RTD faces tremendous financial, staffing and ridership challenges. How do you envision RTD’s role in the Denver metro region evolving to meet its transportation needs?
First, RTD should let go of the FasTracks “hub-and-spoke” model and focus on filling in the bus grid and running buses that come every 15 minutes. It doesn’t matter if it is a train or a bus – if riders can’t get to their final destination with an easy and reliable system, they won’t use it.
I also believe RTD errs when it reflexively resists cities that want to provide their own transit. RTD is a regional transit agency covering 2,342 square miles. It can’t do it all.
Finally, RTD should simplify its complicated fare structure and reduce fares.
Do you support seeking voter approval for a sales tax increase to improve existing bus routes, with more frequency and dependability, and to create more new bus rapid transit corridors?
Yes, if:
– The plan is equitable;
– Includes paratransit and accessible infrastructure needs; and
– RTD can show the math
RTD made a mistake when it turned to public-private partnerships to help fund FasTracks during the last recession. By partially privatizing FasTracks, we built something that was more expensive and less efficient than what voters approved. Whatap worse, FasTracks was never completed and we can’t afford maintenance.
As such, I worry voters will reject a tax increase because of broken trust. If RTD wants to ask voters for more funds, they will need to demonstrate how RTD will be held accountable.
How high of a priority should RTD make finishing the remaining FasTracks rail expansions, including the train to Boulder and Longmont? And how should the agency cover those costs, which are estimated at $2.2 billion?
Whether itap going back to voters to amend FasTracks, supporting an alternative transit authority, or finding funds, RTD needs to act. FasTracks passed when my son was born, but I’ll be a grandmother by its purported completion date.
While I think tabling FasTracks rail completion is the only fiscal option at this time, it doesn’t mean RTD should ignore areas like Boulder and Longmont, which deserve reliable regional service and would benefit from bus rapid transit. Eighteen miles of BRT was also part of the FasTracks promise, but not a single mile has been built. (Flatiron Flyer isn’t true BRT.)
How should RTD restructure its fare system to be more equitable for low-income riders?
Filling in the grid, especially to transit-dependent communities like Montbello, is critical.
RTD should also eliminate regional fares in favor of a single fare. If RTD must keep an airport zone, then DIA workers should not have to pay the increased rate.
The current means-tested LiVE program has been complicated and exclusionary. At the very least, RTD should lower fares for all and restore the bulk discount for nonprofits and governments.
Finally, RTD should include low-income Access-a-Ride users in any current or future low-income fares program. The current practice of excluding riders on the basis of disability is discriminatory.
What should RTD do to improve safety and security on its buses and trains?
I take an abolitionist approach to public safety, which means I believe we should focus on programs and services that help people, versus a punitive response. RTD should look to an organization like Caring 4 Denver to fund a pilot that provides alternatives to police.
I also support the creation of supervised safe consumption sites. This would improve health outcomes of people who use drugs while also reducing drug usage on RTD property.
Finally, I also support changing protocol so that bus and train operators can get prompt help when it is needed and not wait so long for dispatch.
Steven Gibson had filed to run for this race but officially withdrew in September.
How candidate order was determined: A lot drawing was held at the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office on Aug. 3 to determine the general election ballot order for major and minor party candidates. Colorado law (1-5-404, C.R.S.) requires that candidates are ordered on the ballot in three tiers: major party candidates followed by minor party candidates followed by unaffiliated candidates. Within each tier, the candidates are ordered by a lot drawing with the exception of the office of Governor and Lt. Governor, which are ordered by the last name of the gubernatorial candidate.
