to the two major places in Lincoln!

The bad: It’s on-time performance can be bad, with drivers sometimes outright skipping Pawtucket. Yikes. It also doesn’t run on weekends.

Nearby points of interest: The casino and CCRI mainly. Maybe Mineral Spring Avenue.

Overall, this route can be really tricky to work with. On-time performance is just bad enough to where the driver might skip Pawtucket entirely. However, it also does give one-seat rides to destinations warranting transfers to Providence, namely the CCRI campus and more importantly, the casino.

Rating: 4.5/10

So, I guess one can consider this a part 2 to the 76’s post. This route largely mirrors the 76, however instead of going up Central Ave., it goes up Armistice Boulevard. To get here, I walked down Daggett Avenue from its stop on Central Ave., to the Armistice Boulevard stop.

So, starting off, the route starts at Slater Park and then continues to where I got on. Fortunately, it isn’t that much I missed. When I got on, we kept going down Armistice Boulevard. Nobody got on until the CVS at Newport Avenue, where one can transfer with the 35. Eventually we got to George Bennett Highway, banged a left, and went down it.

Eventually, we hooked a right down Columbus Avenue and passed McCoy Stadium. Normally there’d be a special shuttle service, however that’s reserved for ball games – and McCoy Stadium isn’t occupied by any baseball teams anymore, either. Nevertheless, we went left down Pond Street and right down Summit Street. This area was the most-used part of the route. From here, we went down Walcott Street to Exchange Street, where a left turn later brought us to the Pawtucket Visitors Center.

The good: It’s a direct link between downtown Pawtucket and Slater Park!

The bad: …that most people have no reason to use. Essentially noone’s gonna be using this route when it runs every 1 and a half hours, AND shares the same lone bus that the 76 gets. Also unlike the 76, no weekend service! No, no, no! I’m sure if this and the 76 were decoupled, it’d be a much better route. Hell, even as things stand, noone would still use the 80 because, face it, most people in the area between Slater Park and McCoy Stadium (i.e. most of the route) have cars and can drive, and almost certainly prefer that.

Nearby points of interest: …not a lot. Slater Park, is the only one still open.

Overall, why? Just, why? Why can’t the McCoy Stadium-downtown section just be an extension of the 76, with the areas between the stadium and Slater Park being axed entirely? Unless I’m wrong – and very wrong, at that, noone, NOT EVEN A SOUL, uses the route out there and would be better served by a direct connection to Providence.

Rating: 2/10

Alrighty! As for local routes that don’t end outside Pawtucket, you really have two options: the 76 and the 80. Both are short and sweet routes that run eastbound out of downtown. Now, out of this set of twins, let’s look at the 76.

Pulling out of Roosevelt Avenue, we immediately go left up Main Street, which quickly becomes Walcott Street. We then go left a side street and right onto …Armistice Boulevard??? Wait a second, this isn’t the 80! Fortunately, we then hooked a left down George Bennett Highway, running parallel to inactive railroad tracks (at least, to my awareness it’s inactive).

We then took a right onto Cottage Street and HOLY CRAP, a deviation! Yes! We deviated into a Stop & Shop! All of one person got off here, and it was just myself on the bus. Going back onto George Bennett Highway, we turned left onto Central Avenue, going straight down to the end of the route. It largely wasn’t anything exciting, however we did go past Newport Ave. for a connection to the 35. The end of the route was in sight, though, after a number of side streets, and the bus banged a left onto Benefit Street and into the busway on Thurber Street.

After getting off, I walked all of a mile or so to Armistice Boulevard to get the 80.

The good: It’s a direct link between downtown Pawtucket and the neighborhoods along Central Avenue! It’s also short and sweet.

The bad: The frequency. 90 minutes for a short route?! Yikes. Also, why is the route MORE frequent on weekends?! That’s a headscratcher for sure. It’s also at the bottom of ridership for RIPTA’s fixed routes, being the 2nd least-used normal route. How about, 118 daily riders as of 2019? Yikes.

Nearby points of interest: Not much. Stop & Shop and downtown Pawtucket??????

Overall, while this route is a necessity, it’s a bit of a headscratcher as well. Like, it’s not bad inherently, it’s just that I can’t help but feel RIPTA did this route wrong.

Rating: 5.5/10

Alrighty, so what’s the first thing you think of when you hear “Italians” and “Rhode Island” in the same sentence? Federal Hill? The mafia? Something different entirely? Well, here’s the 92.

The route starts at RI College, and takes a right out to Mt. Pleasant Avenue. And we crawled. Like, at a snail’s pace. Eventually, though, after what felt like 25 years, we made it to Chalkstone Avenue, and eventually Atwells Avenue. And oh boy, this was foreshadowing.

Going down Atwells Avenue, it was largely lined with businesses. Think, similar stuff to Olneyville. Eventually, we made it to Eagle Square at Valley Street. Weirdly enough, no current routes go down Valley Street, although some of the stuff laid out in the Transit Master Plan calls for a route to run down this road.

We crossed over the Northeast Corridor and US-6, and we were in Federal Hill. And, holy crap, it’s beautiful. Well, sans the traffic. It’s enough to where the route has to be detoured twice a week due to “al fresco” dining. What is “al fresco” dining? Well, businesses can participate in street dining, where Atwells Avenue is closed off to vehicular traffic two nights each week, while local restaurant patrons are invited to eat outside with the street essentially being used as a community patio. It’s one of those community events that were birthed out of necessity due to the pandemic, and quite truthfully, while you probably won’t find me eating out up there, I still think it’s a good idea in general especially for boosting business. However, as we trudged past, we eventually (after another 10 years) made it to I-95 and Lasalle Square. And, from here, a clean shot to Kennedy Plaza.

Now, I’d end the review here HOWEVER, just like the 1, the route doesn’t end at Kennedy Plaza. From here, we kept going down to Dyer Street and past the South Street Landing. Unlike the DTC routes, though, we went left down Point Street, which became Wickenden Street. And, oh god, it’s very narrow a street. But it gets worse. We turned left down Ives Street, which was even tighter a fit. How, why, just why? Why not just use Gano Street? Fortunately, we turned right down Pitman Street and it was a clean shot into Eastside Marketplace.

The good: It’s a direct link between RIC, Federal Hill, and the East Side via Kennedy Plaza. It serves a lot of people, and moreso when school is in session at RIC. Sometimes they also run tourist trolleys up this route, which I think would be more befitting than a normal 40ft bus. It’s also very frequent, being every 20 minutes on weekdays, and 30 minutes on weekday nights and weekends. It also shows with ridership, being in the top 5 as of 2019.

The bad: The roads can get clogged very quickly, and while I like the street dining, that probably doesn’t help the situation. Also, the very narrow streets in the East Side.

Nearby points of interest: Eastside Marketplace and the nearby Salvation Army store exists! There’s also Federal Hill if you’re into fine dining, and RI College.

Rating: 8.5/10

Alrighty, the 55! Looks like we’re visiting two full-on colleges today instead of just one! And, it’s Providence and Rhode Island Colleges. Also two very different ones. One’s your bogstandard state school, and the other a private Catholic college. Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?

The route begins at Kennedy Plaza, and we make a series of turns on to Francis Street. From here, in the 5pm traffic, we inch towards the State House, and eventually we hook a right onto Gaspee Street. From here, we past the train station and …a right towards North Main and Charles Street? I mean, whatever works RIPTA. We go past the interstate and then over RI-146 and …oh no. Not Chad Brown.

“Oh please, Chad Brown isn’t a bad place,” you might ask. Well, let me tell you how bad it is. Here you go. Do NOT go to Chad Brown. Do not do so for a bet. Don’t get off the bus here. Don’t even THINK about it. Unless, of course, you enjoy being shot, having your property shot, tires slashed, windows shattered, and being caught in gang crossfire. A family community? Sure, more like a family of gangs. But, perhaps, you know someone that lives here, or you yourself live here, but on the 2nd or 3rd floor of a multi-family house. In which case, you’d probably be safe. It’s bad enough to where when RIPTA is looking for drivers for this route, they look around here specifically because of how familiar a face the driver will be. But please, if you value your life, do NOT go to Chad Brown.

If the above Google results (which are the first ones that aren’t ads or images) aren’t enough to deter you, bless your soul. Fortunately, because I value my life, I didn’t get off here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I do want to be clear, though, my issue isn’t with the people that live in Chad Brown that aren’t involved with the gangs, or any neighborhood with a bad reputation. I’m pretty sure they don’t want the area to have as bad a reputation as it has, and understandably so. My general outlook is that, if anything, it’s sad that a few souls decided to ruin what is probably an otherwise fine neighborhood. And even then, I’m sure most of the people in the gangs are probably involved due to falling into a bad situation, and seeing it as their way out.

We then hooked a left down Huxley Avenue to deviate into Providence College. One person got off here, and then we went around the roundabout and waited for the gate to be opened to be let out.

Pressing onwards, we’ve passed a number of housing developments and businesses, nothing to get excited over. Then we crossed into North Providence and, wait, what? This is the same deviation that the 58 did – just from the other side! Well shit. And, I think I have another rodeo with here since I still have the 50 to tackle.

So, we deviated into the plaza and back out, then kept going up Smithfield Road. However, we didn’t last long as we turned down High Service Avenue and towards Fatima Hospital. Nobody got on or off here either. And, from here, it was a straight shot down High Service Avenue and Mt. Pleasant Avenue to RI College, the route’s terminus.

The good: It’s a necessary link to Providence College by transit! It’s also nice it serves RIC and a supermarket. I’d presume that during the academic year at both schools, ridership is considerably higher than the 770 people daily that the State of the System report suggests. That, though, is probably further inaccurate due to COVID-19 being a thing. It’s also nice that RIC has a one-seat ride to the train station via this route.

The bad: It also serves some neighborhoods that you probably shouldn’t be in. I’m sure Chad Brown has plenty of fine men and women that live there, just trying to live. But, the fact that it’s often associated with gang violence in the media is …eh. It rubs me the wrong way.

Nearby points of interest: RIC and PC are the big ones. There’s also the small stretch of Charles Street, and the shopping plaza in North Providence with Shaw’s. Now, for points of disinterest? Chad Brown, easily. I’ve gone in detail as to why earlier.

Overall, it’s a necessary evil of a route. Like, the routing itself is not bad or anything, and on-time performance is pretty good. However, it does cut through notorious areas that are in the media for all the wrong reasons, and with that, while I’m about to give it the rating it has with “ride with caution, especially at night” in mind. And it’s a shame, because I’m sure most people in Chad Brown don’t want it to have the bad reputation that the gang activities give it.

Rating: 5/10 (due to safety concerns externally, 7/10 otherwise)

Alrighty! No, I haven’t ridden this route, however I’ve been around the Flex zone more times than I can count. That said, this is the 242 Flex.

Alright, so the Flex zone, as the map above describes, has no scheduled stops. That means, you have to call in a day in advance and schedule a pickup and dropoff. That ALSO means, if your destination is unserved by RIPTA (think: the park & ride lot off RI-117 outside rush hour, or anywhere on Wakefield Street between Phenix and Natick), then you better have scheduled a second pickup and dropoff. There were proposals to pilot an on-demand program, but alas it didn’t come to fruition. Now, COME ON RIPTA! WHY?! Even GATRA is better in this regard! Like, I get how it wouldn’t run on weekends, but maybe weekday ridership wouldn’t be so hindered if it was on-demand or had scheduled stops. Alright.

The good: It covers Warwick around the malls and CCRI, along with West Warwick and some of Coventry!

The bad: The map is outdated. Like, grossly outdated. I wouldn’t expect it to have the summer ’22 changes, but it doesn’t even reflect the fall ’21 changes! The 29 doesn’t go to Warwick Mall (or West Warwick, for that matter!), and the 13 was rerouted to CCRI instead of Warwick Mall. Hell, the 14, 22, and 30 were all rerouted to CCRI as well! Plus the 16 and 23 makes this Flex even LESS useful. Now, that’s not to say it’s fully useless. There’s some spots, especially along Centerville Road, that are only regularly served by the Flex. Also, we really have to call a day ahead? Why isn’t it on-demand, or with scheduled stops? Hear me out:

Why don’t we add scheduled stops, making the 242 into a circulator route? The circulator would have stops ordered as such: CCRI (departure), RI Mall, Warwick Mall, Arctic Center (via Providence St./Main St.), Cowessett Corners, Market Basket, and back to CCRI via College Hill Road (arrival), then go lay over. It’d look like this:

This, inherently, though has its flaws. The biggest one, that I can think of, is that the schedule would have to be padded to Hell to account for any custom deviations that riders would make. Plus, the mere size of the 242 would make scheduled stops anywhere a tricky situation. Although, given the mere size of the Flex, maybe splitting up might work? I genuinely don’t have any good ideas that would allow for scheduled stops.

Nearby points of interest: West Warwick, eastern Coventry to name some. You also have Bald Hill Road and CCRI, and the malls. There’s also NEIT, which used to be a Flex-exclusive, but I imagine the 16 would cannibalize any ridership that generated.

Overalll, as I said in the 282’s post, I like the concept of Flex. However, what irks me is that one has to call ahead of time since there’s no on-demand part of the system, and no scheduled stops in this zone. And, as such, I’d have to give it a low score mostly from no on-demand service. Ridership, like mostly any Flex route, isn’t good, with only 29 daily riders as of 2019.

Rating: 3/10

Alrighty, the 54! So, this route is the only link to Providence from Woonsocket, and one of two from Lincoln (or, at least, from Twin River and the CCRI campus). So, surely nothing can go terribly wrong with a bus passing right through the cursed college campus, right? Right??????

(WARNING: all caps rant ahead. Proceed with caution)

So, I ended up riding this route as my way of getting back from riding the Woonsocket Beach Bus. And, I’m sure judging by my tone at the end of that and in the previous paragraph on this very post, you (the reader) can probably tell I had a horrible time with this route. Well……

THAT’S BECAUSE SOME FUCKING BUS DRIVER DECIDED NOT TO SHOW UP FOR WORK, AND POSSIBLY BECAUSE A BUS BROKE DOWN AND NOTHING WAS SAID. AND NOT ONLY THAT, IT WAS TWO FUCKING BUSES IN A ROW THAT NO-SHOWED!!! AND WITH THAT, THAT LEFT ME, ANOTHER MAN, AND A LADY SITTING FOR TWO AND A HALF WHOLE FUCKING HOURS. LIKE, WHAT THE FUCK RIPTA?! YOU HAVE THE ONLY WAY TO GET OUT OF WOONSOCKET, SHOWS UP HOURLY ON SUNDAYS, AND IT DOESN’T EVEN SHOW UP NOT ONCE BUT TWICE IN A FUCKING ROW. THAT’S WHORESHIT! EVEN IF IT FUCKING BROKE, THE LEAST YOU COULD DO IS PUT OUT A TWEET ON TWITTER SAYING “Bus #1669 on route #54 (Lincoln/Woonsocket) has experienced a mechanical failiure and may be late. We apologize for the inconvenience.” LIKE HOLY FUCK!

Eventually, the 6:50 pm departure bus arrives and does its break, and is met with fanfare. Once 6:52 arrives, the driver opened the door and we all got on, and we were off to the races – for real, this time!

Now, Woonsocket is one of those kinds of towns, which is full of one-way streets. It, like West Warwick, has also seen better days. As such, the starting area of the 54 is a one-way and is only served inbound (conversely, the other way is also a one-way, going into John Cummings Way). Going down Social Street, we pass by a bunch of businesses and go through downtown Woonsocket, which reminded me a little of West Warwick. A few people got on the bus along the way at each stop, and we turned down Providence Street, booking it. We then hooked a left down Smithfield Road, passing Park Square, then deviating into Dowling Village, which looked like a lite version of Centre of New England.

After the deviation, we went express onto RI-146, however this section had a red light. And, weirdly enough, someone actually got off here. I’m not sure how you’re expected to easily cross the street, but whatever works.

We kept going down then took the exit onto RI-116. Oh my, another deviation! This time, the Lincoln Mall. And it felt like deviation hell. Like c’mon, I have a connecting bus at 7:45 at Providence Station! Stay tuned to find out if I made it. So, we went through the mall’s front side and got back on RI-116, and hooked a left or two. Now, we deviated yet again! This time, into the industrial park. A new deviation actually just got added here, to Greystone, however it’s peak hours and weekdays only, and it was done to promote the new Wave to Work program, which is intended for employers to cover transportation costs for their employees via the Wave app and cards.

Oh god, another deviation. This time, …the CCRI Lincoln campus? Huh, guess the driver’s new and didn’t realize he wasn’t supposed to go here. Well, whatever. However, we were quickly reaching the make/break point of my connection for the 66: Twin River Casino. And oh boy, not only was the bus packed, to where there were no seats left, the driver also had to help out someone in a mobility scooter. Someone also started giving the driver a hard time over a no show on the 31, which wasn’t in their control. From here, we largely went express down Old Louisquisset Pike and onto 146 again. The lady next to me asked where I was going, and I just said I was heading to the Warwick CCRI campus and trying to connect with the 66 at 7:45. It was 7:35 at the time and I was cutting it really close. And, when we got off at Admiral Street, it was 7:40. Oh god.

The driver then started dropping everyone off slowly, giving me enough space to get out and wait at the door. Oh please, let it happen, I thought. And eventually, 7:43, we pulled into the train station. I have never pulled that stop request cord so forcefully and got off the bus so fast. Alas, I made my connection. Meanwhile, the bus kept going to the hospital via Kennedy Plaza and Dorrance Street. Also, bless the driver, for having to put up with the crap he got.

The good: It’s a mission-critical link, between Providence and Woonsocket, as well as Lincoln and North Smithfield.

The bad: It suffers REALLY BADLY from on-time performance issues. Most of the time, it’s the industrial park that kills it with the 18 wheelers blocking the street. There’s also traffic on weekdays on 146 that can become problematic, along with traffic going into Woonsocket. And, the 1 hour headways on Sundays can be an issue at times (30 minutes on weekdays, 40 minutes on weekday nights, and 50 minutes on Saturdays), especially should a bus no-show! I was nervous about not connecting at CCRI to the 13/23 (btw, the 13 no-showed too, but the 23 didn’t no-show thankfully).

Overall, it could be a good route. Just take the industrial park deviation out, or leave it as rush-only (or every other trip). It’s also important that in case something happens, there’s an alternate bus route out of Woonsocket (e.g. via Cumberland and Pawtucket) should the bus no-show. As such, due to the no-shows, I’ll also dub this one particular ride, the ride from Hell. I’m not holding the no-shows against the route, as that’s more a RIPTA staffing issue than an issue with the route itself. The route itself, though, is……

Rating: 6/10

Alrighty, the first of the three Beach Bus posts! Let’s get into these seasonal routes. Now, initially, RIPTA wanted to axe the Beach Bus for low ridership, but Governor Dan McKee told them “no”, and as such I have to review these. Well, let’s look at this odd route.

Now, I hung around in Galilee for a bit since I had over an hour to spare before the bus left, but eventually 3:05 came and I walked to the bus stop at the ferry terminal. “Nope”, I had to say twice. Then the Woonsocket bus came and I got on.

So the route begins by doing the 69’s local section through Roger Wheeler and Scarborough. However, from here, it instead goes express immediately instead of doing any deviations or heading towards URI. And it was quite the ride. We basically expressed for a whole 1 and a half hours. That is, from Salt Pond all the way to Woonsocket. That’s 50+ miles and around an hour straight minimum. Fortunately, since it was just me, we skipped Kennedy Plaza, which helped a little. Weirdly enough, there’s also a timepoint for Providence Station – with no scheduled stops. Yeah, that’s an odd one. Eventually we did make it to Woonsocket – at John Cummings Way in front of the Community Care Alliance. Now surely my return trip from here on the 54 isn’t going to be painful, right? Right??? *laughs very nervously*

The good: It’s a direct, VERY express, link between Woonsocket and Galilee, as well as Scarborough and Wheeler Beaches.

The bad: It’s VERY long. Like, almost 1 and a half hours long. However, any route going to Galilee from Providence or points north are doomed to be long anyways. Also, maybe they were right about lack of ridership, however that could come down to the day being bad for a beach trip in general (it was cold).

Nearby points of interest: Galilee and Woonsocket, not much to add.

Overall, it’s a nice concept. But, it’s oftentimes going to be a very long ride and likely cost-inefficient for RIPTA. I will concede though, that it’d be nice for a Beach Bus-like program to exist between CCRI’s Warwick campus and Oakland Beach in Warwick.

Rating: 5.5/10

Hehe, nice. Alright, I promise for this one I’ll keep the sex jokes to a minimum. Yes, I’m fully aware that the route is numbered 69. And yes, I’m aware I’m gonna have to do the T’s route 69 at some point. And with that out of the way, here’s a history lesson.

So, in the before times, RIPTA didn’t have the 69. Or rather, it existed, just as another part of the 66. As such, for short trips, RIPTA also had the 62 to supplement the 66. But, in fall 2021, RIPTA decided “well shoot, the 62 isn’t getting ridership, and the area south of URI isn’t that much a ridership generator.” (I presume) and thus, they axed the 62, gave additional resources to the 66 for 30 minute headways, and created the 69, a dedicated URI-Galilee route. So, is the route a 6.9/10? Let’s see.

The route leaves URI and goes left down Kingstown Road, and goes right to stay on Kingstown Road. From here, it’s going through largely woodlands until eventually the route enters the village of Peace Dale. Who’s Dale and why does he want peace, is beyond me. We go through the village and take the first exit at the roundabout down High Street. It’s still the same, eventually also passing South Kingstown Town Hall, and banging a left down Main Street. From here, we keep going straight, entering Wakefield and going past the Wakefield Mall. It’s here that connections to the 65X can be made. Shortly after the mall, oh shit we’re express!

Now, it was short as two exits later, we were off and we deviated into Salt Pond Plaza. A man got off here, and we kept going down Point Judith Road. It was largely quiet with mostly houses, and eventually we banged a left down Burnside Ave. Well shoot, looks like we gotta deviate into Scarborough Beach. Fortunately, it wasn’t that much a deviation as we didn’t pull into the beach itself. But unfortunately we went right onto Knowlesway. At the end of the street, I pulled the stop request cord and got off for a convenience store lunch.

Alrighty, now for a deviation into a Cumby’s review! The store is nice and big, but not too big, and it was clean. Plus, everything was organized. There was also seating, albeit slightly uncomfy!

Rating: 4/5

And back to your regularly-scheduled programming!

So, the bus picked me up at the same stop an hour later, and holy hell it looked like it was from the middle ages. Anyways, from here, it was a straight shot down Point Judith Road and Sand Hill Cove Road. We then went past Roger Wheeler State Beach and went through the Galilee circulator road, where the route ends at the ferry terminal.

The good: It times up with the Block Island Ferry pretty well, well, for some runs that is. It also times with the 66 pretty well, for connections to Providence and points northbound, with some trips interlining. It’s also frequent enough to where it makes sense, with a bus every hour, but not too frequent that the ridership doesn’t warrant it….sometimes.

The bad: Sometimes, I think it might warrant a frequency boost during the summer. Most people taking this route would probably be taking it for the Block Island Ferry, so why not make summer runs until 7pm run every half hour, like how the 67 would become every 20 minutes during tourism season? Also, sometimes it times really horribly with the Ferry, though that’s on the ferry operators instead of RIPTA.

Nearby points of interest: Salt Pond Plaza, Wakefield, Peace Dale, and URI. You also have Galilee and Block Island!

Overall, it’s a pretty darn good route for what it is. Sure, it could use a frequency boost (or runs that skip Salt Pond) during the summer, but outside the summer months it isn’t a very terrible route whatsoever. And hey, it serves three beaches! However, though, the timing with the ferry could be a little better.

Rating: 6.9/10 …jk, it’s actually a 7/10

Alright, new route #2! So while the 23 serves Centre of New England, the 16 …serves New England Tech, Quonset, and a stroad. Okay then.

So, the bus was running late – however, though, this wasn’t due to the route inherently. What happened was that the operator was given half-baked directions for the route and as such ended up making a few wrong turns. I didn’t make a big deal about it and Wintry just said that everyone was learning the route, with it being the first day and all. So, just like the 23, it leaves CCRI via the back exit and down College Hill Road. However, unlike the 23, it stays on Bald Hill Road. And, it’s a straight shot.

So, going up Bald Hill (st)Road, you have businesses and large parking lots. Yikes. However, you do have places like Target, which have their own bus stops (albeit not as deviations – but curbside). With this in mind, the 16 is a little more bearable if you’re getting off anywhere along Bald Hill. Wait, what’s this, deviation sensation?! Yes! We are deviating up Universal Boulevard and into Market Basket!!!

From here, we came back the way we went, however based on the map of the route, the driver made a mistake here. Instead of going up to Centerville and then down towards the courthouse, the driver just went down Ginsu Way to the courthouse, then went in a circle at Cowessett Corners. Nevertheless, we deviated into both the courthouse and Cowessett Corners, and then continuing down RI-2, now Quaker Lane.

From here, it was largely stroads still, with the occasional plaza or car dealership. We did pass MetLife, and eventually I-95. Wait, a fourth deviation?! Oh boy. Now, it’s NEIT. New England Tech, to my awareness, hasn’t had any bus service until today (outside of Flex), so I’m sure it’s something the students would find worthwhile come fall.

From here, we went back up RI-2 and right onto Division Street. From here, it was a straight shot over RI-4 and to Main Street, going down First Avenue. It was here that we took a right and followed the 14’s routing to where this route ended, at Gate Road. From here, we waited then took the return trip up to CCRI, and was then greeted by someone else from the Miles in Transit Discord, who happened to be in town for riding the 16.

The good: It serves a bunch of shopping centers! It also serves NEIT, and more regular service to East Greenwich and Quonset! Also, there’s a deviation into Market Basket.

The bad: My biggest concern comes down to on-time performance during the holiday shopping season. Bald Hill Road isn’t known for being free-flowing. Also, and this applies to the 23 too, what’s with the lack of announcements for various stops?

Nearby points of interest: Target and Market Basket! There’s also Best Buy, the courthouse, Cowessett Corners and Stop & Shop, as well as NEIT and the plaza there. There’s also the areas shared with the 14, including Gate Road in Quonset.

Overall, it’s a good route on paper. It’s deviation-heavy, sure, and could turn into deviation hell easily, but it’s not a bad idea or a route. Plus, it makes it more affordable to go shopping on Bald Hill with transit finally being up there.

Rating: 7/10