004 RTD Director District O Candidate Forum

[00:00:10] Speaker A: Hello Boulder in Boulder County. Welcome to the Better Boulder Hearts and Minds podcast. Did you know that RTD is governed by a 15 member board of directors that are publicly elected? If you live in Boulder, Niwot, Superior or Louisville, or anywhere in Boulder county west of Boulder, then you probably live in RTD Director District O. If you live in Longmont, south of Highway 66 and east of Hover street, then you are in Director District I. Elections for these positions are often uncontested and sleepy affairs with little attention given to them. However, this year we had the good fortune of having two excellent candidates campaigning for your vote. The two candidates are Audrey DeBaros, who is the Executive Director of Commuting Solutions and a regional transportation management organization that serves the Northwest metro area including Boulder, and Jack Rosenthal, who is a daily RTD rider and a data driven technologist. On Monday, July 27, Better Boulder, in partnership with Community Cycles, hosted a live candidate forum for RTD Director District O featuring both candidates. The forum began with opening statements from both candidates, which was followed by a Q and A on a variety of RTD related topics. Please note that community cycles, as a 501 does not endorse candidates. Better Boulder, on the other hand, is a 501 and frequently endorses candidates and ballot measures. However, at the time of this forum and subsequent release of this episode, Better Boulder has not endorsed either candidate. Please visit betterboulder.com later this fall for a complete list of endorsed candidates and ballot measures. Sue Prant, who was featured on this podcast in Episode two, was the emcee for the evening and read the questions. The first part of the forum featured prepared questions that the candidates were provided ahead of time and the second part of the forum featured questions submitted by audience members. We hope you enjoyed this live recording of the RTD Director District O Candidate Forum. [00:02:14] Speaker B: Well, good evening everyone. Thank you to Community Cycles and Bitter Boulder for having us here tonight. I did want to acknowledge Lynn Geisinger again for her incredible service on the RTD board representing District over the past seven and a half years. I wanted to begin by introducing myself to you and tell you a little bit about me. Some of you I know and some I have I don't know. So I wanted to share with you that I am from Minnesota, I come from a family with six siblings. There's seven kids in our family and we are the first generation to go to college. I moved to Colorado about 25 years ago and because I love the outdoors and I really wanted to strike out on my own, I've lived in Boulder county for 25 years. That entire time I met my husband here. We got married in Boulder. We have two children that are both in college right now and I was a non traditional student. I worked full time and I went to school at night to put myself through college. Both a bachelor's degree and a Master's degree. We live in Louisville. We've been lived in that community about 12 years. We are a Marshall Fire family so we recently moved home two and a half years ago. So what that tells you a little bit about me is that I'm a fire, that I'm committed and that I am a community builder. As you'll hear about me in a moment, my career has been invested for the most part into my current job, which is as the Executive director of Community Solutions. We are a nonprofit coalition of nine local governments. So Boulder, Boulder County, Louisville, Superior, Broomfield, Westminster, Lafayette, Erie and Longmont along with chambers, primary employers and nonprofit organizations. And together we have been advocates for this region for over since 1998. So a very long time. And through this work I've had the opportunity to advocate, to innovate and to educate the public about their transportation options as we seek to transform both the land use and multimodal transportation to be more inclusive of all modes of transportation. So some of my proudest Accomplishments include the US 36 Express Lanes Project which was a 500 million dollar investment in our region, started the Express Lanes, of course the Flatiron Flyer bus rapid transit service and constructed the US 36 bikeway. I was also a part of the Colorado 119 project that is under construction now building many safety enhancements funded. The Diagonal Bikeway is implementing bus rapid transit service illustrating January of 2028. We're really excited about the Colorado 7 transit starter service at Boulder county and local governments from Boulder all the way up to Brighton are starting in January of next year. So we're creating a regional network of how people can move into and throughout Boulder county and this Northwest region. This work is done in community with many many local governments, rtd, cdot, our federal government, state government. As part of my role, I'm also the staff liaison to the Northwest Mayors and Commissioners Coalition which is the political powerhouse of our region. They were founded in 1999 and they have federal and state lobbyists that I oversee their contracts traveled to Washington D.C. to advocate for transportation public policy and bring resources back to Colorado. So a little that's a little bit about me. Our office is co located with VIA Mobility Services here in Boulder as well as Colorado Cartier nonprofit mobility hub. So we have deep care and concern about all ages and abilities and making sure that whether someone is just a beginning transit rider or at the ending phase of their life, that we are providing accessibility for all. I wasn't intending to run for the board. This wasn't on my radar screen until I talked to Land and I heard what was coming at the board this November and I just decided that I couldn't sit on the sidelines and watch it happen. I am the most accomplished, trusted and you know, I've achieved the most when it comes to implementing transit and multimodal improvements in partnership with others while inspiring travel behavior change. I am endorsed by Lynn Geisinger, Chuck Sisk and John Chair, the three District O representatives for the past 20 years, Congressman Nagus and many, many more. Thank you. [00:06:56] Speaker C: Well, thank you to Community Cycles. Thank you Better Boulder for hosting this forum. My name is Jack Rosenthal. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I ride RTD everywhere. Before the pandemic, I lived along 30th street here in Boulder, and shortly after my husband and I started dating, I was out getting groceries and ran into him on the bound like, wow, you're getting groceries too? Some might say it was bound to be. And then the pandemic came. RTD cut service significantly and living here without a car got a whole lot harder for me. I became involved as an advocate and helped pass multiple policies in RTD as well as the Transit Access Bill at the state, which is going to provide more equitable transportation statewide. I didn't come at RTD through politics. I came in as a writer when the system needed it most. I am running for the RTD board of directors because I am tired of the generation of leadership at RTD that has failed us. Instead of building the train, they put lipstick on a pig and called it BRT. And now, since September 2004, we have 38% less service Denver Boulder bus service on the Flatiron Flyer than we did before. Fast Tracks it is this generation of leadership which barely rides rtd, that doesn't even know what's working in the system and what's not. Folks, it's time for change. At rtd, I'm just a nerd. Professionally, I'm a software engineer. I worked at Google here in Boulder for six years and if elected as your next RTD director, I'd be the only technologist on the board. Let me tell you a little bit about why that's important. As I was riding here today, I rode the dash in here today and the live tracking for my bus stopped working. And this is a pretty frequent thing. You'd notice as a rider that the live tracking is not reliable and not working. And it happened to me today coming in, I thought that's spot on. I. Sorry. Last month the end line went down because of a server crash. The technology at RTE is legacy and outdated and it needs to be updated and we need to get good monitoring on it so our system runs reliably. Over the past year, this campaign has grown into something bigger than me. Movement of rioters, workers and advocates and elected leaders who believe that RTD can be better and that change cannot wait. That movement includes the RTD Operators Union, ATU 1001 Boulder Progressives, and more than 40 current and former elected officials, including seven out of eight members of Boulder City Council who have endorsed AIME. RTD faces serious challenges. Public trust is at a low and its long term financial future is uncertain. But we do not have to accept the client as an inevitable. This is the moment for change. We can build the train, we can restore reliable service, we can modernize the transit system and create an experience that people are proud to ride and willing to invest in. I spent years riding the system, fighting for it and learning for how to make it better. Now I'm ready to bring that work to the board. [00:10:42] Speaker B: Okay, thank you both. [00:10:43] Speaker D: So now we have prepared questions and we'll start with Audrey at this time. [00:10:48] Speaker B: Three minutes. [00:10:49] Speaker D: And you have three minutes. Yeah, I'm sorry, three minutes, please. What do you think are the top five problems riders experience and how would you address them? [00:10:58] Speaker B: So the top five issues that I see are safety, first and foremost, reliability, frequency, access and service for everyday living. And a couple of these are bundled together, but they address the item that I mentioned at the beginning regarding providing service for all. So I think the, the critical, the first priority is of course, safety. People will not ride RTD if they do not feel safe. And so as an RTD board member, I'm prospective board member, I'm really appreciative of the work of Director Geisinger and Director Nicholson to bring funding to grow the police department since COVID which has grown to over 100 police officers that work very closely with local police departments to improve major social issues around drug addiction, homelessness, et cetera. And RTD is a partner in that. But they surely are not responsible for these larger societal issues. So I think that the RTD board should continue to fund their police force at the level that they are currently, if at all possible. Even more when it comes to reliability and frequency. These are topics that in the recent January 2026 customer satisfaction survey, I wanted to share that based upon those results, 80% of riders believe that the bus reaches their destination within a reasonable amount of time and 73% of riders are satisfied with the bus frequency. So in large RTD riders agree that frequency and reliability are doing pretty well. But we know here in Boulder county, due to the county's work on the Linking Boulder Transit Study, that frequency and reliability are critical issues. RTD board in partnership with staff, is implementing the comprehensive operational analysis and working on a broader vision around these topic areas. So I'm excited to be a part of that. I think access is critically important because I learned this recently that 78% of the bus stops did you know that 78% of the bus stops in the Denver region are actually owned by local governments? They're not RTD's responsibility and 64% of those are inaccessible. That's a big number. 580 of those are inaccessible within Boulder county alone at a cost of $20 million. These are base infrastructure that is critically important to provide access to transit for all ages and abilities. And to me, that's one of the biggest issues issues that RTD in partnership with local governments need to identify a prioritized list of how they will go about tackling this major access issue. Thank you [00:13:50] Speaker D: Jack five Top Riders Experience [00:13:56] Speaker C: well so I ride RTD everywhere as I mentioned, and I actually am fairly public about how much I ride RTD. You can go to jack4rtd.com stats and see how many boardings I have. So I have over 800 boardings logged in the Myriad app in the past year. And needless to say, I've experienced a lot of issues with the system myself firsthand, so I'd like to do some audience participation here. Raise your hand if you've ever had to seek alternative transportation because the airport bus was full. Oh my gosh, that's quite a few people in this room. And maybe raise your hand if you got stuck down in Denver after a Broncos or Rockies game because the line for the Flatiron Flyer was out to Chestnut Street. Oh my gosh. Yeah, and raise your hand if you wanted to take the bus to the Boulder Boulder but couldn't because it operated on a holiday schedule for Memorial Day. And these are all real issues that we all face. And so we can run more frequent service on the airport bus, making it easier to use and scaling it up for the ridership demand on that route frequency is reliability. It enables you to travel on a more flexible schedule, shortens the waiting times, and provides extra capacity. On high demand routes like the airport bus, we can bring back special event services like the Broncos Ride, the Rockies Ride, and the Run Ride to the Boulder Boulder. These services get you directly to the event you need to go and back home when it's over. Maybe you haven't been able to take your bike along with you on a bus because the rack was full. I'd like to innovate on bike racks. I've been looking at bike racks where we can store three bikes on the front of the bus and that we can actually add additional bike racks to the back of the bus for extra capacity. Maybe you were left wondering where your bus was because RTD's live tracking system did not work for you. That happened to me this afternoon. Or maybe you stood out at the stop at the scheduled time and the bus never came and you didn't know what was going on. We need to fix the legacy technology behind RTE's Real Time Tracking system and make it more reliable so that you know exactly where your bus is. Perhaps RTE couldn't get you where you needed to go, or it wasn't able to get you there in a reasonable amount of time. The last major overhaul of RTD's bus network was in 1979, and things have changed quite a bit since then. It's no wonder RTD doesn't always get you where you need to go. I've experienced all these issues myself, and I'd like to tackle each and every one of them. Thank you. [00:16:30] Speaker D: Thank you. Okay, we'll start this time with Jack, and then we'll switch you restored. The legislature recently changed RTD's board composition effective 2028. But the next two years may be pivotal for RTD's future. You both said you want to change the character or the culture of the board. What would you change and how would you do it? [00:16:52] Speaker C: So change means actual change. We cannot just keep getting more of the same. We can't have the same leadership that led to the broken promises of fast tracks and who wasn't able to hold management accountable and who is responsible for the $215 million hole in the budget that we have for 2027. Right now, staff at RTE is proposing cutting service by 20 to 36% to fill this hole in the budget. This would cripple transit to the point it would be completely unusable. RTD needs a new, sustainable source of revenue. Otherwise we will be entering what's called the transit death spiral. We will need to run a ballot measure and increase taxes in 2028. And right now, the voters sure as heck aren't going to trust us with their money. And honestly, I don't even blame them. We can't keep around the same inefficient leadership that got us into this hole. We need a change of leaders from the ones who got us in this mess to begin with. We need a change of direction and we need a new generation of leaders on the board. Us zillennials actually ride rtd and it's about time we go run it. We know where the system is working and where it isn't. And we can improve the servants from rider experience to show voters that RTD is turning around and re earn their trust because that they can not only believe in a vision of public transit, but that RTD can deliver that vision of transit. [00:18:22] Speaker D: Audrey, do you need me to read the question again? [00:18:24] Speaker B: I got you. [00:18:25] Speaker D: Okay. [00:18:28] Speaker B: The next board of directors is totally different than the prior directors for the last number of decades. This is a transition board. It's only a two year term until January of 2029. And because of that, this is the last District Oak board seat, which is kind of sad. But what it means to me is that the next two year board cycle beginning in January is really has an opportunity to create or set the stage for success for the new permanent board starting January of 29th. It can either be a board that is, you know, leading out in a meaningful way, setting that stage, and we'll be talking about what that means, or it could be stuck in chaos and uncertainty. And the 15 board members starting in January 29th or 2027, they're all laid ducks. So the existing board members that have two more years of their term and the two years of the next new board members are all going to have to run for election. So it's a completely different situation than what we've experienced in the past. And I think that's really important to say. The primary role of a board member is the fiduciary responsibility to make sure that the organization is highly regarded when it comes to its ethical standards and its legal standards, that it is upholding the duty of care, the duty of loyalty, and the duty of obedience. And that is the primary role. They hire the general manager, they set policy and they approve the budget. They represent RTD in their district. So I think it's clearly, it's really critical that this is a board coming up in January that is setting the stage and has a goal of setting the permanent board up for the best success that it can possibly have. One of the most important things is to create unity and to create a strong, clear vision and leadership to let the public and RTD staff know that we have a unified vision around how we're going to move the organization forward. Senate Bill 150 is all about modernizing the board and taking it completely to a higher level of professionalism and oversight. And so I want to be creating that positive leadership unity culture on this board. In preparation for a permanent board in 2029. Senate Bill 150 also included the creation of a paratransit plan that is required as part of this bill. RTD has staff has been working on an existing transit plan. Additional requirements are required as part of Senate Bill 150. And then one piece of this bill that our coalition added as an amendment to the bill is strengthening the RTD sub regional councils. This allows local governments and TMOs like us to participate. [00:21:34] Speaker D: What qualities will you be looking for in the next General Manager rtd so my North Star. [00:21:41] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, My North Star is this ballot measure in 2028. I want a GM and CEO who can not only deliver that ballot measure, but we've actually got to win. There's no other option than winning. We need somebody who's creative enough to make the most of what we've got over the next two years and minimize those service cuts that will hurt our ability to actually win a ballot measure. We need somebody who understands the politics here in Colorado and who understands the public's lost trust NRTD and who is able to re earn that trust by delivering upon Northwest Rail and creating excellent service over the next two years. Meet somebody who is able to work within the shackles of TABOR and who is able to produce legislative changes that will allow us to collect the right kind of revenue in 2028. But most importantly, and this is the most important thing, I want a GM CEO who actually rides themselves just like me. Because we need to change from the decades of leadership stuck in the machine because if they lose the perspective of the actual riders, I want someone like Dawn Disler. She is the CEO of the Metro in Akron, Ohio and she says if we aren't using our own product, why should anyone else? Winning a ballot measure in 2028 starts with excellent service that leaves each rider satisfied, feeling like a valued customer of the Regional Transportation District and ready to ride again. [00:23:24] Speaker D: Thank you. [00:23:27] Speaker B: All right, well, I agree with Jack around the needing a general manager who's going to lead out on a potential ballot issue. We need someone along with the board of directors who need to be advocates themselves within their districts. But is setting a vision. That's one of the main things that I'm looking for in a general manager. Someone who can create a bold vision for transit. Boulder county is counting on transit to achieve our greenhouse gas and climate reduction goals and we need a new conversation in the Denver metro region around what that possibly is, what that possibly could look like. We're stuck in the details and the problems and we need an aspirational leader that's going to create a bold vision for us that we all buy into and want to be a part of funding and co creating. We also want someone who's a collaborator that will bring local governments, elected officials, staff, partners, the public together around transit and where it's going and where it could go. Someone that wants to be creative and think of new ways about going things and turn the agency from the agency of no into the agency of being yes. Also someone who's resilient. We have problems. We do have an unfinished FAST Tracks commitment to our region. It takes creativity resilience to figure out how to move the Denver region forward. We were made promises. We need to resolve that so the region can move forward in a positive new direction to achieve all of our mobility goals. We want someone who's customer focused rtd. Their mission statement is we make connections. We make Denver better through connections. And so we need someone who's focused on the customer and what their user experience is and how RTD can make that experience even better. And I think lastly as a creative problem solver, these are not enviable times for rtd yet they're wildly important to us all. Thank you. [00:25:33] Speaker D: How would you make bus stops and transit stations more accessible for bicycles and pedestrians? How would you encourage development around them so they grow into more active, vibrant places and attract more riders? [00:25:46] Speaker B: I talked a little bit already about accessibility and the issue that is in front of local government and RTD to make bus stops more accessible for all ages and abilities. So I won't rehash that, but a few of the bicycling related strategies that I have implemented here in the Northwest region that I think can be implemented elsewhere. One is the regional bike and ride shelter program which we have implemented in partnership with Boulder county along U.S. 36 so involving city and county of Broomfield and Westminster to expand secure free storage in order to make it safe and accessible for people to park their bike and then get connected Transit. And then I'm really excited about a regional bike share program that we are implementing just starting next in the next two weeks in partnership with six jurisdictions in our area to expand bike share. So taking the Boulder B cycle system and expanding the two first to Longmont, Boulder County Superior, Westminster, Broomfield and Lafayette over the next three years. So that is a really important regional program to again improve bicycling infrastructure. In terms of integrating land use and transportation planning or transit planning, the RTD board has a policy, it's an unsolicited development per policy whereby if there is a developer who would like to partner with RTD and wants to bring forward a bold creative idea, RTD is always open to receiving those opportunities to work in collaboration and have bright ideas around how to co create and co develop their property. For opportunities, you know, involving the local jurisdictions, there is rt. RTD board members have the opportunity to bring RTD transit oriented Development and real estate staff together with local transportation planning to co create, you know, the thank you, the sorry to partner with local governments on pursuing grant opportunities and other finance recommendations. I think it's really important that integrating modes of travel and stakeholders who are from the disability community, bicyclists, pedestrians into that built concept plan is really important so that it's being well thought through. And lastly, I think defining maintenance agreements between RTD and local government so that stations are well maintained over time is important. [00:28:28] Speaker D: Jack, do you need me to repeat the question? [00:28:29] Speaker C: I've got the question. Thank you. Alrighty. So just a few back years back, a pedestrian was struck and killed getting off the bus at Arapahoe Road and Dagny Way. They were just trying to get to their neighborhood across the street. But this wasn't a normal residential street. This was a busy state highway without crosswalks for proper investment and any rider safety, I guess. What was RTD's solution to this? They removed the stop. As director, I'll make sure that this never happens again. We need to. We're not going to listen to the high priced consultants bringing over liability. We need to focus on the riders and do what actually makes them safer. Our stops cannot just be a ste. We need to make them not only safe and accessible, but also a comfortable place for you to wait to ride. I'd like to borrow ideas from Tactical Urbanism. When you hear the words Tactical Urbanism, you might think of activists going out and painting crosswalks in the middle of the night, but it's actually far from that. We should work directly with advocacy groups. We can cut the red tape and get projects done efficiently using tactical urbanism. Right now, our stops often feel actively hostile. The sort of place that you aren't supposed to hang around. If we're expecting you to wait for a transfer, the environment needs to invite that. At a bare minimum, our stops need to be accessible. You can't get off a bus from a wheelchair onto a patch of grass or dirt. We need basic amenities at our stop. A bench to wait on, a shelter to protect you here from the weather in Colorado. But above all, I feel like we need to look at making our stations feel a little bit more like an airport where you have access to restrooms and water and a place to charge your phone or laptop and even have food or coffee vendors and you can sip on an espresso while waiting for your bus or train. This is actually quite feasible to do and can even be a new source of revenue for rtd. By providing long term ground leases on underutilized RTD properties like park and rides, we can bring this sort of development near transit where developers will be able to directly build housing, retail and transit amenities right next to the transit itself. [00:30:56] Speaker D: Okay, thank you. Starting with Audrey again, RTD ridership is down roughly 40% from pre pandemic levels, while nationwide ridership is down 15% from pre pandemic levels. What can RGD do to recover ridership? And what is the board's role? [00:31:16] Speaker B: So Jack already talked about the Broncos ride and the deliberation that the RTD board is considering tomorrow night. They're considering adding a million dollars to give the general manager additional, you know, funding to negotiate with the Denver Broncos. So. And a clear expectation that that service is implemented by 2027, 2020 28, football season. So that's coming. We're excited about RTD's involvement with the Sundance Film Festival coming up in January. That's another opportunity to grow ridership. Boulder Chamber Transportation Connections and Commuting Solutions is implementing a social marketing campaign to offer riders free transit on the Flatiron Flyer and the AB service to encourage people to take transit into Boulder during the festival. So we're excited about that call collaboration. The board has authorized funding to retain a consultant who is being, who is creating the comprehensive operational analysis. That's a big word for saying they are creating the 30 year transit vision for our region as well as a five year implementation plan. That work is underway right now and you all will have an opportunity to participate in that. I really encourage you to pay attention. A Connect report will be coming out this fall and it'll be your first opportunity to engage as a public. Through that they will be defining what is the focus of transit service in our area. Is it ridership? So investing high frequency service in quarters like US 36 or the diagonal? Is it a coverage approach where we're providing more local service to connect communities to each other and providing everyday services for getting around? Or is it a combination of both? And so I really encourage the public to get involved with this effort because it's going to set the stage for what's coming next. And this is the plan that will ultimately be brought to the to the public for a potential ballot issue in the future. Something to keep in mind regarding post Covid is that currently downtown Denver has a 40% commercial vacancy rate. Downtown Boulder has a 30% commercial commercial vacancy rate. Teleworking is still very prominent. So the point here is that there are not as many people going to downtown Denver or downtown Boulder. There are more trips that are happening in, in between communities and during the day and they are shorter trips. And so the way that our transit system needs to evolve to accommodate a new lifestyle that we all are living in a post Covid environment is something that needs to be factored into the Boulder county transit plan and RTD's plan. I am against of course, cutting service by 20%. You know, this is a deliberation that the board is making tomorrow night. Of course I would rather see 0%, which is what the finance committee recommended last week. You know, Jack addressed this really well. We don't want to cut service. We want to look at other ways to break down down the funding gap. [00:34:23] Speaker C: At the current rate of ridership recovery, it's going to take 731 years to get ridership back to pre pandemic levels. It is pretty clear that the status quo is not working and we can't expect it to magically attract more riders. It is time for change. Our TD system design dates back to the year 1979 and is no longer. No wonder that it's not working all that well in the post pandemic world. So much has changed since the pandemic, let alone since the 80s or 90s when that system design actually made sense. Getting people to ride transit is fairly simple. Transit needs to get you where you need to go and needs to get you there in a reasonable amount of time. Otherwise you're not going to ride it. There's some other factors in that, but that's the basics of it. Using modern technologies, we have access to quite extensive data sets about how People actually commute. And what we see is that commute patterns have changed significantly since the COVID 19 pandemic. There's less demand for people who commute into downtown Denver every day, and more people are traveling locally in their own communities. And we see more suburb to suburb connections that aren't efficient with the hub and spoke model, where you need to go to Union Station to transfer. Many other American transit agencies have done a complete redesign of their system since the pandemic, and it's about time that RTD follows. RTD is currently conducting what's called the Comprehensive Operations Analysis, and it is the new board in 2027 that will approve of this plan. And what I want to see of this plan is a bold redesign of the network that takes it out of the 70s, not just a minor iteration on what has not been working. And believe it or not, if we run service that actually makes sense, service that will get you where you need to go and get you there in a reasonable amount of time, people will actually ride. That service should look quite a bit different than RTE was the year I was born. [00:36:25] Speaker D: Okay, let's start with Jack. You both support moving to electric buses. How will you help make that happen and in what time frame? [00:36:35] Speaker C: So moving to battery electric buses is going to be quite difficult, and it will pay off for us in the long run. Battery electric buses cost quite a bit more upfront, but they do pay off in fuel and maintenance costs. And that payoff happens at about seven years of regular operation. The main difficulty comes from the charging infrastructure to support those buses. Each garage needs to be equipped with charging stations to charge hundreds of buses all at once, overnight and fast. Charging stations need installed at many terminals at routes so that the buses can top up during a layover. This is an amount of electricity that you cannot just pick up the phone and call Excel Energy and say, hey, can you hook that up tomorrow? And so it takes a lot of planning and construction to make it a reality. And so while this is a lot of work, RTE actually had the chance. Leadership at RTE had the chance to apply for grants to make this happen. Under the Biden administration, nearly every other transit agency in the country did apply. Federal grants typically cover 80% of the purchase costs for new buses and 90% of facility upgrade costs. And this is where RTD missed the mark. Other cities like Boston and D.C. were fully electrifying their fleet, and RTD was stuck in the past. They didn't even try and apply. Instead, RTU is already hundreds of millions underwater. They proposed last year to spend over half a billion dollars to buy new so called clean diesel buses. Clean diesel is like an oxymoron. Diesel is not clean and never will be. This is completely ridiculous. It's absurd. To buy buses completely out of pocket, especially when we could have had the money to not only get new buses, but new electric buses. And to buy new diesel buses completely out of pocket is uncalled for. RTD needs a fleet electrification plan in place before 2028. It needs to be really solid plan. We need to show it to the voters that we can fully deliver upon the electric fleet. Thank. [00:38:46] Speaker D: You. [00:38:46] Speaker B: So just to build upon Jack's comments, so a few, a few mile markers that the board has achieved is that in 2023, the RTD board adopted the goal of net zero emissions by the year 2050, which is important. They have a mile marker. In December of 2024, the staff created the facilities and fleet transition Plan. So this is a plan to identify not only the bus flight and rail fleet, the, the maintenance facilities that would need to be transitioned, as well as the workforce development and training that would be required in order to make this dramatic change in the organization. This year, the budget, the staff or the board authorized $3 million to create the 2026 bus facility site study. So this is going to give the boards the information that they need, need and the cost to understand what does this all entail. As Jack said, this is very complicated and takes a long time and a lot of money to make it happen. It is estimated that the cost is $1.4 billion. And obviously RTD doesn't have that money, you know, sitting around. So as a board member, I will advocate that RTD include this cost into the comprehensive operational analysis and in a future ballot issue so that it becomes actionable. And in the meantime, I did want to just call attention to, you know, some of the baby steps of progress that are happening. So the free mall ride is all Electric. There's 26 vehicles there that are all electric. I did want to acknowledge via mobility services, RTD and C for the HOP service now being all electric. You know, CU Boulder just awarded, was awarded several millions of dollars to transition some of their fleet to electric vehicles. So these are incremental steps of progress. Something that we've done in our region is to showcase pilot demonstration projects. We want to align something like this with a more strategic goal. But we've brought in rail vehicles, bus rapid transit vehicles to show the public what the, what the vision could look like and to build some momentum and so I've already had conversations with with RTD staff around, you know, the possibilities of getting that going. There's no better place to do that than in District O. I did want to point out that at the Longmont Transit center where they're building a whole new transit center due to the 16 million of fast tracks, funding for their new downtown station is at that plant. That that site is being developed with EVs in mind. So recognize incremental progress is happening. [00:41:34] Speaker A: There was a short break between the provided questions and the audience submitted questions and I missed capturing footage of sue asking the first question that kicked off the second part. The first question was what is the best book you've read on transportation issues and maybe the intersection of land use and how does that inform your approach? One of the subsequent questions addressed theft and safety. After the form, Audrey followed up with me to let me know that the Commuting Solutions Operated bike and ride shelters are 99.8% theft free for the past 13 months, according to Ryder Swipe data. [00:42:10] Speaker B: Well, Jarrett Walker's book is the one that I've read most recently around to better understand the ridership coverage model. Right now I don't have a lot of time for reading. I'm very focused on my work and this campaign, so that's what I can say about reading Jarrett Walker's board. [00:42:29] Speaker D: Thank you, Jeff. [00:42:31] Speaker C: Well, I this one's tough because I read a lot of books and it's tough to make one choice. I also like Human Transit, which I believe is what Audrey was referring to. Let's see. The High Cost of Free Parking is a dense book if you get to read it. I think it's got a lot of perspective in it. And you mentioned Ezra Klein. I like Ezra Klein's Abundance. It's a really neat way to frame the perspective of problems that we deal with in this world and how we're going to solve a supply supply problem instead of a demand problem. [00:43:09] Speaker D: Thank you. Start Audrey Again, you both have advocated for promised improvements. Given a finite budget, what are you willing to cut to achieve your improvements? [00:43:24] Speaker B: That's a hard question to answer right now when there's so much volatility and unknowns with the true status of RTD's budget. For me, I would delay capital construction because it has the least direct impact to the rider. Those are typically projects that can be extended over time. Another item that I'm curious about is the purchase of 500 vehicles bus replacement vehicles in the year 2028. It just seems like a huge number and so is There an opportunity to delay that purchase and stretch those out over time. So those would be my two, my two top priorities to look at. Extending to have the least impact on the riders as well as RTD staff. [00:44:18] Speaker C: The purchase of new Diesel buses in 2028 spending over half billion dollars. This is the elephant in the room you can look at. We can save $500,000 here, et cetera. This is half a billion dollars RTD wants to spend on new diesel buses in 2028. And under FTA guidelines, typical lifespan of a transit bus is 12 years or 500,000 miles. And it's true that many of our buses are already over that, both in mileage and years. That being said, said because RTD cut service a bunch during the COVID 19 pandemic and we don't have the same service levels that we had before, RTD does have over 20% operable spares right now and some really good mechanics. And you know, if that holds us out for another few years until we have a sustainable financial future in front of us, can hold us out till 2029 or 2030 and we can look at alternatives to diesel such as getting hybrid electric or hybrid buses before we can get fully battery electric buses. I think that would be true to what I would like RTD to do. [00:45:33] Speaker D: Thank you. Looking at questions about things we haven't necessarily asked, let's start with chair paratransit riders are experienced experiencing missed trips, late pickoffs, drop ups, excessive ride times on the federally mandated accessoride, while access on demand services have become unaffordable. In your view, what is the single biggest problem with RTE's paratransit and what would you do as a board member to improve it? [00:45:59] Speaker C: My friend Alicia lives in a wheelchair and I learned a lot through her. And there's a number of things. Oftentimes your accessoride pickup doesn't come, doesn't come on time. Part of the difficulty of making it work in your lifestyle is that it's not a demand based service. It's something that you typically have to schedule one to seven days in advance. And I'd like everybody in this room to think about what it would feel like to have to schedule everywhere you go one to seven days in advance. It's just inflexible. And especially when that pickup doesn't come, it's clearly, you know, what if it doesn't take you home, how do you get home? And this matters if accessoride is your only option. And so, you know, I think we've got a Number of things. Access on this demand is really working and I was believe the only RTD candidate who signed a DAP's letter last year opposing the fare increase for access on demand. And I stand by that. This is such an important service for the people that need it and it's actually working. And I want to see what's working about that service and take it over to accessoride and see if we can't implement that there and make that work a little bit better. The other thing that I've heard is there's been a transition of apps recently from it used to go through the Uber app to get a wheelchair accessible vehicle and is now through a new vendor the new app and that stuff like live discounts which would make the fare for access on demand free, aren't being respected anymore. It's something that I think is a hiccup we're going over right now. But I think we need to solve right away because this is affecting people's lives and it's real. [00:48:05] Speaker B: I'm really excited about the paratransit plan that's coming out of The Senate Bill 150 Report or Bill because this is going to hopefully bring the region together around a unified approach. Jack addressed the main issues. The accessoried program is federally required, yet it has all of these major bottlenecks and issues around people being able to actually be able to use it. Some part of me is wondering if that's intentional because they want to reduce the cost. I don't truly believe that, but it's archaic in how they put it together. Whereas Access on Demand is. This new pilot project that RTD has implemented has been wildly successful, yet it's not sustainable from a funding perspective. And so we really need to have a shared vision around what is the right answer for our region and how much can RTD afford. This community is the most vulnerable in our community community and it's absolutely important that RTD take care of them. They are the people that need it the most. The question is how much will it cost and how do we go about creating a unified approach. It's been rather piecemeal the last couple of years because of the cost of accessoride. So I'm looking forward to this planning process. And also there is a new stakeholder group or a task force that Chair over Keefe is initiating to bring together disability advocates as a focus area. So I'm excited to see what this group is coming up with as well. [00:49:44] Speaker D: Thanks. Okay, two more questions. Are you nearing the end? Read aside and then leave. We'll start with Audrey again. And then the bus and bike shelters are notoriously not secure. Lots of theft. What would you do to increase the security? [00:50:01] Speaker B: Well, I can't speak for Boulder county shelters. So in the, in the regional system of bike and ride shelters, there are shelters that are administered by Boulder county and those in Broomfield and Westminster that are administered by Commuting Solutions. And overall, we have about 450 cardholders that have access to these shelters for free in order to provide a first and final mile opportunity to complete their transit trip. And for the most part, I would say 95% of the times that people are using the shelters, they operate wonderfully. The times that they do have issues with theft and whatnot, we are already addressing them, or I should say city and county of Bloomfield and the city of Westminster and RTD are addressing them. So some of them are related to the way the shelters were built, where there's a gap of about a foot where actually people are climbing underneath. You wouldn't believe it. We actually have RTDS video footage of people climbing underneath these shelters in order to get inside. And so city and county of Broomfield is filling in that gap. So there's no more vacant space. So people will not be able to get in. And that will be the main deterrent to prevent south. So I think overall these shelters are extremely secure, way more secure than what was out there before. You know, people are. There's thieves everywhere. And so it's not realistic to think that there won't ever be people trying to break into the shelters. However, we're doing everything that we can to involve local police departments, RTD's, police and us administering in partnership with the local governments to mitigate that as best as we can. [00:51:54] Speaker C: Two, two kind of components of this equation. I mentioned bike racks earlier. I want to invest in better bike storage on the buses. For those of you have taken your bike on the flat IR Flyer, you can put two on the front and then you can put your bike underneath if that space is full. And I would like to say that's, you know, how many parts are you going to come out of when you pull it back out of there? It's a pretty typical experience for it to be a little bit banged up down there. And so I think looking at alternatives like bike racks that can go on the back of a bus can typically hold six to eight bikes. Now, if those buses were electric, the bikes wouldn't get covered. That would be great. But it's still a huge improvement over Having to trust your bike being stored anywhere, no matter how secure that is. Second part of this question is we do need to make those bike lockers more secure, regardless of our on bus storage solutions. I went into some investigating as to do we even keep logs of who is accessing with their card the downtown Boulder station light cage. And the answer is no. The computers are just not even logging everybody who taps there. And combine this with a difficult system to navigate. Who administers a shelter? Is it the city of Boulder? Is it a county of Boulder? Is it commuting solutions? Is it any of these other entities that administer bike lockers across rtd? It is difficult to get access to a bike locker and then it is difficult to find out who to get in touch with if something's gone wrong. And so I think kind of all these things combined, I would like to see RTD take a more direct approach to the bike walkers where they control the access. It's tied to your MyRide app in your account. You can use your mystery Myriad card to tap into the shelter and we can log that boarding to the shelter as you and you don't have to go chase down whose computer that got that got logged on. So I think there's a lot of things to improve. Yeah. [00:54:09] Speaker D: Okay, last question. I'll give you each three minutes to kind of wrap up and hit anything we didn't ask. Start with Audrey. What specifically would you advocate for as a board member that focuses on the needs of this district, District O versus what all the other communities in the entire RTD system want? [00:54:30] Speaker B: Well, I'm really excited that Boulder county is creating its first transit plan for the whole county. The county hasn't had this before, and so we're actually going to have a blueprint for the transit priorities in our region. And so my job as an RTD board member would be to implement that plan and to figure out the funding and the partnerships, the resources that are needed in order to make that happen as part of the comprehensive analysis, the five year fiscal plan. And you know, that plan is where you all can participate to make sure that your voice is heard. You know, the county has had a number of public opportunities, opportunities to engage in that. And the plan will be completed this later this year. So I really encourage you to participate in that plan. We're excited to continue to implement the Northwest Area Mobility Study and bringing resources to Colorado 7, which is the next regional priority that Boulder to Brighton jurisdictions are working on. We're excited to continue to bring. Yeah, just work on the broader vision of mobility in our area. So check out Lincoln, Boulder County. Thank you. [00:55:45] Speaker C: Well, a few things here. We've got a university here in Boulder, the University of Colorado Boulder. And as a result of it, and through a bunch of great work with them, we get a ton of ridership from people who go to the university. I think that's awesome. It's basically win win students have a way to get around and we get a bunch of ridership in our community that helps justify the service that we run here all year round. And I really, you know, look forward to how we engage in the comprehensive operations analysis and looking. How does the university fit into the picture of how our system works? The second thing that I would say is just really, really bolder. We've got the so called community transit network here and that's a very fancy way to say that our buses have the fun names. So we've got the hop, the skip, the jump, the dash and the bolt, the bound and all this is such a uniquely bolder thing. You probably remember just a few years ago that the all the buses actually had skins on them that you could identify them from the outside of this red bus that wants the jump and that they're a little more frequent and easier to use. And the ideas behind a community transit network are very simple. It's easy to understand service that you can recognize and feel proud to ride. And I think these are really simple principles that I want to reignite that here in Boulder county and get a little bit of juice flowing back into the that as well as kind of open the idea to see does the rest of ROTD want this? Could we make the 83L to Cherry Creek instead? Call it the Cherry Creek Express. That'd be cool. I don't know, you know, I think it's some interesting ideas and we've moved beyond. Everybody knows their bus by their number and let's try and see what more we can do. [00:57:46] Speaker D: Okay, thank you guys. All right, closing remarks and thank you so much for coming out. And I'll say a little bit at the end about getting your materials. Can start with Audrey again, I guess. Are you ready? Okay. [00:57:59] Speaker B: Well, thank you all for the opportunity to meet you here tonight. I greatly appreciate the opportunity. Thank you to Community Cycles and Better Boulder. The next years, as I mentioned, are our transition time for the board of directors. This is a time where we're going to have a new governor, a new state legislature, potentially a new CDOT director. We are going to hire a new general manager. We are going to deal with RTD's short term fiscal issues. And hopefully we're going to refer a ballot issue to fund RTD for the future and create a 30 year vision and a 5 year implementation plan. This is a very catalytic time and this is a transition board. We need someone who can be a strong leader, who can hit the ground running and who will create the unity and partnerships that we need in this area and to bring the board together at a time when it needs it the most. If I am not elected next for the January term, there will only be four women out of 15 on the RTD board of directors. We need women on this board. We have a different perspective when it comes to transit and public policy that support women and children. So I asked for your vote this November to allow me to continue to serve Boulder county in this new way. Thank you. [00:59:21] Speaker C: So thank you to Community Cycles. Thank you to Better Boulder again. And I want to thank each and every one of you here who came tonight because you care about the future of public transit in our region. And I want to leave you with one final thought. I didn't come to this race through the typical political pipeline. I was not looking for the next office to run for, and I was not chosen by a group of insiders who decided it was my turn to run. I came to this because I was riding the bus. I saw a system that made my life easier, begin to fall short and lose touch with the people who actually write it. I saw writers being asked to accept less service, less reliability and lower expectations. And instead of deciding that nothing could be done, I started showing up. I showed up at board meetings. I asked the difficult questions. I worked with people across the region. I learned how RTD operates, where it succeeds and where it needs to change. I'm running as an outsider, and I'm not running to stand on the outside and throw rocks. I'm running to bring the perspective inside, the perspective of someone who rides the system, studies it and fights for it, and believes that the future of public transit where RTD empowers as many people as possible the option to live without a car. And I believe that we can give people a transit system they trust. I believe that we can restore confidence in public service. And I believe that we can prove the agency's governance is working when the directors are willing to listen, learn and act. I'd be honored to bring that kind of leadership to the RTD board. And I'd be honored to earn your support. [01:01:07] Speaker D: Thank you. Thank you both so much for running around.