CO: How to move faster around metro Denver at stake in RTD election battles

The Regional Transportation District board that directs public transit around metro Denver could gain two front-line bus drivers, bringing street smarts, and a 25-year-old who vows to make rides safer for a new generation after the November election.

Another candidate asking voters for a seat on the RTD’s 15-member board doesn’t own a car and says he’s fed up with waiting longer than expected for buses and trains. A transit political veteran is determined to activate rail links from Denver to Longmont and Boulder.

They’re part of a diverse slate for the Nov. 5 election that will inject seven new decision-makers into RTD’s mix — overhauling the governance of Colorado’s main public transportation agency at a time when state lawmakers and Gov. Jared Polis are demanding better transit as a necessity for urbanist housing redevelopment.

The 13 candidates vying for the seven seats (four competitive races) seek “reform” of the RTD, which has a $1.1 billion taxpayer-financed budget for helping people move around a 2,342-square-mile Delaware-sized area, one of the largest transit service areas in the nation.

The future depends on attracting “would-be riders” and “would-have-been riders,” said former bus driver Bob Dinegar, who’s running in a three-way race for the seat representing southeast central Denver.

“You need to be able to show up at a stop and not need a schedule and know you’re going to get whisked away to your destination within 10 to 15 minutes tops,” he said. “If we have the personnel, we can do that.”

Ridership falling

The declining ridership (down from 106 million in 2019 to 63 million) and complaints that RTD buses and trains are neither reliable nor safe has spurred increased scrutiny from state lawmakers. Gov. Polis has been interviewing the RTD board candidates, asking how they’d handle issues such as completion of a long-planned northwest rail link between downtown Denver’s Union Station and Longmont – a project that candidate Karen Benker, a former state budget employee who served on the RTD board two decades ago, strongly supports.

Colorado lawmakers who tried to restructure the RTD board legislatively this year to add political appointees are demanding better public transit as a key to reaching state climate goals and enabling housing development concentrated around bus and train hubs.

“The RTD has a culture of defaulting to ‘No,’” said Rep. Meg Froelich, leader of the House transportation committee. “Can we have some people on the RTD board who are going to figure out how to get to ‘Yes?’”

Denver leaders, too, are prioritizing mobility as they approve high-density apartments. “How are the policies we enact getting folks closer to meeting their basic needs? That should be what shapes our policy,” said Denver Councilwoman Shontel Lewis, who served as an RTD director from 2018 through 2022.

Delays, disruptions, reduced frequency

Bus and train frequency is a primary concern among candidates who suggest more frequency will mean more riders, which in turn would help control the violence and illegal drug use spilling into the public transit.

“When ridership is down, it affects everybody. You see a bus go by, nobody on it. That’s a waste of taxpayers’ money,” said Kathleen Chandler, who is running to represent Aurora where a trip downtown on public transit can take 1 hour and 40 minutes. Too many non-riders see RTD as “a boondoggle,” said Chandler, who directs a citizens involvement project for the Independence Institute think tank. “We’re not getting the service we paid for. The reliability and safety need to be fixed.”

Ahead of this year’s election, seven candidates signed a shared platform calling for “fixing” RTD, promising a new commitment to customer service and quality.

“The problem is that too often people get left behind as buses miss their transfer times and they have really unpleasant experiences at the transit stations and stops,” said Chris Nicholson, a candidate in District A in Denver, who initiated the shared platform.

Running to represent Aurora, U.S. Army veteran Bernard Celestin, a longtime civic volunteer who served on city human rights and civil service commissions, drove RTD buses for 15 years until December. Celestin said he’d draw on this front-line experience to unite board members, collaborate with partners, and get things done.

Drivers discouraged

Bus and train operations will improve if drivers know “that somebody on the board is on their side,” he said. RTD service “does a lot more good than bad” in the lives of current riders, including the homeless, Celestin said.

RTD’s new board members ought to make a point of dropping in more often at homeowner association and other community meetings to build support for the RTD, he said, urging less secrecy and a focus on attaining the service he experienced growing up in New York. “If you saw the bus leave there was nothing to worry about because the next one was right behind it.”

Safety challenges

The board candidates widely supported the idea of deploying “transit ambassadors” who would carry radios on buses and trains and call for police help when necessary.

Some also supported increased pay for bus drivers and train operators – up to $40 an hour – to address the “people power” constraints agency managers have blamed for service reductions.

Governance

Some candidates also embraced calls for directors to assert board priorities more forcefully, rather than defer to the RTD management and staff.

“The board needs to take back responsibility for holding RTD accountable,” said Matt Larsen, running in District E to represent south metro Denver. He called the summer train slowdowns “ridiculous” for an agency tasked with getting people to places on time. “And if RTD doesn’t make increasing ridership a goal, why bother with anything else?” Larsen said. “I can deliver aggressive oversight and a willingness to challenge management.”

Inside RTD, “the only things that get done are what the staff wants to get done,” said Brett Paglieri, 25, who grew up in Arvada and would represent District M in west metro Denver.

His priority would be collaborating with other board members to attract new, younger riders, Paglieri said. Potential regular riders “are disappointed in how unsafe it is,” he said.

Air pollution, hotter climate

Board candidate Kiel Brunner, seeking to represent District A, said climate warming adds unprecedented urgency to the challenge of giving metro Denver residents viable alternatives to driving. Riding RTD buses and trains must become “the best choice for people to get around the metro area,” Brunner said. RTD must “connect people to their opportunities” to be useful, and once ridership increases safety will improve, he said. “A busier bus is a safer bus.”

If elected, he’d be motivated by children, including his son, who has asthma and suffers from the air pollution he inhales while riding on the back of his father’s bicycle, Brunner said. “To meet climate goals and have a transit system that’s going to sustain growth for decades to come, RTD has a bigger leadership role to play.”

RTD candidates
District A (southeast central Denver)

• Kiel Brunner
• Bob Dinegar
• Chris Nicholson

District D (southwest metro Denver)

• Chris Gutschenritter
• Barbara McManus

District E (southeast metro Denver)

• Matt Larsen
• Scott Liva

District F ( Aurora east metro Denver)

• Bernard Celestin
• Kathleen Chandler

District G (southeast metro Denver)

• Julien Bouquet (incumbent)

District H (south metro Denver)

• Patrick O’Keefe

District I (northwest suburbs)

• Karen Benker

District M ( Golden and west metro Denver)

• Brett Paglieri

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