A moth flutters violently against the glass of the lamppost up above, casting its shadow on the sidewalk in front of my feet. Although the time on my phone flashes just shy of 6 o’clock, the sun has long since sent its last farewell rays against the horizon. Snow is normally a gentle feeling, a delicate caress of snowflakes against my cheeks, but tonight, each flake stings my bare hands and burns the tips of my fingers, searing them a bright red.
Even with the daylight becoming a faraway memory with each passing minute, the city remains bustling and lively. Cars sweep past me in throngs, timed succinctly by the stoplight just a few steps down the street. Their headlights illuminate the streets for a couple seconds at a time, like a wildly mismanaged spotlight. In the distance, I can hear threads of Bon Jovi leaking out of the cafe behind me every time the cafe doors fling open.
I’m not alone in my spot outside however. Around me, a handful of people shuffle around in their spots, trying desperately to fend off the Colorado winter with their respective coats and scarves. One person dons a pair of leather gloves, and I steal an envious glance at them as I warm my hands with the heat of my breath.
The people here vary in age, gender, and clothing, but we share one thing in common; we are all anchored by the single sign stuck into the grass median that barricades the sidewalk from the street. This bright red sign, covered in various stickers and explicit graffiti, is the only indication that the city of Denver has designated this area as one of the RTD (Regional Transportation District) bus stops.
I check my phone. It’s now 6:05, and if Google Maps has predicted correctly, my bus will arrive in approximately ten minutes. In ten minutes, I could have made the journey back from here to my bedroom by car, but I shove the thought away, knowing that this will only make the wait in the cold worse.
A cold gust of wind brushes by, and I flinch at how mercilessly it bites at my skin. This is one of the many bus stops scattered throughout Denver without a bus shelter, and while the city designer has tolerated the addition of a bench here, it does nothing to protect us from the frosty Colorado air. The rush of cars on the street feels a little more mocking when I picture how nice it would be to be in a space with an operating heater.
Denver is a city of commuters, and this statement is a cold, daunting reality to the Denver residents without the means of independent transportation.
But how do you fix this? There is no simple solution to this, especially when it involves both infrastructural and cultural change. To create better public transportation, you need better infrastructure that facilitates the usage of buses and light rails, but for better infrastructure, you need money. And when a city needs to obtain money, they need to reallocate their budget and divert tax dollars away from another project. Colorado’s biggest taxpayers? The middle class.
Now this becomes the issue: few people find pleasure in knowing that they’re paying for a program that doesn’t benefit them. This raises yet another question. If the RTD is public transportation, then why isn’t it being utilized by the general public?
This question has a fairly simple answer. RTD Denver has a rather unfortunate image of being late, slow, dirty, confusing, and unsafe. Worse still, some of these adjectives are true. The shortage of bus drivers means that some routes remain poorly staffed, and bus wait times are long and far between. This results in people being willing to pay the increasingly absurd parking rates in Denver or take an Uber/similar rideshare, despite the prices of Ubers having increased by 92% between 2018 and 2021 according to Rakuten.
However, it’s worth noting that Denver has been trying to improve the RTD experience. In August of 2022, Denver implemented the “Free Fare Month,” in which everybody could board and ride the RTD free of charge, in hopes of facilitating more rider usage. The RTD completed its 15L Improvement Project in October of 2021, which added bus shelters, security cameras, lighting, and benches to the stops along East Colfax Avenue. Right now, the RTD is working on adding another fleet of electric buses to its arsenal in 2023 after the Federal Transit Administration and the VW Settlement Program awarded the RTD $2.6 million and $8.5 million respectively. More information on these projects and other upcoming improvement projects can be found on the RTD website (rtd-denver.com).
Most importantly though, the funding for these kinds of projects rides on the shoulders of the people. The more that the residents of Colorado demonstrate their support for public transportation, the more willing the government will be to allocate money for a better public transit experience. This simple act of demonstrating the willingness to ride the Denver RTD by everyday commuters could transform the experience of people who already need the RTD to survive.
The longer that RTD Denver remains the middle class’s enigma, the longer that this city will fail its residents that rely on public transportation to go about their everyday lives.
