The Regional Transportation District helps cut the metro area’s air pollution and carbon footprint by getting people out of their cars. Last year, RTD provided 96 million passenger trips, an increase of 12 percent over 2006, and ridership is increasing.
Just this month, for example, RTD announced that it carried 10 percent more passengers in January than the same month a year ago.
Ironically, the sheer size of its operation means that RTD itself has a large carbon footprint. On any given weekday, RTD has 863 buses on metro-area streets, and each year its buses and light rail cars travel an amazing 43 million miles. Inevitably, this means that RTD is consuming large quantities of fuel, while FasTracks requires large amounts of construction materials.
RTD’s board wants its impact on the environment to be as limited as possible. In the fall of 2006, the board established a sustainability program, asking staff to examine all areas of RTD’s functioning to minimize its carbon footprint.
Susan Johnson, chair of RTD’s Sustainability Committee, says planning efforts are focused on sustainable business practices; improved vehicle fuel efficiency and energy efficiency in lighting; better management of resources such as water, fuel and office supplies; and best management practices during planning and construction.
The effort to increase fuel efficiency and cut emissions has led to the conversion of all of RTD buses to ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel. Particulate traps have been added to almost a third of buses, cutting their release of particulates by 90 percent, and super-capacitors have been added to lengthen the life of bus batteries by 30 percent.
In addition, an “idling policy” encourages bus drivers to shut off their engines if their wait is more than 3 minutes long. The exception is in extreme heat or cold, when buses may idle for up to 10 minutes.
In addition, RTD plans to purchase four electric-diesel hybrid buses to add to the four it already has. Although the hybrids cost up to twice as much as diesel-powered buses, they have lower emissions and get better gas mileage.
Stan Szabelak, chair of the FasTracks sustainability effort, says that recycling is a major theme as massive construction projects move forward. On the West Corridor, for example, RTD hired a contractor who picked up 34,000 track feet of old, abandoned rail and recycled it. Old railroad ties were salvaged by another contractor, while even soil dug from one section of the corridor was reused as fill in other sections or corridors.
RTD is also evaluating lighting and energy use in its facilities. It plans to conduct energy audits on each of its buildings and will be testing energy-efficient LED and induction lighting at some of its park-n-Rides.
With 2,500 employees and contract workers, the RTD is a major metro-area employer. An education program for workers focuses on what individuals can do to recycle, reduce and reuse. Recycling bins have been set up at strategic locations and copying machines now are set to “double-sided” copying unless manually overridden. Johnson concedes that these are small steps, but they have been well received by employees, who have been recycling paper, cans and plastic, and who now drink water from water coolers instead of plastic bottles.
Szabelak attends meetings of the American Public Transportation Association with representatives of other transit districts across the country. Four years ago, the association offered its first workshop on sustainability, he says. Today, a common question among people at the conference is, “What’s your agency’s carbon footprint?”
It’s good to see an agency as prominent as RTD acting as a positive role model for sustainability. Statistics detailing the initial impact of the program should be available in a few months. Stay tuned to find out how much has been achieved.
Susan Thornton (smthornton@aol.com) served 16 years on the Littleton City Council, including eight years as mayor. Her column appears twice a month.
