RIPTA riders stand in the aisle on bus 20 traveling on Elmwood Avenue en route to Kennedy Plaza, in Providence. RIPTA says more than half of its buses are overcrowded, as in standees, for at least part of the day.

The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski

PROVIDENCE — More than half of the state’s bus lines are overcrowded part or all of the day on weekdays, reflecting a sharp increase in ridership over the last five years.

The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, which runs the buses, says it has been unable to increase service to ease the crowding because it doesn’t have enough money to hire more drivers.

Advocates for public transportation say the situation actually offers RIPTA an extraordinary opportunity to convince thousands of Rhode Islanders, both old and new riders, to keep riding the bus. That, they say, would help reduce air pollution and traffic congestion.

“If people can’t take the bus, they’re going to get on the road some other way, which leads to more crowding for everybody,” said Scott Wolf, executive director of Grow Smart Rhode Island. The strength of a transit system affects everything from health to economic development. If the Rhode Island transit system does not meet people’s needs, he said, “that sends a bad signal to current and potential employers.”

RIPTA says in a report to the General Assembly that ridership is up 34 percent since 2002, climbing to 25 million trips per year, while the number of service hours stayed the same.

“During peak times, we’re packed,” said RIPTA’s general manager, Alfred J. Moscola. The agency says it has already shifted existing service from areas with less demand to those with more.

Rising gas prices have helped boost RIPTA’s ridership, but the increase began even before gas prices jumped following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. RIPTA says a variety of factors, some planned and some not, have contributed, including a jump in enrollment at Providence’s high schools, new contracts with businesses, state agencies and colleges and universities, and the growth in both jobs and parking costs in downtown Providence.

Supporters of mass transportation fear that all those new riders will be frustrated by crowded buses and go back to their cars.

There is no sign that service will increase soon. To relieve the crowding, RIPTA says it needs to add 172.5 hours of service per weekday at a cost of $3.5 million per year, mostly to hire bus drivers. It also needs 30 more buses, at a cost of $10.6 million.

But the governor and the General Assembly, facing a projected $200-million to $300-million state budget deficit for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2008, are unlikely to increase RIPTA’s financial support. And Governor Carcieri and the state Senate are in a struggle for control of the agency, with the governor’s office saying nothing will happen until the Senate approves nominees he wants on the agency’s board of directors.

“Improvements at RIPTA will depend on the Senate finally acting on the governor’s nominees to that board,” Jeff Neal, the governor’s spokesman said this week.

RIPTA’s management received good reviews in a recent management study commissioned by the assembly and its buses rarely break down. But for many, riding RIPTA buses is not pleasant.

Christine Dykas, a paralegal who lives on Westminster Street, in Providence, takes the bus downtown in the morning, transferring to another bus to get to work in Cranston. Both buses are packed, partly with Providence high school students.

“I have to stand,” she said. “I’m jammed in and pushed around by the students.”

RIPTA’s service adjustments have apparently helped — some. She said things were even worse a year ago, when buses repeatedly passed her by because they were full. Now they are merely overcrowded, often standing room only.

“It’s a very uncomfortable ride,” she said, partly because she had a hip replacement and it hurts to stand.

Dykas makes her entire commute on buses on RIPTA’s long list of overcrowded routes. Twenty-nine of the bus system’s 56 routes are overcrowded part or all of the day on weekdays, the report says.

Dykas doesn’t have a choice — her vision is too poor for her to drive.

RIPTA defines overcrowding as a trip with six or more standees. Mark Therrien, RIPTA’s assistant general manager for development and planning, said that can vary from trip to trip and day to day.

He said RIPTA’s rule is, no passengers in front of the yellow line at the front of the bus. Actual capacity thus depends on the willingness of standees to pack themselves in and of drivers to urge them to do so.

The ridership increase is “overwhelming the system,” Therrien said. “You just throw your hands up.” Drivers are telling him they have to pass would-be passengers by “all the time” because buses are full.

The numbers also suggest that RIPTA’s attempts to match limited service with ridership demand has worked, up to a point: overcrowding is spread across much of the system. Predictably, crowding is concentrated during the morning and late afternoon. But the report also says that several bus lines are crowded all day and sometimes far into the night.

The most crowded line is the 60 Bus, connecting Providence with Newport. The report says it’s crowded from 6 a.m. until 1 a.m.

“All hours of the night, they’re standing,” Therrien said. RIPTA says that line needs 19 more hours of service per day.

Other lines among the eight that RIPTA says are crowded all day and are most in need of more service are the 11 Broad Street bus, running between the Cranston line and Kennedy Plaza, and the 66 bus, from Galilee and the University of Rhode Island to Providence.

Christopher Wilhite, the state coordinator of the Sierra Club, says the state must decide whether to add transit service to match the demand.

“We’re on the verge of making a really good decision, or making a really bad decision,” he said. Wilhite criticized Governor Carcieri, saying he ought to lead the way toward making transit an attractive alternative to driving, but has not. Transit supporters, he said, have gotten “a very clear impression from the governor’s office that he doesn’t seem to care about transit.”

Wilhite acknowledged that this is a difficult budget year. However, he said, “It’s always a tough year.”

Therrien, the RIPTA official, told a conference on transit last week, sponsored by GrowSmart Rhode Island, that RIPTA isn’t expecting any additional money from the state.

Wilhite said the financial problems can be solved. He said that other cities, such as Portland, Ore. and Austin, Texas, have put together good transit systems, and that Rhode Island has “plenty of bright people” who, with leadership, could work on financing here.

The state, Wilhite said, needs to realize that the bus system “is actually an asset to Rhode Island. We’ve got to invest in it and make it a viable alternative” to driving.

blandis@projo.com