AURORA | Activists and residents want the Regional Transportation District to create an income-based pass for working poor if they are going to increase bus and light rail fares.
At a meeting held March 26 at the Aurora Municipal Center, 12 attendees commented on RTD’s plan to simplify the transportation system by eliminating transfers and distance-based light rail fare zones and replacing those with day and monthly passes that let commuters transfer between any type of RTD service. Roughly 30 people attended the meeting.
The proposed changes also narrow RTD’s 10 transportation categories to four. The four new transportation categories are local bus service, regional bus service, rail service and airport rides.
Under the proposed fare increase, it would cost $5.20 for an unlimited day pass, and a local one-way fare would increase from $2.25 to $2.60. Local monthly fares would increase from $79 to $104 under the new schedule.
“I see in this fare structure that the zones are gone, which were really confusing. I do feel like it’s getting simpler, but I really believe we have not gotten to where we need go,” said Felicia Griffin, an Aurora resident who spoke at the meeting and said she has a transit-dependent daughter who has trouble affording the fares. “These fares, low-income people and our most vulnerable people in the community who are dependent (on RTD) this is how they get their medicine, this is how they get their groceries, this is how they get to work. (They) cannot afford this increase.”
Before the meeting RTD officials met with an affordable fare task force — which is a group of over 100 nonprofit and philanthropic groups, government groups and businesses — to discuss the fare increase. The task force presented a study to RTD board members that showed low-income riders make up a large part of RTD’s ridership and would be most impacted by the changes.
Using census data from 2011 and 2012, the task force found that about 27 percent of RTD riders earn less than $15,000 a year. That study also found that those earning less that $15,000 a year would feel the greatest impact from the fare increase because most of those riders use local bus fares and transfers over other forms of RTD
transportation.
In that same study, the task force asked RTD not to increase fares without also creating an income-based pass for those who earn 150 percent of the federal poverty level or less.
The task force suggested in the study that RTD could pay for the low-income passes by charging in-district users who park in an RTD parking lot for less than 24 hours $1 per day, or increasing light rail trips to the airport from $10 to $13 or $15.
Bill Van Meter, RTD’s assistant general manager of planning, said at the meeting RTD has not raised its fares since 2011, despite rising costs to provide services.
He said that the proposed changes came out of RTD’s first round of public comments on what it should do to simplify its fare schedule.
According to RTD, nearly 1,000 people attended meetings or commented online during a study period that lasted from December 2014 to January 2015.
The meeting last month at the Aurora Municipal Center was one of 16 metro-wide public hearings to give riders a chance to look at the proposed changes and provide comment. The next meeting in Aurora where the public can comment on the fare increases will be 6:30 p.m. April 6 at the Expo Recreation Center.
The RTD board is scheduled to give final approval to the new fares in July with the intent to fully implement them by 2016.
The proposed fare increases and changes can be viewed at rtd-denver.com/fare-recommendation.shtml.
Reach reporter Rachel Sapin at rsapin@aurorasentinel.com
If a way can be worked out so this could be done. Not only would it lessen the burden on low income riders, we could get more people using mass transit and fewer people traveling alone in cars. Denver RTD is such a plus, something that locals who have not come from other cities may not always realize.
“AFFORDABLE” is the liberal buzz word for giving other people’s money away.
AFFORDABLE housing, healthcare, food, college, mortgages, social services, energy, education loans….get the picture? And taxpayers get the bill.
Do you think all these programs should be abolished?
They should be diminished.
Approximately 70% of RTD fares are already paid by the taxpayer, that’s already too high. More of the fare needs to be paid by the user.
America … the Land of the Free (stuff).
…and ignorance.
So sick of being forced to subsidize my neighbors…this tax-paying family left Colorado for good.