On March 25 the Denver Streets Partnership and Mile High Connects hosted Get on the Bus: Denver Transit Justice Forum. We convened thought leaders, transit users, and decision makers to talk about what could be possible for RTD with the potential of new funding from the federal level.
We heard from
- Paolo Solorzano, a Denver public transit user. Paolo shared his story and struggles of using public transit for daily transportation in the Denver area. He shared that the unreliability of service can cause him to miss work or be late to appointments, which might take 5 or 6 hours round trip to get to.
- Matt Frommer, Senior Transportation Associate with SWEEP. Matt crunched the numbers and showed us where we spend our transportation funding today and how we could shift that funding to drastically improve transit service, while moving us closer to meeting our climate goals.
- Jonathan Brooks, the Director of Policy and Planning with LINK Houston. Jonathan shared how Houston reimagined their transit system with community and equity in mind. His advice to Denver was “If you reimagine your bus service you should focus heavily on improving service for people who already ride your network. It will attract more riders but you’re trying to enhance the quality for your already existing riders”
- Shontel Lewis, RTD Director in District B. Shontel shared her own story, what drove her to run for the RTD board, and her approach to co-governance. “I think we make the best decisions when we are making those decisions in partnership with the folks that are impacted by those decisions and are utilizing our services”
If you missed the forum, or just want to watch it again, you can view the video here and the slides here.
We know that transit is essential to our communities, local economies and the lives of millions of people across the country. Please join us in calling on members of Congress to increase funding for public transit to the same level as highways so that all Americans have access to high quality, safe, affordable, and reliable public transit service and transit-friendly communities.