Ringwood City Council Approves Transit Route Expansion Using Road Reserve Funds

The Ringwood City Council voted 6-3 on July 7 to approve the Fiscal Year 2027 Transit Expansion Ordinance, shifting $2.5 million from the road maintenance reserve to extend three bus routes into the central business district and the Maplewood and Cedar Grove neighborhoods.

The ordinance follows the 2026 annual budget review, which showed transit ridership up 12 percent from the prior year while road repair backlogs reached 47 miles of local streets, according to the Department of Public Works quarterly report released in May.

Effects on residents who rely on buses versus those who drive

Residents in Maplewood and Cedar Grove who use Route 12 and Route 17 will gain weekday service every 20 minutes instead of every 40 minutes, with the first buses leaving the central station at 5:45 a.m. Drivers on the 12 blocks of Elm Street and Oak Avenue scheduled for resurfacing in 2027 will now wait until at least 2028, because those projects lost their funding allocation under the new ordinance.

Local advocates note that households without cars in the two neighborhoods make up 28 percent of residents, according to the 2025 Ringwood Community Survey conducted by the planning department. The same survey recorded that 41 percent of households own two or more vehicles and listed road conditions among their top three concerns.

The legislation states that the added routes must begin operation by September 1, 2027, and that the city will issue a request for proposals for the additional buses within 60 days. The ordinance also requires the transit authority to publish monthly ridership data for the new segments starting in October 2027.

City staff said the change leaves the road reserve at $1.1 million, enough to cover emergency pothole repairs but not the planned overlay projects on Elm Street and Oak Avenue. The next council meeting on July 21 will consider a separate measure to seek state matching funds for those deferred road projects.