8 FEBRUARY 20-26, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | encompassing most of Denver proper as well as Glendale. “We have one of the larg- est service areas of any transit service in the country, just in terms of if you drew it on a map. I think RTD is like any private busi- ness in that our service has to be attractive to customers. They pay for that service, and if it doesn’t reach a certain level for them, they won’t use it. “The only difference between us and a private company offering that service is we get a very, very large amount of money from the taxpayers to make that service fi nancially sustainable,” he continues. “But just because we’re getting a billion dollars every year from taxpayers, that does not do away with our need to be of value to our customers. If we were absolutely abysmal, no one would ride.” He’s not too far off with his number: RTD collected $888 million in tax money in 2024. But his point is made: There are indeed plenty of people fi ling onto the 15 this weekend morning. But the elephant in the room — or rather, the one that’s stampeding down the center of Colfax — is BRT. The Bus Rapid Transit project, which began late last year, has al- ready turned Colfax from Grant to Williams Street into an obstacle course of heavy ma- chinery, concrete barriers, confusing signs and drivers confused by them. The goal is to build a dedicated bus lane down the middle of Colfax, one that aims to offer faster times, safer rides and better access for those with disabilities. Over the next few years, that construction will eventually stretch all the way to Aurora, funded by $150 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act money. Our bus gingerly picks its path through the chaos, in the process displaying one of RTD’s greatest strengths: the generally high caliber of its drivers. Ours makes running a complex and stressful gauntlet look easy. It isn’t just Colfax that’s being torn up by BRT, though. “I know this is extremely hard on these businesses,” Nicholson says. In fact, many small businesses along this section of Colfax have voiced concerns about their ability to stay open through a drop in available park- ing and customers reporting diffi culty in fi nding the front door. “I’ve met with busi- ness organizations. We understand that the constant construction is forcing traffi c onto neighborhoods on either side of Colfax.” He admits there is no fi x, let alone a cure. A program called Business Impact Oppor- tunity, which plans on awarding grants to small Colfax businesses hit hard by BRT, is accepting applications from now through March 18, administered by Denver Economic Development & Opportunity. Whether these grants will be signifi cant enough, or come soon enough, to keep endangered small busi- nesses from extinction remains to be seen. Nicholson’s taking the long view: “When you’re building public transit, like with BRT, you’re not building it just for today, tomor- row, the next fi ve years or the next ten years. This is something that is designed to serve us in the region in 2050.” “Chris and I agree on a lot, and we also dis- agree on a lot, just because of our perspectives,” Chandler notes. “And so I’m not always a fan of BRT because of the disruption, because of the squeezing of lanes, because what it’s forcing people to do. You know, as a Colorado native, it doesn’t feel very welcoming to me. It doesn’t, in my mind, connote the Western spirit.” Colfax and Krameria Street Our bus fi nally clears BRT construction as it heads further from downtown. An elderly man boards at Krameria Street; he’s carrying two stuffed paper bags from Safeway, just down the street on East 14th Avenue. At this point, the 15 is running at roughly 50 percent capacity. It’s quiet, even sleepy. One passenger is listening to rap on his phone, speaker on, but he’s holding it up to his face and keeping the volume down. There is no fi lth, no menace. Nothing threatening is afoot. The bus is clean and smells fi ne. The distinct tang of pot clings to at least one passenger, but that’s about it. The rollercoaster vibe is defi nitely here, however. “Have you noticed that? Our teeth are shaking,” Chandler says as our bus hits a par- ticularly rocky series of potholes; the Wild Chipmunk at Lakeside might be smoother. “The roads are so bad in Colorado that you can’t even ride the bus very comfortably.” Still, she says the working relationship between RTD and the Colorado Department of Transportation is “pretty good,” before pivoting to what she feels is a bigger govern- mental roadblock. “I think our relationship with the legislators is the one that’s a little more tenuous. Every once in a while, if they don’t think that we’re doing our job well, they threaten us with budget cuts. I think the reality is that we’re more likely to have fric- tion with the state legislators than CDOT.” With such vast sums of public money in play, legislators would be remiss not to keep RTD under a microscope. But RTD directors also face pressure closer to home: their own voters. “Bottom line, we represent the constitu- ents of our districts,” Chandler says. “That’s it. That’s why we’re elected. That, to me, is the biggest thing. I’m not responsible for anybody but those who elected me. Now, that also means that the people who elected me are holding me accountable for the fact that they pay a tax, and they’re not getting back the service they’re paying for.” One of the RTD services that taxpayers are funding isn’t being provided by RTD at all. In 2020, the pilot program Access-on- Demand was introduced — and it allows RTD to subsidize Uber, Lyft and taxi rides for those with disabilities at no cost to the passenger. Sinking millions of dollars into outsourcing para-transit service to private vendors, rather than using that money to make RTD itself more accessible, has been controversial. “At our next board meeting, we’re going to be asked to vote on a reauthorization of Access-on-Demand,” Nicholson says. “We’re being asked to authorize an additional $2 million for 2025, but without any infor- mation why. Kathleen and I are both very supportive of accessibility, but as fi nancial people, it’s our job to ask questions. “If there’s a great equalizer in this world, it’s the ability to move,” he continues. “It opens up job opportunities, it opens up educational opportunities, it opens up re- lationships, it opens up commerce. But we can’t be a phenomenal transit agency, and also a phenomenal mental health agency, and also a phenomenal criminal enforce- ment agency, and also a phenomenal drug treatment agency. It is not possible. We need to focus, like any other business, on what we’re really, really good at. If you look at any other business — American Airlines, UPS, the Cherry Creek Mall — we don’t ask of them, ‘Please solve every societal issue in the world.’ And yet there are some people who think that it’s the responsibility of a public transit company, which is really just a transit company, to solve all of those problems.” Colfax and Tower Road The 15 doesn’t run exclusively through Chandler’s and Nicholson’s districts. A few blocks of the route, from Quebec Street to Yosemite Street, belong to District B, and the span of Colfax from Yosemite to I-225 is part of District E. So our bus doesn’t en- ter Chandler’s District F until we pass the interstate, which is the point where Colfax begins to open up into prairie — and where the 15 comes to its fi nal stop. We’re the only remaining passengers. In just over an hour, we’ve traveled from the heart of Denver’s urban center to the outer reaches of its frontier. The bus pulls over onto Colfax’s muddy shoulder, just a few dozen yards past the Tower intersection. The wind is blowing hard and cold, unbroken by anything made by humans. Except, that is, for the large, art deco brick building that sits immediately south of where the bus has slowed to a halt. We disembark and stand in the frozen mud, looking at the majestic structure sitting in a barren fi eld. Ironically, the building — once the home of KOA, the fi rst commercial radio station in Colorado — is owned by RTD’s close partner, the Colorado Department of Transportation. This is not a bus stop of any kind. There are no benches, shelters or signs. But who knows? Decades from now, after BRT has reached or even surpassed this desolate outpost, the rapidly developing suburbia of Aurora may reach all the way out here. And with it will come the need for more transit, faster transit, safer transit, easier transit. Even now, Nicholson says, RTD is devel- oping a way to tap your phone on the fare box to pay when you board, eliminating the cur- rent technological innovation of purchasing a scannable ticket on the RTD app. RTD isn’t exactly moving at the speed of the future, but it’s coming. “There are actually a lot of people in Aurora who commute into Denver on the 15,” Chandler notes, “but there are not that many people in Denver who come out to Aurora to go to the restaurants, to go to the malls. It’s not a destination stop. We’re kind of a bedroom-ish community. But the more you have people being like, ‘Oh, there’s that cool restaurant in Aurora, and it’s not $40 a plate like it is in downtown Denver,’ I think the connectivity of RTD might bring people out. Aurora is where you are going to see more growth than you are in Denver. And I think the 15 will have a lot to do with that.” That’s something to consider for the future. Right now, the wind is picking up, and we can’t stand out here forever. Someone’s phone comes out. An app is opened. Looks like there’s an Uber driver just two minutes away. Email the author at [email protected]. News continued from page 6 Kathleen Chandler and Chris Nicholson are the new directors of RTD districts F and A, respectively.
