DENVER — For a second year in a row, many transit options in Colorado will be free for riders. The Free Fare for Better Air initiative will run throughout July and August, meaning people will be able to jump on buses and local transit without needing to purchase a ticket.
“My primary focus is changing people's travel patterns,” said Debra Johnson, the CEO of the Regional Transportation District.
The pilot program was approved by the Colorado state legislature last year. Lawmakers approved roughly $28 million in grants to supplement the losses that transit agencies would face.
The goal of the program is to get people out of their cars during some of the hottest months of summer when the ozone is the worst.
“We are in severe non-attainment for ozone, and it just keeps getting worse and we have to do everything we can to address that,” said Sen. Faith Winter, D-Westminster. “Transportation is the No. 1 emitted a carbon and one of the top emitters of ozone.”
Supporters say last year’s one-month run resulted in a 22% increase in riders during the free fare days and many of those riders decided to stay even after the fares were reinstated.
The Regional Transportation District, for instance, experienced a 13% increase in average weekday ridership the month after the program ended.
Even with the increased ridership though, it’s difficult to say whether there were any measurable decreases in Colorado’s ozone emissions.
However, a final report from RTD said it’s difficult to draw any definitive conclusions about the program’s success from one year of data.
Still, RTD and supporters of the program are hoping to replicate and even expand the pilot program’s perceived success this year.
Beyond that, Lance Logenbohn, the president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001, says the program seemed to go smoothly last year but afterward he heard about some of the issues operators faced.
“There's people who get on public transit, transportation, who are not really going anywhere. It's just a place to use drugs and that increases during these free fair times,” said Logenbohn.
RTD, however, says it did not see an uptick in incidents during the free fare period.
In addition, a shortage of operators posed challenges for some of the transit agencies. In fact, two transit agencies, the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority and Grand Valley Transit didn’t even apply for the grant funding for free fares because they didn’t have the personnel to be able to handle the influx of new passengers.
“Until we can add our numbers and be able to expand the service, we're kind of stuck in this cycle of, we can't put the service out to attract the people, and we're not attracting the people because we're not putting the service out,” Longenbohn said.
Johnson admits that RTD, like many other transit agencies, is having a difficult time hiring and retaining operators but she insists the agency is structuring its service based on the resources available.
Despite all of this, he supports the idea of free rides and wants more people to use transit to get around town, he just wants to see a more holistic approach if this pilot program is to become permanent.
RTD and transit agencies across the state are hoping to replicate last year’s success and expand it into the future.
“I want individuals to try transit, just one time. Try it another time and try it another time,” Johnson said.
