The Pawtucket Transit Center is a strange little place. It’s not as raucous and busy as Kennedy Plaza, but it’s not like it’s an oasis from crazy occurrences. Case in point…

There was a fight going on at that shelter, so Sam and I hung back to get this picture.

The Pawtucket Transit Center is interesting in that it has two bus stops, but RIPTA doesn’t tell you which routes stop at which. There’s technically a “berth map” on the station page, but it only leads to a low-quality close-up of the Pawtucket section of the RIPTA system map. Well, let’s settle this now: on the Slater Mill side, which has a big (and kinda sketchy) shelter, the 71, 72, and 73 board, as well as the 1, but only on South Attleboro trips. Not confusing at all!

This is where the magic happens!

The other side feels a lot more like a transit center, with RIPTA-branded awnings sticking out from the building. There are benches underneath, as well as a system map and a list of the routes that stop at this berth (the 1 (southbound), 71, 75, 76, 78, 80, and R-Line). They really need to make it more clear where all the routes stop – an online map would be incredibly helpful, and it would be simple to make.

Inside the building.

There’s an inside here, and it’s basic. All it really has are some benches, some random posters all around the room, some cool floor-to-ceiling historical photos, and paper schedules along a wall. Also, there’s a weird smell. Yup.

Well, this is a change!

I’m not sure if it’s part of the “review” or not, but the transit center connects directly to the Pawtucket Visitor’s Center. It’s this huge majestic room with a ton of historical information and reasons as to why Pawtucket is a really noteworthy city in history…but the center always seems to be empty. I think people only go in here because this is where the bathrooms are, and they’re in…uh…passable shape…?

Ehhh…at least it didn’t smell.

RIPTA Station: Pawtucket Transit Center

Ridership: This place has nowhere near the ridership of Kennedy Plaza, but it always has a good amount of people milling around. For some, it’s questionable if they’re waiting to ride the bus or not, but oh well…still people.

Pros: For all its flaws, it’s nice that there is an indoor area. If it rains, I’m sure many people go in there, although people seem to choose to wait outside when the weather’s nice. I like all the amenities it has, and there is outdoor seating and shelter for those who desire it.

Cons: That indoor area is only open from 10 AM to 4 PM, meaning it completely misses the rush hours! I mean, I don’t know how many people are commuting from Pawtucket to Providence (or somewhere else), but it seems strange to have those be the hours with a system as big as RIPTA. Also, the whole thing feels dingy all-around, from the Slater Mill shelter to the weird smell in the indoor room to the questionable bathrooms. Finally, the whole two-berth thing works, but there needs to be better signage for it. All they need is a simple map!

Nearby and Noteworthy: The Slater Mill Historic Site looks like a really cool place. It captures the history of Pawtucket in a historic mill!

Final Verdict: 4/10
Yeah, not a big fan of this one. I’m glad it exists, but it has a lot of problems. The opening hours for the building are sad, the place is dingy, and there needs to be a map explaining which route stops where. The Pawtucket Transit Center is functional, but it’s not a place I would want to wait at for very long.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

Arghhhh, the 21 is a hard one to sit through. It has a ton of deviations, it takes over 40 minutes to ride, and…blech. Let’s just get it over with.

Coming into CCRI.

Unlike the other Warwick Mall to Providence routes (the 22 and the 30), the 21 begins past the mall, at CCRI. We left the brutalism capital of Rhode Island (seriously, it’s a really ugly building)…two minutes early? Woah, RIPTA buses never leave early! Usually they get so much time that if anything, a driver would want to leave a little late so they don’t have to wait places! What was going on?

A rather empty parking lot.

We turned onto the wide East Ave, then we made a right onto Bald Hill Road. Clearly, we were going to use this to get up to the Warwick Mall…oh, or we could deviate into the Rhode Island Mall. Come on, the stop “inside” the mall is barely closer, and saves pedestrians a total of 1 minute of walking over if they were to just use the stop on the street!

The mall, as seen from East Ave.

Okay, now time to go onto Bald Hill Road to the mall, right? Oh…okay, no, we’re going back down East Ave. This took us over a monstrous interchange between I-295 and I-95, then we turned onto the very wide Greenwich Ave. We passed a Stop & Shop and a Lowe’s (probably the reason the route is routed this way), then we went over I-95 again.

Going over the Pawtuxet River.

There were some apartment buildings, a cemetery, and a church, then we crossed the Pawtuxet River, bringing us to the entrance of the ginormous Warwick Mall! But of course, the stop is wayyyyyy down on the south side of the mall, so we had to travel the length of the parking lot to get down there. This is the only route that goes through the mall (the other ones terminate here), so it made the deviation feel doubly painful because we had to do it twice. Also, geez, we were six minutes late! And we had left two minutes early! They give this thing no time!!!!!!

Coming into the mall.

We left the mall on Lambert Lind Highway, which was lined with suburban businesses with parking lots. Once we entered Cranston, we turned onto Mayfield Ave, which was entirely residential – a big change from before. It turned into East Street, but then the area started to get industrial. We soon turned onto Howard Ave, which went through a campus full of various municipal buildings.

A side street within this strange land.

We went by a hospital, which seems like it would warrant a deviation, but instead RIPTA decided to have the route deviate to…the DMV and Traffic Tribunal Center. Okay, I get it that a lot of people probably take the bus to these places, but do you really have to deviate for them? Just because someone doesn’t have a car doesn’t mean they can’t walk for three minutes!

Deviatin’.

We made our way onto New London Ave, which went through a big cloverleaf interchange with Route 37. On the other side of that interchange, we…deviated again??? This time, it was to serve the Garden City Center, and it required that we go down Sockanosset Cross Road and turn onto Midway Road. Now, this deviation makes more sense when you look at it on a map: Garden City Center is a “lifestyle center” that was built in this really weird self-contained way that makes it super hard to get to from the main road…but it was still annoying to have to deviate to it.

One side had the mall, one side had apartments. Guess which one I was on.

We turned onto Garden City Drive, then we made our way back onto the main road, which was now called Reservoir Ave. Garden City Center was luckily our last deviation, so it was now a straight shot past endless ugly businesses with dense houses on the side streets. I’m serious, it was like that until our next turn, which was an unexpected one, to say the least.

A typical side street.

We turned onto Pontiac Ave, then headed for an on-ramp to, yes, an express section. Man, RIPTA loves its express routes, huh? Yes, we were now on Route 10, and we were sailing past a bunch of industrial buildings. We entered Providence, and it got more residential as we came close to Olneyville Square, where the highway became Route 6.

An apartment building.

We came up alongside the Northeast Corridor as we headed around the north side of Federal Hill. Finally, we passed through a huge interchange with I-95, and the highway was done. We made our way around downtown Providence on Memorial Boulevard, then we turned onto Kennedy Plaza, and that was that!

Wow, lots of people going back!

RIPTA Route: 21 (Reservoir/Garden City)

Ridership: The route seems to get good ridership: my Saturday trip got 20 people, and just look at all the passengers waiting to leave the city in the photo above! Interestingly, most people started boarding our bus north of the DMV, with very few coming from the malls or CCRI. Maybe that’s an anomaly.

Pros: The route serves a dense corridor in Cranston, and thanks to the express section, it can get to Providence quickly. The schedule seems to make sense: every half hour on weekdays, every 40 minutes on Saturdays, and every 50 minutes on Sundays.

Cons: Although then again, look at that crowd up there…I wonder if the route could stand to be a little more frequent on weekends. Other cons include the annoying amount of deviations, the long layover times at CCRI, and the fact that the route does not get nearly enough time! I mean, we stayed at a consistent three minutes late past the Warwick Mall, but keep in mind that we left two minutes early. The route’s schedule needs an adjustment, and it would be so easy just to take some time off that 25 minute layover.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Garden City Center seemed like a decent place, even though it’s designed awfully as far as the road network goes.

Final Verdict: 6/10
The 21’s saving grace is that it gets a lot of people. Clearly, there are many that rely on this route. But man, it has a lot of problems! The deviations are annoying, the buses lay over for a ridiculously long time at CCRI, and the route is always late! They’re all fairly simple fixes, but it’s enough to drop the score to a 6.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

When riding RIPTA, it often seems like Providence doesn’t have any…um…nice parts. However, it turns out that they just saved all those neighborhoods for the 92!

Takin’ the layover.

The route begins at Eastside Marketplace, a supermarket that out-Whole Foods Whole Foods. Still, it had really cheap, really fresh bread, so the grotesquely hipsterish atmosphere is forgiven. At any rate, it’s better than Trucchi’s! We headed out from the supermarket’s parking lot and headed down Pitman Street, which was lined with pleasant, dense houses. They continued as we turned onto the narrower Ives Street.

Bam! Houses!

Eventually, really diverse and quirky businesses began to occupy the lower floors of the houses. They only showed up here and there, but it felt like a new hidden gem every time one appeared. This was Fox Point, and it was a really charming neighborhood. There was a nice park as we turned onto Wickenden Street, and the awesome businesses continued.

A cool little alley.

We eventually bursted out from the historical narrow streets and passed through an undeveloped piece of land between two streets. The street became Point Street as we crossed the Providence River, getting an awesome view of the Providence skyline. We turned onto Eddy Street on the other side, and we were in a mostly industrial area that seems to be on the rise: the Jewelry District.

Oooooh!

It became Dyer Street, and we went through an undeveloped wasteland for a stretch. Dyer Street skirted downtown Providence, going through more of an industrial area to the east of the city, but once we came next to the Providence River, we were in the thick of things. We turned onto Kennedy Plaza, and came into…yeah, Kennedy Plaza!

Turning to get into downtown.

This is one of the few RIPTA routes that travels through the plaza, though – we were less than halfway done! Thus, we forged on, making our way onto Sabin Street, which went by the Rhode Island Convention Center and the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. We turned onto Atwells Ave next, going over I-95 and entering Federal Hill through a welcoming arch.

Up and over the highway.

As it turned out, Federal Hill was another gem of a neighborhood! There were diverse buildings lining the road, ranging from one to four stories, and many of them had retail on the ground floors. In particular, there were a ton of Italian restaurants, and based on the neighborhood’s reputation, it seems like they’re all great. It kinda felt like the North End merged with the architecture of East Boston!

WOW, I wanna come back here!

We eventually went over Route 6 and the Northeast Corridor, and there was a definite change on the other side. This was Eagle Square, and it had more of a gritty industrial feeling, although there were still some nice businesses! It was a lot better than the Eagle Square in East Boston, that’s for sure…

Going over the little Woonasquatucket River.

As we ascended a hill, the street became predominantly residential, with dense houses on either side. There was some retail when we turned onto Mount Pleasant Ave, but it was more locally-oriented – a laundromat and a hair salon, for example. Mount Pleasant Ave was almost all houses, not quite as bunched together as before, but still quite dense.

A side street.

After a baseball field, we crossed Chalkstone Ave, connecting with the 56. There were businesses there, but it was residential again as we continued. We went by the Mount Pleasant High School, after which we turned onto College Road, running along the north side of a golf course. We entered the campus of Rhode Island College, and that was the end of the route! Rhode Island college built a really nice shelter for people to wait at, with an enclosed area, pull-down seats, and a TV that presumably shows arrival times (but it wasn’t working today).

Check out that shelter!

The bus in a parking lot waiting to head back.

RIPTA Route: 92 (RI College/Federal Hill/East Side)

Ridership: My trip got 15 people on a Saturday morning, which isn’t bad! There was turnover at Kennedy Plaza, but a good amount of people rode through as well.

Pros: This is the closest thing Providence has to a tourist shuttle, and even though tourists don’t seem to use it, the locals luckily do. It serves some of the densest and most interesting parts of Providence, plus there’s the added bonus of Rhode Island College. The route runs super frequently, too: it’s every 20 minutes on weekdays and every 30 minutes on weekends, plus it runs until around 10:30 Monday through Saturday! From an operational perspective, the 92 is the rare RIPTA route that gets a normal amount of layover time!

Cons: The route stops running at 6:30 on Sundays, which seems early for a route like this, but maybe no one would use it past then. Also, buses seem to arrive at some stops a little early, so the route could be given less time to get from end to end.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Everything!!!! Fox Point has tons of interesting and quirky stores and restaurants, the Jewelry District is super up-and-coming, and there’s no better hub of Providence eateries than Federal Hill!

Final Verdict: 9/10
If you’re new to Providence, the 92 is the route to take. It serves almost all of the places a tourist would find interesting, it comes frequently, and it’s well-used (albeit mostly by locals). It might be hard to use to have Sunday night dinner and it might be a tiny bit early, but gosh, this one is fantastic otherwise!

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

A route through the East Providence Transit Tunnel! YES, I love going through there! Where does the 33 go afterwards? Oh…a dead shopping plaza? Huh…I mean, alright, then…

A hastily-taken picture while boarding.

We headed down Washington Street over the Providence River, and then it was straight into the tunnel! I always get a huge thrill going through that thing, even though the ride is only about 20 seconds long. We popped out at Thayer Street, where there were lots of student-oriented businesses and restaurants, but they thinned out as we made our way onto Waterman Street.

Thayer Street!

The street was overwhelmingly residential, but some of the houses had offices or businesses within them. We eventually hit Wayland Square, though, conveniently located on Wayland Street – there was more retail here. This was a quick burst, and after some houses and a nice park, we were heading onto the Henderson Bridge over the Seekonk River, into East Providence.

Nice view!

We took the first exit off the bridge, which led us onto Massasoit Ave. This industrial road curved eastward and started to gain dense houses and some businesses. Eventually, we arrived at East Providence’s bowtie-shaped downtown, and we used its weird network of one-way streets to get onto Taunton Ave. This had suburban businesses along it, as well as…oooh, a deviation! Yes, we headed into Wampanoag Plaza to serve its Stop & Shop.

Fun!

We headed down Pawtucket Ave after that wonderful deviation, passing the East Providence High School and the local senior center. There were tons of industrial-type businesses along the road after we crossed Waterman Ave, but it changed soon after we crossed I-195. The street became lined with dense houses, and that continued until the retail came back around Martin Street.

A water tower!

It was houses again for a stretch, but other attractions along there included Bradley Hospital and a Catholic school. We came up alongside a golf course for a bit, and then it got more industrial. The road became Bullocks Point Ave, and at this point, we were running by a little bit of everything. There were houses, apartments, businesses, industrial buildings, and the entrance to some sort of water filtration plant.

A little square of sorts.

It settled on houses with the occasional business eventually, and we turned onto Crescent Point Ave near an apartment development. We went over Bullock Cove, which was a lot less scenic than it sounds, then we went through one more residential area. After a small circle with some suburban businesses, we arrived at Shaw’s, part of a terrible shopping plaza just next to the Barrington border.

Have fun on your 26-minute layover!

RIPTA Route: 33 (Riverside)

Ridership: My Saturday morning ride seemed to get a good amount of people: there were 15 in total.

Pros: The 33 has a huge independent section, cutting straight down the length of East Providence.  Also, it runs through the city, turning into the 17 to serve Olneyville Square, and passengers are free to stay on the bus – from what I saw, a good amount of people do that. The route runs every half hour on weekdays, every 45 minutes on Saturdays, and every hour nights and Sundays, which seems to make sense for the ridership.

Cons: The route seems to have some serious padding issues. For example, on the outbound trip, we had to wait for four minutes at Wampanoag Plaza because we were early. On the inbound, meanwhile, the driver left Shaw’s five minutes late, but we still ended up being early at the plaza! This route also has a ridiculous amount of layover time, especially considering the padding – on weekdays, for instance, it gets 27 minutes of layover…with 30 minute headways, remember! That means that a bus is arriving at Shaw’s just as a Providence-bound vehicle is leaving. And finally, RIPTA is really pushing the interlining here – would it solidify it better if the two routes were just combined? It would make no difference to how it’s run, but it would make a lot more sense to passengers!

Nearby and Noteworthy: The retail comes mostly in the form of lifeless suburban businesses and shopping centers, so I can’t say I have much to recommend here.

Final Verdict: 6/10
The most annoying thing about the 33 is its padding and layover time! I mean, they give the route enough time that they could shave off an entire bus but keep the same headways. I decided to reschedule the whole route, because I’m crazy:

You can also see it full-size here. My mindset here was getting rid of padding while still keeping the same frequencies. On weekdays, the trip time for most of the day is 67 minutes; I shortened it to 63 minutes, but there’s still a total of 21 minutes of layover, so buses should be able to stay on time. The best part is that my schedule only uses five of them, while the current schedule uses six. I managed to get an hourly schedule weeknights, but that required shortening the running time and giving the route only 2 minutes of layover. This is the biggest flaw in the schedule – headways could be increased to 70 minutes if reliability is an issue, although the buses would admittedly travel much faster at night.

On Saturdays, things are almost as tight, with a total of just 8 minutes of layover. I think it would work for the most part, and it makes the route able to run at the same frequency with 3 buses instead of 4, but if something goes wrong, it’ll have a domino effect. It might be worth reducing the Saturday frequencies to every 50 minutes, which isn’t a huge loss, especially considering the cost savings to RIPTA.

Indeed, that’s exactly what I did on Sundays, shortening the headways to every 50 minutes. It doesn’t cut any buses off the route, but why run it with three buses if they’re laying over for 56 minutes, which is the case in the current schedule? My schedule has 23 minutes of layover, but the route might even be able to run every 45 minutes if there’s demand. And that’s it! Just a few minor adjustments, and we get a route that runs just as frequently, if not more frequently, with fewer buses and mostly equal reliability! Sounds like a no-brainer to me!

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates