Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
When’s the last time you took the bus? Taking public transportation can really cut down on your greenhouse gas emissions, and it’s way cheaper than buying an electric car. But, for most of us, driving is just more convenient. We wondered, does it have to be that way?
We had Nat Hardy and Juliana Merullo from our Possibly Team look into this.
Nat Hardy: Hi, Megan!
Juliana Merullo: Hello!
Megan Hall: So what’s the big picture here? Why are we talking about public transportation?
Nat Hardy: Well the transportation sector is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the US.
Juliana Merullo: On a national level, 23% of all emissions come from vehicles on the road.
Nat Hardy: And unsurprisingly, cars make up most of those emissions.
Juliana Merullo: What makes public transportation so important is that per person, the emissions are way lower than cars.
Nat Hardy: A bus full of people emits about 5 times less CO2 per person than a car with only one person in it! And electric or hybrid buses can emit even less.
Juliana Merullo: But of course, those emissions aren’t as great if the bus is nearly empty.
Megan Hall: So, let’s get everyone into buses!
Juliana Merullo: That’s easier said than done! Ridership decreased all over the country after COVID, and it still hasn’t fully recovered, 4 years later.
Megan Hall: Is there anything that could help ridership recover?
Nat Hardy: Great question! To answer it, we talked to Colleen Cronin, a reporter at ecoRI and host of their podcast Blab Lab.
Juliana Merullo: Colleen has been reporting on Rhode Island’s public bus system – RIPTA, and talking to riders about their experiences taking the bus.
Nat Hardy: To start, we asked Colleen about why people take the bus.
Colleen Cronin: I’d say there’s like two camps. There’s the people who can’t drive because maybe they can’t afford a car, or they can’t get a license. And then there’s the people who are choosing not to drive because they hate to drive or they want to try to do something good for the environment.
Megan Hall: Okay, but for people who don’t take the bus, why not?
Nat Hardy: Well, everyone’s got a different answer – did you take the bus to the studio today?
Megan: Um, I did not!
Nat Hardy: Why not?
Megan Hall: Well, I had to get my kids to school, and then the bus wasn’t coming for another half hour, which didn’t give me enough time to get here –
Nat Hardy: Exactly. Colleen says she hears these sorts of frustrations all the time.
Colleen Cronin: A car ride that would take you, you know, 20 minutes can take an hour or more on the bus, depending on where you go. So it’s just not as convenient.
Juliana Merullo: But this could feed into a pattern that some transportation experts call a “doom spiral.” The idea is that if fewer people are taking the bus, because it’s not convenient for them…
Colleen Cronin: The government agencies that run the public transit, say, oh, we should probably invest less in this, if fewer people are taking it. And the less you invest, the less people will take it because then it becomes less reliable.
Nat Hardy: And so the cycle repeats, and the bus becomes even less convenient.
Juliana Merullo: Advocates worry that this spiral could happen in Rhode Island – after a driver shortage and a budget deficit, RIPTA considered reducing bus service along a number of routes.
Nat Hardy: But there’s good news! The spiral can go in the opposite direction too!
Juliana Merullo: If public transit service becomes more frequent – studies have shown that ridership tends to increase too.
Colleen Cronin: So if it’s more reliable, and it’s better to use, more people will use it.
Megan Hall: So maybe driving to work wouldn’t feel like my only option?
Nat Hardy: Exactly!
Megan Hall: So how do we get there?
Nat Hardy: Rhode Island already has a plan for improving service. It’s called the Transit Master Plan and it’s a really ambitious, but also non-binding, plan to improve bus service.
Juliana Merullo: The plan would make buses more frequent, expand service areas, and build new infrastructure, like priority lanes, so buses can move through traffic faster than cars.
Nat Hardy: The goal is to make bus service a real option instead of driving. But RIPTA needs more funding before it can make the plan a reality.
Juliana Merullo: State legislators are trying to create new funding sources for Rhode Island’s bus system, but we’ll have to wait and see if they’re successful.
Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, Nat and Juliana!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to askpossibly.org Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
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Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.
And a special thank you to Colleen Cronin for joining us on this episode. To listen to ecoRI’s podcast, just search Blab Lab wherever you get your podcasts.
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