The AOD program subsidizes costs for users with disabilities to call rideshare or taxi services within the RTD service area. Using AOD, David can get to and from his two jobs on time even though the Myers family moved from Louisville to a neighborhood in Superior where bus services aren’t available.
“When we started using Access-on-Demand last summer, it was a game changer,” Sue says. “He can call for his own Ubers. He can pick his own Ubers. It makes him very independent. It enables him to get to work on time. It just really gives him the feeling of being included in the community.”
But now RTD is considering cuts to the AOD program that would mean David and many others with disabilities could no longer afford to use the service.
The AOD initiative supplements RTD's Access-a-Ride program, which is required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. With Access-a-Ride, pickups must be scheduled in advance and only those within three-quarters of a mile of RTD bus routes or rail stations can use the service; Access-a-Ride is only available during bus and train hours, as well.
Anyone with a disability within RTD’s service area, regardless of their proximity to a bus stop, can call on AOD at any time of day. However, RTD has proposed to restrict AOD to the same distance-from-stop limits as Access-a-Ride.
Right now, AOD users get sixty rides per month with RTD providing $25 toward the cost of each ride. Under the suggested changes, people would have to pay $6.50 per ride, after which RTD would chip in $20 toward the remaining cost. So the service would go from free for those like David, who don’t typically spend over $25 per ride, to costing $6.50 at minimum.
“A $6 base fare, essentially, is dismantling the program,” says Maureen Nietfeld, director of student services at the Colorado Center for the Blind, who is blind herself and regularly uses AOD. “If you're taking four rides a day at $6, you’re not going to be able to afford $24 a day to be able to take your kid to daycare, then get yourself to work, then pick up your child from daycare, and then get yourselves home.”
RTD Budget Shortfall?
The RTD Board of Directors has been looking for places to cut costs, pointing to an impending budget shortfall; boardmembers have said they'll likely need a plan to stabilize the system's budget into the future.According to RTD General Manager and CEO Debra Johnson, the transit service been concerned about AOD costs in recent years and has considered cutting back the program since 2024, when RTD brought in an external auditor to evaluate the paratransit side of the district’s services.
When the program first began, monthly costs were around $75,000 for the initial pilot in select zip codes, but those monthly costs rose as more people were able to access it.b Today, the program costs around $15 million per year, according to RTD.
However, AOD costs are no longer increasing, with the program expected to come in almost $500,000 under budget in 2025 with a 0 percent rise in cost from 2024.
Disability advocates like Mary Henneck, a retired special education teacher whose son has cerebral palsy, says it makes no sense to cut a beloved program that has now stabilized. In a recent RTD survey, 97 percent of people reported being satisfied with AOD.
“This logic is just hurting my brain, because it doesn't make sense,” Henneck says. “If a program is budgeted and it's expected to come in under budget by such a large amount, and it's not growing as they're suggesting it is, why? Why are they doing this?”
The proposed cuts would reduce the AOD budget by $5.6 million annually, with $4.9 million of those savings coming from riders paying to fill the gap. The RTD Board will vote on the proposed changes on July 29, and many in the disability community believe they will make the wrong choice.
“The vote that they're going to make this month, perhaps, is the most profound civil rights vote that these people on this board may make in their lifetime,” says Claudia Folska, a former RTD boardmember who was the first blind woman to run for elected office in Colorado. “This whole proposal is a disgrace.”
Sue says if David couldn’t use AOD to get to work, she would have to drive him as their home is over a mile away from the nearest bus stop. He could walk the mile to a bus stop to get to his job at the ARC in Louisville, but may have to give up his job at the Post Brewing Company in Lafayette as there isn’t an RTD route within walking distance that would work.
For Nietfield, the bus journey to get to the hospital where she and her child are treated for a rare disorder called Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome would take over two hours, which is why she prefers to use AOD.
“It enables us to access the world just like everybody else does,” Nietfield says. “On top of being able to work and pay my taxes and take my son to soccer and swim and Spanish and piano, that's how we stimulate the economy. We are able to do everything else that everybody else does.”
According to Nietfield, Access-a-Ride is not nearly as effective, a common refrain among disability advocates.
Although Access-a-Ride has improved in recent years, Folska says it isn’t easy to use and drop off times are inconsistent, so relying on the program to get to work or appointments can be risky.
Access-a-Ride's location restrictions are particularly troubling for disability advocates. Around 34,000 of the 685,000 AOD trips per year are for people who live outside of the three-quarters-of-a-mile boundary from an RTD stop. For them, the end of the program means an end to their independence and ability to fully participate in society, Henneck says.
“Public transit is for the public and the public good, and the people who are permanently transit-dependent and need this,” Folska says. “The one solution that's working the best and enabling and empowering people with disabilities to live their best lives is on the chopping block. I think it's reprehensible and poor judgment.”
However, RTD officials say that the only way to keep the program alive is by cutting its budget.
“We have tried to target an approximate savings that we think will make the program financially sustainable,” Erin Vallejos, acting deputy assistant general manager of bus operations, told an RTD Board of Directors committee during a July 16 meeting.
According to Vallejos, when people who use wheelchairs use the AOD program, RTD provides some of the district’s wheelchair-accessible vehicles to ensure people can actually ride successfully, and this costs more money.
“We are drawing away from our federally required paratransit program to operate some of the Access-on-Demand service,” Vallejos said.
Some boardmembers said they think alternative solutions could be found for the wheelchair-accessible vehicle problem, but most committee members agreed that the budgetary reasons were convincing. Director Chris Nicholson amended the proposal to include proximity to commuter and regional bus routes to determine eligibility; Access-a-Ride currently only counts fixed bus routes.
However, boardmembers Vince Buzek and Patrick O’Keefe still voted "no."
“RTD has been, has always been, an ADA leader,” O’Keefe said. “We have a program that can continue to be a leader. …It’s a popular program. …Having enthusiasm for a program that we're running right now is unique, so I think emphasizing things that people are finding value in is important.”
O’Keefe said he doesn't agree with the $6.50 base fare and thinks the proposal needs more time for thought.
“This community of people have come to rely and depend upon this service just to live their lives, not to go to Broncos games and not to go do other things that are somewhat extravagant, but to live their lives,” Buzek added. “Here we are proposing a plan that will, in essence, take this away. … I haven't heard one comment from one member of disability community in support of this.”
Nicholson, on the other hand, said while he expects to get “hate mail” from activists for voting to move the changes forward, he considers making hard budgetary choices an important part of the role of RTD boardmembers.
“It is a crappy thing to do to people, but it's also our job to do crappy things some of the time,” Nicholson said.
But disability advocates aren't buying the fiscal talk, pointing to RTD's annual $1.2 billion-plus budget; for them keeping $5 million to sustain AOD is a small price for a huge positive. Boardmember Joy Ann Ruscha agreed, calling the $5 million amount “couch change” during the meeting.
However, the committee still passed the proposal, 5-2.
If the full board passes the changes, RTD will adopt the new proposal by October. Nicholson suggested if the changes end up being regrettable, the board could revisit the idea in a year — but those with disabilities believe the damage will be done by then.
“It just feels like another attack on people with disabilities when we’re already being attacked so much lately,” Nietfield says.
Days after the scheduled July 29 vote, RTD is holding a celebration of 35 years of the ADA on August 1. The board is also considering approving the renaming of Civic Center Station in honor of Wade Blank, a legendary disability activist who led the Gang of 19 protest in 1978 to demand accessible busses throughout the RTD system.
“It's like an abusive relationship,” Folska says. “They're slapping us around, tricking us about Access-on-Demand, and then want to have a celebration of the ADA on August 1.”
The Colorado Cross Disability Coalition is organizing a peaceful protest at the RTD office at 1660 Blake Street before the July 29 board meeting in support of AOD funding.
