CO: RTD directors face barrage of opposition, set $4.50 fare for Access-on-Demand

RTD directors faced a barrage of public opposition, then made controversial decisions late Tuesday to restructure the agency’s Access-on-Demand service, which has provided free rides to people with disabilities on commercial services such as Uber and Lyft.

The directors set a base fare of $4.50 for the rides, reduced the maximum per-ride subsidy from $25 to $20 for up to 60 rides per month, and cut the 24/7 availability by two hours across the Regional Transportation District’s 2,342-mile service area. The agency staff had proposed a $6.50 base fare along with the other changes.

For more than a year, RTD’s 15 elected directors have been wrestling with the changes that Chief Executive and General Manager Debra Johnson recommended to make Access-on-Demand “financially viable.”

Their decisions to largely approve RTD officials’ proposed changes left leaders of metro Denver’s disability rights movement dismayed. “We want to ride, and we will fight for that just the way we fought for wheelchair lifts on buses,” said Dawn Russell, organizer for American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT), an activist group. “I wanted to scream tonight,” Russell said. “We failed.”

Before RTD directors approved the restructuring, they listened to more than three hours of appeals by metro Denver residents with disabilities who urged them to maintain a free service they described as a lifeline.

A transit fare of $6.50 “may not sound like much to you. But it would make it so that I cannot afford to go to work,” said Gabby Gonzales, who works part-time at a pizza restaurant and estimated her monthly income at about $1,100. “Please keep it as it is. Make it affordable for me.”

It’s a matter of “freedom,” said Molly Kirkham, who told directors Access-on-Demand “changed my life,” enabling her to live independently and work. “We want to be in the community.”

State Sen. Faith Winter referred directors to a letter signed by 30 lawmakers opposed to the changes, which Winter said “will harm our community.” And James Flattum, spokesman for the grassroots advocacy group Greater Denver Transit, said preserving the service was the right thing to do. “Please do not raise fares for our disabled neighbors in this community,” Flattum said.

RTD directors have discussed possibilities for launching a comprehensive review of transit for people with disabilities in metro Denver, one that would encompass Access-on-Demand and also the separate, legally required Access-a-Ride service that demands day-before reservations for shared mini-bus rides with a standard fare of $4.50. Last year, Johnson commissioned a “peer review” of Access-on-Demand by public transportation officials from other cities who concluded that RTD should restructure the program to ensure “financial sustainability.” Access-on-Demand costs about $17 million out of the RTD’s $1.2 billion annual budget.

The monthly ridership using Access-on-Demand reached 73,000 in July, according to RTD records. That’s more than 10 times the ridership when agency directors launched Access-on-Demand five years ago.

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