I had never lived in an area with reliable public transportation before. RIPTA was a wonderfully nice surprise, especially considering that we are a one car family right now. It is also especially helpful since I work downtown and there is no parking that isn't at least $9 a day.
I find their drivers to be both pleasant and friendly, they tend to recognize you pretty quick when you normally take their routes and will always tell you to have a good day.
The schedule changes, when they happen by season, sometimes seem to spring up on you. A few times I've been caught waiting for a bus on the old schedule when they haven't put out new schedules yet.
The security guards are pretty active in keeping people off the bus that need to be kept off. I do think, when problems arise with a particular route/bus, that they should stick around to make sure the bus leaves before they leave their detainee unattended. One bus left 30 minutes after schedule because we had to wait for the security to come back and AGAIN forcibly remove this woman from the bus. Had they just stayed until the bus left, we could have avoided that and left on time.
The problems are few and far between. I love using RIPTA's transportation services.
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