Alert warns pedestrians of buses turning in their paths, but Newport residents say the robotic voices are driving them a little crazy
Four words have caused residents of one Newport neighborhood to lie awake in bed at night:
“Caution. Bus is turning.”
A year ago, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority installed the "talking bus" audio system throughout the state, in the wake of a deadly pedestrian crash in Providence involving a Peter Pan bus. That system is being called "noise pollution” and an "almost intolerable" detriment to quality of life in the historic Point Neighborhood.
Now, a bill to ban “talking buses” in residential areas is making its way through the General Assembly.
“One thing is for certain about the talking buses: They are annoying,” Newport Democratic Rep. Lauren Carson, lead sponsor of the bill, told members of a House committee Tuesday. “Both for those on the street and the riders on the bus, listening to the same safety message on repeat for an extended period of time is enough to drive people a little bit crazy.”
Designed to warn pedestrians before a bus turns into their path, the talking bus system from Protran Technology of New Jersey automatically triggers strobe lights and the robotic-voiced caution message whenever a bus take a sharp-enough corner.
They’ve drawn the ire of Newport residents in particular because of the proximity of the picturesque, tightly packed homes of the Point neighborhood to the Gateway Center bus hub on America’s Cup Avenue.
“It is almost intolerable to live in this area,” Newport resident John Ward told lawmakers at Tuesday’s House Commerce Committee hearing, adding that each bus can “talk” close to a dozen times on each trip through the turns of the Gateway Center.
"It makes all of Newport a little less enjoyable," said Ann McMahon, a 72-year-old with a dogwalking business. "I don't know how you can enjoy a cocktail on a sidewalk cafe with the noise."
Carson said the talking buses are also unpopular across town on Coggeshall Avenue, where they swing near the iron gates of the city’s Gilded Age mansions.
The Newport City Council passed a resolution condemning the talking buses last year and has been in talks with RIPTA on a remedy. Council member Jeanne Napolitano said some residents can't sleep because of the sounds outside their windows.
Newport City Council member Kate Leonard, who is also a real-estate agent, said the “screaming buses” were driving away potential homebuyers and driving down property values.
She quoted Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address ("government of the people, by the people...") in admonishing RIPTA for failing to hold public hearings on the bus system.
But the transit agency stands by the talking buses.
“The audio turning alert system on RIPTA buses is an example of 'best practices' in the transit industry and also an example of technology being used to improve safety and hopefully save lives,” RIPTA spokeswoman Barbara Polichetti wrote in an email. "The Protran Safe Turn Alert system, or similar systems by other manufacturers, are in use by transit authorities across the country as we deal more and more with the issue of pedestrians distracted by their phones and other mobile devices.”
Chief Security Officer James Pereira told committee members that there have not been any serious pedestrian crashes since the system was installed early last year.
He said RIPTA had turned the volume on the system down over the summer, resulting in a notable downturn in complaints. Outside of Newport, Pereira said RIPTA had only received a few complaints, at least that he was aware of, in Providence and one in Cranston.
He added that Carson’s bill might not even help Point residents because the Gateway Center is zoned commercial, not residential.
While the two sides appear to be at loggerheads, possible solutions exist that would resolve the standoff.
RIPTA has been studying “geofencing” — using GPS systems to disable the turning alerts in certain areas at certain times of the day.
One concern with geofencing, Pereira said, is that once it's done for one community, others will demand it.
RIPTA installed the $400,000 turning alert system after a 30-year-old Cumberland woman was struck and killed in a Kennedy Plaza crosswalk by a turning Peter Pan bus. The driver said he had not seen her because she was in the bus's blind spot; he was not charged.
In 2015, the Federal Transit Administration and researchers in Portland, Oregon, studied bus turn alert systems and said they produced a "meaningful and cost-effective contribution to safety." The conclusion was based on surveys of pedestrians and bus drivers.
The study also found that people found "talking" alerts like RIPTA's more annoying than non-word noises such as repeating beeps.
State Rep. Katherine Kazarian, D-East Providence, told fellow committee members she had been working downtown the day of the fatal Kennedy Plaza crash and the image of a dead woman lying under a sheet had been burned into her memory.
“I commend RIPTA for coming up with an idea to do something because most of the time we don’t,” said Rep. Ray Hull, who is also a Providence police officer. Hull urged a compromise solution to a problem that he said was being driven by distracted pedestrians.
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 618, which represents RIPTA workers, opposes restrictions on talking buses and wants to keep the turning alerts even if it annoys some bus drivers, President Thomas Cute told the committee.
The RIPTA Riders Alliance also opposes the bill.
A RIPTA spokeswoman on Thursday could not immediately provide the number of pedestrian crashes involving RIPTA buses in recent years.
— panderson@providencejournal.com
(401) 277-7384
On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_