11 OCTOBER 24-30, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | was on a bus that got sideswiped. Although the driver knew the protocol regarding contacting security and letting manage- ment know what happened, no one told the customers what to do: Should they change buses? Would this one be back on the road quickly? How could they transfer their fares if needed? “If you start to look at a lot of people’s complaints with RTD...we all have the same problem,” Bamber says. “The service is not good.” Simple items like live schedule screens that actually work at more bus and train stops would help. Union Station has no large departure boards in its main space telling people where they can go and when; instead, they have to consult their personal devices or look around until they fi nd someone who will tell them that the bus terminal and tracks are out back. “There’s a lack of information,” Bamber says. “I’ve always called downtown Denver the secret transit system...but it shouldn’t be a secret.” Eight of fi fteen RTD board seats are up for election this year, with fi ve races con- sidered competitive. Seven candidates, led by District A nominee Chris Nicholson, have signed a pledge to fi x RTD through a common-sense plan that centers on riders. The pledge involves three sections: qual- ity end-to-end, safety you can feel, and a schedule RTD can deliver. Ideas like add- ing QR code access to real-time departure information, bus route availability, popular destinations and safety tools are part of the quality end-to-end mission, which focuses on measuring customer experience and then improving that experience. As for safety, the pledge states that the board will expect RTD’s executive leaders to ride RTD more often and hire safety am- bassadors for stations and known problem routes. For scheduling, the pledge prom- ises to discuss system reliability data at every board meeting, offer real-time GPS data about where trains and buses are, and be more transparent when things aren’t working. “Every transit system has bad days and every transit system has late service some of the time,” the pledge acknowledges. “But routine, serious failures and the inability to give riders accurate information has created a cavernous trust gap. The solution is better communication, internally and externally, and improvements in technology to ensure that the expectations RTD sets for customers always match reality.” On the other hand, Kathleen Chandler, who’s running for the RTD seat in Aurora, harks back to the fi scally conservative nature of Caldara’s time on the board. The board’s main job is to hire a gen- eral manager for RTD, which this board may have to do soon; current RTD general manager Debra Johnson’s contract expires next year. During Lewis’s time on the board, she implemented more robust public comment and livestreaming, both of which serve con- stituents and help make RTD’s inner work- ings more transparent. The RTD board used to only have public comment opportunities once a month; now there is a public comment segment at every committee meeting. As Lewis can attest, though, change at RTD isn’t always easy. After hearing “no” one too many times, she streamed the meetings on her Facebook account. “RTD kept saying, ‘We can’t do this. We can’t do this,’ so I did it,” Lewis recalls. “Shortly after, the agency somehow fi gured out how to livestream all of our meetings on YouTube.” Bamber says that RTD has to stop being the agency of “no.” When people ask for things RTD can’t deliver yet, he would like to see the district put together a road map for getting there rather than just saying things aren’t possible. “When you say no, nobody does any work- ing together,” he says. Now that Lewis is approaching RTD from a different side of government, she hopes to help other members of Denver City Council work more closely with the district. “What it has allowed me to do is really be the expert on our council body — to say, no, there are true limitations,” Lewis says. “Let me help you to understand where RTD is failing and where there’s opportunity for them to grow. … As a council, we have com- mitted to fi guring out how do we partner with RTD instead of piling on to what RTD is already dealing with.” Finally, Lewis believes RTD needs to work harder at telling its story. She devel- oped so much love for RTD’s operators by learning what they deal with, she says, and she wants the agency to apply that to the rest of its system. Hudson, who once had the job of telling RTD’s story, agrees. “I wish RTD would get its mojo back,” Hudson says, remembering the old Bus Ro- deo skills challenges and operator spotlights he would share with the media when he was a spokesperson. “I know everything’s not in their control, but gosh, it just seems like their reputation is going to take generations to repair. … I’m certainly not the person out there to say what they need to do, but I know that there are a lot of opportunities for them to improve their reputation.” Email the author at [email protected]. News continued from page 8
