COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — Thousands more people rode the bus around Southern Colorado in August thanks to a statewide pilot program that waived bus fares. The Zero Fare for Better Air campaign cost $14 million to pay for a month of free bus fare.
Pueblo Transit saw its ridership increase by 58 percent compared to August 2021. In Colorado Springs, Mountain Metro Transit's numbers were 62 percent higher.
Pueblo Transit Director Ben Valdez said he initially couldn't believe the returns he was seeing.
"I’m pulling at the data every day and I’m looking at it, and we’re pulling fare boxes and I’m like, wow, that’s a significantly large number. And it is!"
The ridership increases happened in both the fixed route bus system as well as paratransit services like Pueblo's City-Lift and Metro Mobility in Colorado Springs.
“We don’t really know if there are new riders that joined our service or just people who are interested in trying transit or people who are coming back to transit, but regardless the results were really impressive," said Brian Vitulli, Transit Planning Supervisor with Mountain Metro Transit.
"With the conversations I’ve had with the operators on the different routes around the city, it seems like it’s different faces and newer faces in a lot of places,” added Valdez.
The COVID pandemic triggered a sharp decrease in ridership in cities across the country. Both Pueblo Transit and Mountain Metro Transit had seen modest increases leading up to August. Valdez said the surge of new riders last month brought his numbers closer to pre-pandemic levels.
“We have still not reached our top peak numbers like we had pre-COVID in 2019 but we’re within that 10 to 15 percent margin right now," he said.
State lawmakers funded the Zero Fare campaign through a larger $68 million ozone reduction bill, Senate Bill 180. The transit grants amounted to $28 million across two fiscal years with $11 million going to RTD and the other $3 million to local agencies annually.
Another $28 million in SB-180 funded pilot projects with C-DOT's Bustang commuter bus service and $10 million went to the Revitalizing Main Street pandemic relief program.
Ann Rajewski, executive director of the Colorado Association of Transit Agencies (CASTA), said the grants will be offered again next summer.
"Transit plays such an important role in our state from connecting people to employment, education, and services to helping reduce air pollution by providing people with cleaner travel options," she said.
Vitulli and Valdez both said that they would be more than happy to participate.
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