Photo: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signs a bill reauthorizing zero-fare transit programs aboard an RTD commuter train on May 16, 2024. (Courtesy Gov. Jared Polis.)
Speaking frankly, I was not built to play basketball. I stand 5 foot 6 with my shoes on, and the shoes happen to be Orthofeet, not Air Jordans. Back in sixth grade, I could still hold my own on the court, but by seventh grade, the writing was on the wall… and it was written higher on the wall than I could hope to reach.
I knew better than to try out for the school basketball team.
We’re not all created equal, physically.
Nor are communities created equal, physically. Or economically.
A recent article by journalist Chase Woodruff on Colorado Newsline discusses new transportation legislation recently signed into law by Colorado Governor Jared Polis.
Gov. Jared Polis used a brief whistle-stop tour on Denver-area railroads Thursday to sign into law a package of legislation that he and environmental advocates hope will mark a turning point in Colorado’s long-running efforts to develop a statewide multimodal transportation system.
Together, the new laws will raise as much as $200 million annually for new rail projects and expanded transit service, reauthorize zero-fare programs and study the creation of a statewide transit pass. The new revenue will come from fees on rental cars and oil and gas production.
“2024 will go down as the year of transit,” Danny Katz, director of the Colorado Public Interest Research Group, said in a statement celebrating the bill signings. “Taken together these bills jumpstart our bus and train system, making it possible to double transit service in the next decade.”
This might really mean something, if you live in Denver, where the air pollution can get nasty, and rush hour traffic can feel unbearable. If Governor Polis and the Democratic legislature can tax rental cars and oil and gas production, and spend the money on transit, maybe life in Denver will become a little less dangerous and inconvenient.
Senate Bill 24-184 for example, levies a new $3 per day fee on rental cars and allocates the revenue to multimodal transportation projects, particularly infrastructure and safety improvements along the Front Range rail corridor, and eventually, expansion of the Regional Transportation District rail lines. The RTD serves the greater Denver-Boulder-Aurora area with bus, light rail and commuter trains, and serves up about 65 million rides each year. Doubling the transit services would mean 130 million rides annually.
Something to shoot for?
Senate Bill 24-230 will levy new fees on oil and gas production, to be used for RTD operations and local transit projects. Between those two new laws — by my calculations — the state will see maybe $160 million in additional revenues.
Then we have Senate Bill 24-32, which reauthorizes the ‘Zero Fare for Better Air’ program for a third year. As journalist Woodruff wrote:
The state-funded initiative reimburses RTD and other transit agencies for providing fare-free service in the summer, when ozone pollution from cars and other sources is at its peak.
Back home in Pagosa Springs, however, the air stays pretty clear, year round, and the traffic is unbearable only for a couple of months in the summer. (If we see the usual overload of tourists and second-home owners.) But for some reason, Pagosa’s local bus system — Mountain Express Transit, better known as “the MET” — qualified for the Zero Fare for Better Air program last summer. I wrote about that program last year.
The MET offered free fares on a flexible fixed route to Durango via Arboles, weekly on Thursdays, serving the Durango Airport, Mercy Regional Hospital, and certain governmental services not offered in Archuleta County. The MET also offered free fares on its fixed route within the Pagosa Springs area. The program ended on September 1, last year.
Public transportation, internationally, took a hit during the COVID crisis, as governments and media around the globe discouraged people from gathering with strangers in enclosed spaces…
…such gatherings being an essential element of public transit. In March 2020, public transit was serving about 180 million riders per week; by mid-April, the ridership had dropped to 38 million.
Now that COVID is a just an ordinary crisis like so many other crises, public transportation in the U.S. is working to get back up on its feet — serving the people who cannot afford or access private transportation, or who choose public transit for other reasons. As of March 2023, a slow increase in ridership had brought the number back up to about 140 million per week. Still not back to its previous levels.
But the Zero Fare for Better Air project looked at public transit, not as a service struggling to get back up on its feet, but rather, as a way to fight air pollution. This allowed the state government to use money earmarked for air pollution reductions, to provide free transit fares all summer long.
Including in Pagosa Springs.
This, in spite of the fact that the nearest (minor?) “ozone” problem is probably 200 miles away, in Pueblo.
So we are sitting in the meeting room at the County Administration Building on May 14, listening to outgoing MET director Kevin Bruce give his quarterly update on our local bus system. Mr. Bruce has just introduced Andrew Mylroy (pronounced “Mil-roy”) who will be assuming the duties as MET director.
Mr. Bruce began with a summary of the (substantial?) cost overruns with the new, $5 million, mostly-grant-funded, transit facility at Harman Park. He suggested the facility would be completed by April 2025.
Unfortunately, the building was originally designed for a slightly different location, with a different parking lot layout, and now the employee entrance is on the opposite side of the building from the parking lot.
Mr. Bruce suggested that the BOCC might want to fund a fix for that little problem.