The Adventures of Jessica Sideways

With steady decreases in service, routes which only run on the weekdays and piss poor transit options outside of Denver and Boulder, RTD has the gall to even consider raising it’s fares. I mean, I know prices are going up and the cost of fuel is not exactly the cheapest (thanks to those damn Republicans) but seriously, I have to say that the fare increase is not justified at all. I mean, seriously, if you want to get around downtown Denver or Boulder, you wouldn’t have a problem, but just try to get around Westminster, or Broomfield or one of the other little towns further away from the Denver Downtown core, but still considered the “Denver Metro Area”.

Service on the weekends sucks! - The availability and quality of a lot of bus services suck on the weekends. The 120 does not even run on Saturday and Sunday, the 51 won’t take you down to the same place that it would on the weekdays, and the fact of the matter is, this creates a long walking distance to get to where one needs to go. On the weekends, to get to my Bikram yoga class, I had to walk from the Wagon Road park-n-ride to the Bikram yoga studio. And to get back, I had to walk down a long, tedious, tiring, seemingly endless slope to get from 120th to Federal and get down to the bus stop for the 31 at 112th & Federal (I think!). I mean, I could get a minimal of walking if the 51 would run like it does on the weekdays, on the weekends. But since it’s not in downtown Denver, not many people notice - or are willing to talk about it. Weekend service needs to be improved dramatically before they even start to talk about raising the rates.

RTD FasTracks: Are they just starting now? - They have been talking about and levying taxes on this supposedly wonderful new FasTracks system, but they won’t even complete work on many of the lines until 2015, which is their SCHEDULED date of completion - not actual. We are paying an extra 1% sales tax on EVERYTHING we purchase just so RTD can pay for it’s brand-spanking new light and commuter rail system, and it turns out they haven’t done a damn thing yet! Why the hell is it that we have to pay higher fares but RTD has not even shown the slightest intent to get their asses in gear and start building that rail line! Even just the rail line to DIA and the one to Boulder would be nice? But do you think that’ll happen anytime in the near future? Fuck no! RTD is sitting on it’s butt, planning everything and won’t spring into action until 2010 or something like that.

Don’t get me wrong now, I like the public transit system here in Denver. It is better than the public transit system in many other places. But I would like to add that just because it’s better does not mean that it gives these people the right to start levying higher fares just for the hell of it. We had a fare increase last year, and I am pretty sure the year after next, we will be seeing another fare increase. I mean, what the hell is RTD up to that could possibly warrant these regular fare increases, to the point where you have to start paying $3.00 to get on the bus for a local route. Where does one draw the line?!?