Transit Alternatives for Southeast New England

Rhode Island Transit Alternatives is a student led project, seeking comprehensive strategies to integrate transit, catalyze economic growth, and mediate a transition to sustainable settlement patterns. This report focuses on the opportunities and the vision for the future of Rhode Island's urban form as discovered, conceived and designed during the students' spring semester. Transit and transportation in general form the backbone of this strategic re-imagining of the city and the state. The report will introduce a regional transit concept, as well as phased implementation plans for a core network of light rail and streetcars. From there the students have designed streetscapes meant to take maximum advantage of the opportunities raised by a transit investment, to rehabilitate the public realm. The work then extends beyond the transportation system itself to clearly envision a sustainable and human scaled pattern for the redevelopment of key growth areas delineated in both the Providence Vision 2020 Plan and the draft Comprehensive Plan: Providence Tomorrow. By meshing this work, the project demonstrates what must be undertaken to fulfill these plans as well as the state of Rhode Island's recent Land Use 2025 plan. By stepping back from the technical hurdles involved in transportation infrastructure planning the students have transcended the limitations inherent in such planning. They have arrived at the goals and the designs to reach them, that are required to keep Rhode Island livable in the coming century.