URI rolls out its own new, expanded shuttle service

Part of comprehensive transit, parking upgrades on Kingston Campus

Students board a Rhody Transportation shuttle
EAGER PASSENGERS: Students board a Rhody Transportation shuttle near Rodman Hall and the Robert L. Carothers Library and Learning Commons. URI photo by Nora Lewis

KINGSTON, R.I. — Sept. 17, 2018 — University of Rhode Island students, faculty and staff who want to get around the Kingston Campus easily and who want to limit the use of their cars to get to our campuses and sites in Providence, Newport and Wakefield now have two great resources.

You can take advantage of the first University-operated shuttle service–Rhody Transportation–to get anywhere on campus at no charge, and you can continue to use the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority system to travel to major points in Rhode Island, including the Rhode Island Nursing Education Center, Narragansett Bay Campus and the Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Education and Professional Studies.

Undergraduate students can get a free RIPTA U-Pass to travel anywhere the state transit system goes if they leave their cars at home or park them at the Wickford Junction train station garage. Faculty, staff and graduate students can purchase RIPTA tickets at a 50 percent discount at the Memorial Union. Riders can track Rhody Transportation shuttles on their phones by downloading the Transloc Rider app, or shuttles can be tracked on laptop or desktop computers at this link. RIPTA riders can find information about how to buy tickets online and track buses.

The Rhody Transportation shuttles are easy to spot, and there are more shuttles than there were last year. They are adorned with the interlocking R.I. logo.  You can see their routes on the Rhody Transportation Map. See what students are saying.

Three buses are used for the Hill Climber route–They are available Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., every 10 minutes.

The Blue Line uses three 16-passenger buses and operates Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m.to 8 p.m., every 10 minutes.

The Ram Line to the College of Engineering at Schneider Electric uses one 28-passenger bus for continuous service Monday to Friday, from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., every 20 minutes.

The University also provides a Rhody Transportation shuttle that links the Rhode Island Convention Center garage, Rhode Island Nursing Education Center and the Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Education and Professional Studies. This shuttle can be tracked here.

Rhody Transportation does not operate on weekends, holidays and URI breaks.

The University has been upgrading its transportation infrastructure. Several parking lots — Briar Lane (Lot 1), Alumni Center (Lot 2), and Boss Arena (Lot 27) — have been repaved, and a complete upgrade of Lower College Road is just about done. The University, in cooperation with the Town of South Kingstown, will began a full upgrade of Briar Lane last week. Lot 10 behind Morrill and Fogarty halls is also scheduled for a complete upgrade and repaving.

The University also instituted its new parking permit system at the start of the semester, and now uses the motorist’s license plate as the permit. Gone are the inconvenient hang tags and stickers to gain access to faculty, staff and student parking lots. Now, scanners will read each driver’s license plate and ensure that each vehicle is parked in an appropriate lot. Faculty and staff who have not registered for a new permit, should do so here. Hang tags have been phased out.

“In line with our strategic sustainability goals as well as tight parking due to construction of such exciting projects as the new Robert J. Higgins Welcome Center and Brookside Apartments, we have undertaken a comprehensive approach to our transportation and parking systems to provide alternatives to bringing a car to campus and to make it easier to move about once you are here,” said Vice President for Business and Finance Abigail Rider.

“If you haven’t taken one of our air-conditioned Rhody Transportation shuttles, I encourage you to give them a try. They are especially refreshing when the humidity and temperatures are as high as they have been during the last several weeks. We have also continued our collaboration with RIPTA, which as our regional carrier, provides excellent off-campus transit services. RIPTA is a valuable partner in our efforts to reduce the number of cars on campus.”

Rider said the hard work of staff members from Public Safety, including Transportation and Parking, Capital Projects and Facilities Services made these major transportation upgrades possible.

  • If you want to get to other URI campuses or off campus, use RIPTA’s Route 64 to get to Newport, Jamestown, URI Narragansett Bay Campus and more local locations.
  • To get to Wakefield, Providence, and Narragansett, you can use RIPTA’s Route 66 and Route 62 buses. RIPTA operates on major holidays. RIPTA’s Route 66 buses, which run from Galilee to Providence, will drop you off and pick you up in Kennedy Plaza, just a few blocks from the Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Education and Professional Studies.
  • Route 62 buses, which also run from Galilee to Providence, provide service to the Rhode Island Nursing Education Center and Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.

Route 64 operates from the Kingston Amtrak Station to the Newport Gateway Center. RIPTA buses depart from the Memorial Union and other stops on the Kingston Campus.