RTD Is Free in July and August: Here's What You Need to Know

Starting July 1, all RTD services are free until the end of August, in an expansion of last year’s Zero Fare for Better Air initiative, which was designed to encourage more people to use public transit and reduce ozone during a hot Colorado summer.

“The goal of the campaign is to help people build new commuting habits and reduce ground-level ozone during the highest ozone months,” says Tina Jaquez, public relations manager for RTD.

The free rides were made possible by a grant program though the Colorado Energy Office. The program was established by a 2022 bill sponsored by senators Faith Winter and Nick Hinrichsen and representatives Matt Gray and Jennifer Bacon. That successful measure appropriated funds to reimburse transit agencies for the lost revenue when fares were made free.

In 2023, that same group of legislators — without Gray, but with the addition of State Representative Stephanie Vigil — created more flexibility for such programs, allowing transit agencies to recover 100 percent of costs instead of the original 80 percent under the 2022 bill.

The total cost of Zero Fare for Better Air, when RTD offered free rides last August, was approximately $10.3 million; the state provided $7.2 million. This year, RTD contributed $2.2 million for setup costs, and the state will cover an estimated $15 million in lost fare revenue; that expanded contribution allowed RTD to extend the program into July.

While it is designed to help eliminate tailpipe emissions of ozone precursors and decrease the number of Ozone Action Alert Days that Colorado experiences (there were 46 in 2022), the program also has a goal of encouraging more public transit.

“So much of this is how do we fill up those trains and buses and take better advantage of the system we already have?” says Danny Katz, executive director of the Colorado Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization.

According to RTD’s Zero-Fare August Impact Analysis released in November, people definitely took advantage of the program last year. Overall ridership increased 22 percent from July to August, and 36 percent from August 2021.

Once people had to pay again in September, much of the increase in weekday ridership stayed, but commuter rail on Saturdays dropped, with a 17.8 percent decline from the August numbers. According to RTD, that decline could have been the result of fewer sports events near light-rail stops.

With two months of free travel instead of one in 2023, ridership should increase more, Katz says, noting that in the first few weeks last August, people still weren’t fully aware that they could use transit for free.

“More people are going to be looking for this because of last summer,” he says.

CoPIRG is part of a coalition of groups — mostly nonprofits including Denver Streets Partnership, GreenLatinos and the Downtown Denver Partnership — that created a Free Transit Denver website to help the community engage. It offers suggestions on where public transit can take you around metro Denver, including music venues and cultural attractions like the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

“We've been doing a lot to try to get major venues to put information on their websites, because that can be a real game-changer if we have our sports stadiums, our concert halls, our theaters all encouraging people to use transit to get to their events,” Katz says. “That's a big thing that I don't think we really nailed last year.”

In a survey conducted after the inaugural program, 45 percent of respondents said that they were more likely to use RTD services in the future because of Zero Fare for Better Air. Even so, RTD’s November analysis found that it was difficult to quantify actual air-quality impacts of the 2022 program.

Today, RTD touts six benefits of the program on its website: saving money, improving air quality, reducing stress, saving time, reducing traffic and saving gas. It has a calculator that people can use to determine what their savings would be if they used free transit for two months instead of commuting.

For those who need help planning trips, there's RTD Next Ride, a service with real-time transit information.

Katz says he's excited to use RTD’s bus service to Nederland, as well as organize other families in his neighborhood to take the 52 bus line to Old Town Arvada for a night of fun. Last year, he used RTD to explore some of Aurora's restaurants.

“There's a lot of opportunity for families because, too often, if you're riding transit as a family, you're paying multiple tickets, and that adds up,” he says. “This is a really great moment for families to hop on the weekends and get to some of these farmers' markets and go out to eat.”

While some people worry about RTD safety, Katz says that the more people use public transit, the safer it is. According to RTD’s analysis, security incidents did not increase last August. “In fact, security incidents declined 17 percent year over year from 47 in August 2021 to 39 in August 2022,” the report states.

Vandalism and biohazard incidents did increase, but crime report data showed no major increase in drug-related complaints during Zero Fare for Better Air. “Calls related to disturbances, narcotics and trespassing in August 2022 were all below the monthly average for the first seven months of 2022,” according to the report.

Employee opinion of the program was generally positive.

“Some participants noted an increase in non-destination individuals aboard transit vehicles, but most did not report significant impacts to operations as a result of the presence of these individuals,” the report says.

RTD just implemented a new code of conduct called Respect the Ride, partially to address people who get on buses or trains and ride them without going anywhere — often people experiencing homelessness who use transit as a way to escape the elements.

The proposal for the new code of conduct originally included harsher crackdowns on non-destination riders, but the policy was changed because of civil rights concerns. The new Respect the Ride rules do place bans on people remaining on RTD property who aren’t using its services or who are engaging in harassment. A policy that gives more latitude to security to suspend people who violate the code of conduct was also put in place.

As RTD works to become safer, people can enjoy the chance to explore more of metro Denver for free.

“Last year highlighted all the reasons transit is important,” Katz says. “People don't ride it for one reason. Some people ride it because they don't want to be stuck in traffic and it can be a much more pleasant experience to read a book, relax and let somebody else do the driving for you. Others don't own a car. They don't have any other option, or their car broke down. … There’s a lot of benefits to a good transit system.”