Just as gasoline prices have crimped many wallets, especially of those who decided to live in farthest suburbia and drive huge cars, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority is cutting back service because of the Rhode Island state budget crisis! Having a good mass-transit system is a great way for an area to save money (on a macro-economic basis), improve the environment and, indeed, improve the overall quality of life. Shrinking RIPTA is 180 degrees away from prudent fiscal and environmental policy.

Despite the silly and often demagogic remarks of some politicians, making hay off the myopia and forgetfulness of the public, the fundamental problem is not that gasoline costs too much; it is, after all, made from oil, a finite resource increasingly in demand, and much of it drawn from nasty and inconvenient places. And gasoline prices in Western Europe are twice those here. The people there seem to tolerate that very well — in large part because they have very good mass-transit systems.

Many people remain fanatical for point-to-point vehicular transportation, but that model was based on very cheap gasoline and endless expansion of roads (which cost a lot more to maintain than railroad track).

Further, the complaints that evil speculators are the cause of the gasoline price rises are overdone. The fact is that speculators in the commodities markets and elsewhere use their inside knowledge about where markets are going — to wit, projecting exploding demand for oil by India and China — to make bets, often accurate, about the future. As such, they play very useful roles in warning the public where commodities and their prices are going, and they help make markets adapt more swiftly and efficiently to changing underlying economic and other realities. Sorry folks, as politically incorrect as it is to say: We need speculators.

Anyway, the problem facing RIPTA is that we have almost insanely constructed our transport system based on automobiles and sprawl development and we now find ourselves in a trap of our own making.

Rather than let RIPTA erode, it ought to offer more lines and more frequent and reliable service. Many do not take it now because of the thinness of its system and infrequency of its service. As Amtrak has proven, better service will be rewarded with more customers. (Okay, Amtrak’s service is far from perfect, but it’s a lot better than it used to be, and soaring fuel costs make it even more alluring. What it mostly needs is more track and more trains.)

Rhode Island is very well arranged for efficient mass transit. All it needs are leaders who understand its environmental and economic importance. After all, it has a major city and real village and real town centers — in short, lots of people close to each other. Other densely populated areas — Boston and New York come to mind first — have realized vast prosperity in part because of their dense public-transportation systems. Big businesses in Boston and New York frequently cite mass transit as a reason to stay there, despite generally high costs of living. For that matter, even Rhode Island once had a pretty good “light-rail” system (trolleys).

Policy makers should reconsider how they tax and allocate public funds so that mass transit can be dramatically expanded in a state that seems readymade for it. If the legislature needs to come back into session later this year to raise gasoline taxes and/or assign some money from new highway tolls to maintain RIPTA service, then so be it.