In an effort to save money, RTD has proposed a radical cutback of the popular EcoPass transit program.
The RTD Board will vote on the proposal at its Sept. 30 meeting. We urge the board to reject this course of action.
To slash the EcoPass program is to move in precisely the wrong direction: reducing availability of transit just when increasing numbers of metro residents are relying on it; undermining business confidence in the transit alternative just when our urban road system is becoming critically congested; and destroying public goodwill toward RTD just when public patience and support are most needed.
Finally, the financial justification for the attack on EcoPass is not supported by available evidence. The EcoPass program allows businesses to purchase all-access transit passes for their employees. This provides employees a convenient and cost-effective alternative to driving, thereby taking cars off the road, reducing traffic for the rest of us, and reducing pollution for all of us. In addition, the availability of the EcoPass creates positive incentives for businesses to locate near transit, thereby multiplying the future value and benefits of our public investments in a first-class transit system.
The heart of RTD’s proposal is to eliminate the availability of EcoPass for businesses with fewer than 50 employees. This would eliminate more than 500 businesses — roughly two- thirds of total business participation — and almost 9,000 employees. At a stroke, RTD may be putting almost 9,000 people back in their cars and back on our roads — a perverse course of action for one of the most celebrated transit agencies in the country.
We understand RTD’s financial challenges: the ballooning construction material costs for FasTracks, the spiking fuel prices for the diesel bus fleet, the stagnating sales tax revenue, the increased property costs imposed by the railroads. We understand equally well the need to cut costs and raise revenue in such an environment, and that program restrictions and fare increases — including to EcoPass — must be considered. The selection of such measures, however, and their application should be driven by data. RTD does not yet systematically collect detailed ridership data from its EcoPass customers. The cuts to the EcoPass program are focused directly on small business participation, yet there is little empirical evidence that small business is a disproportionate source of red ink.
In fact, what data does exist suggests the opposite: that very small businesses (25 or fewer employees) provide over 50 percent more revenue-per-employee than the average EcoPass- participating business.
Finally, there is the argument that EcoPass is “just a Boulder program” and should be cut in the interests of regional ridership equity. This is a specious argument. EcoPass may have originated in Boulder, but the benefits are now enjoyed widely across the region. Denver alone accounts for well over half of all EcoPasses. Cutting the program will do more harm to Denver, here at the heart of our regional transit system — and already suffering from the bulk of our regional traffic congestion — than to Boulder.
We urge RTD to reconsider their cuts to the EcoPass program. The magnitude of the long-term costs of discouraging ridership, alienating business participation, increasing traffic congestion, and undermining public confidence far outweigh the small and uncertain short-term savings from cutting the EcoPass program — savings RTD is not yet even in a position to measure.
Chris Nevitt and Doug Linkhart are members of the Denver City Council. Carol Boigon, Rick Garcia, Marcia Johnson, Paul Lopez, Carla Madison, Judy Montero and Jeanne Robb also co-authored this commentary.
