The Regional Transportation District’s “fare free” August didn’t cause major hiccups in operations, a rise in ridership continued into September, but RTD officials admitted they’re not sure how to measure the program’s impact on air quality, according to a report analyzing the effort.

The Zero Fare for Better Air initiative came out of Senate Bill 22-180, which created the Ozone Season Free Transit Grant program run out of the Colorado Energy Office. The program is intended to reduce ozone levels and improve air quality by encouraging Coloradans to use public transit.

The grant program aimed to cover up to 80% of lost fare revenue, and other costs, if RTD provided free service for at least 30 days during the ozone season — which runs from June to August.

The total cost to RTD was $10.3 million, according to the report, adding that the costs would be a significant burden without the grant assistance. And overall, RTD had a positive experience offering zero-fare services, while customers appreciated it.

The report makes recommendations for the Colorado Energy Office’s to consider if the program continues in 2023.

RTD General Manager and CEO Debra A. Johnson cautioned against drawing firm conclusions from a one-month pilot.

“The data that were gathered provide a snapshot into various potential and experienced impacts across the agency’s services, all of which will help RTD garner a better understanding of customer behavior and how to approach future zero fare periods that extend beyond a day or two,” Johnson said in a news release. “The purpose of public transit lies in the value it provides, and RTD’s participation in this initiative enabled customers to experience the value of our services, whether their travel habits changed for a day, a month or the whole of the pandemic.”

Ridership impact

The report found that regular transit ridership increased, but also noted that spike could have been influenced by multiple factors. The state is still rebounding from the pandemic, a new academic year began, service hours adjusted as they do each August, and there are other seasonal trends the industry sees that month.

Ridership increased by 22% from July to August, and 36% from August 2021.

“Much of RTD’s ridership growth observed in August 2022 was sustained into September 2022, even with resumption of fare collection,” according to the report. September ridership fell 3% from August but remained much higher than July.

Weekday systemwide daily ridership averaged 207,472 in September 2022, down 3.1% from 214,215 in August 2022 but higher than the July 2022 daily average of 178,468.

Bus services showed the biggest hike in weekday ridership, increasing by nearly 20% from July and 33% from August 2021. Light rail and commuter rail ridership increases modestly, the report said, at 15% and 12% respectively.

Despite the boost, ridership is still down from pre-COVID levels. Weekday ridership is not projected to reach 75% of pre-COVID level until at least 2025, the report says, citing S&P Global Ratings.

Costs

The zero-fare initiative created both $10.13 million in reimbursable expenses and $199,938 in non-reimbursable expenses, according to the report. Non-reimbursable expenses included marketing costs from before the grant was approved and customer surveys. The largest financial impact was the lost fare revenue, estimated at $9.27 million.

Operational impacts

RTD had planned for overcrowding issues to unfold during the free fare month, adding cars to the E Line and R Line for portions of August. RTD removed the cars though, when “the anticipated level of ridership did not materialize.”

Staff had also expected a need for more security and cleaning services amid higher demand, but “no such costs were incurred, largely due to workforce constraints.” Ultimately, the report said although ridership did increase for some services, the program did not cause widespread overcrowding.

The zero-fare program did not lead to more security incidents either, according to the report, such as interactions involving ill, impaired or disorderly customers.

“In fact, security incidents declined 17% year-over-year from 47 in August 2021 to 39 in August 2022. Only two more incidents occurred in August 2022 than in July 2022,” according to the report.

Crime report data did not indicate a “major increase in drug-related or other quality-of-life complaints” while the program ran. Calls related to disturbances, narcotics and trespassing in August were lower than the monthly average for the first seven months of the year, and have been falling each month since August. Reports of assault were comparable to last year. Criminal mischief calls “rose modestly” in August, according to the report.

Vandalism and biohazard incidents did rise from July to August, and “were much higher in both months as compared to August 2021.”

RTD spent more time cleaning vehicles during the zero-fare program, but did not need to spend more in that area and did not see a significant rise in customer complaints, the report said.

Employee feedback

Focus groups of 67 RTD frontline employees reported “experiencing little to no difference” between the zero-fare month and a regular month. Some focus group members reported an increase in people using RTD services without a destination, but not to a point it impacted operations, the report said. The focus groups did say that customers seemed confused and unaware that August was a zero-fare month, with some trying to pay fares anyway.

Customer Surveys

In September, RTD commissioned customer surveys of people who used RTD at least once during August.

Almost all, 91%, said they had previously used RTD services. About one in four people used RTD services a few times a year, while 16% said they used RTD daily or several times a week. More than half of survey respondents said they increased their use of RTD during August, while 43% said their usage did not change and only 2% used RTD less that month.

People were most influenced to use RTD in August by the potential cost savings, the surveys said. About three-quarters of people reported having a satisfactory experience using RTD. Almost as many people said they would likely continue using RTD in the future after fares resumed.

Recommendations

If the initiative continues next year, the RTD report made several recommendations. The first was to conduct more and earlier communication about the program, to prevent confused customers from trying to pay fares during a free month.

RTD said it would aim to better plan for the amount of ridership, to avoid the scenario this year in which they added rail cars that they did not end up needing in order to serve all customers.

RTD suggested reconsidering whether August is the best month to run the program. It is difficult to measure if the program is spurring more ridership because August is typically busier anyway, as school starts up and students take advantage of transit services, the report said.

Still, August “may present a unique opportunity for students to try transit at no-cost and potentially change their commuting habits for the new school year.”

RTD also recommended finding better methods to evaluate if the program is helping improve air quality, as it had no way of knowing how many riders left cars behind or the potential reduction in emissions from those parked vehicles.

“The impacts of the initiative on air quality are difficult to quantify, as there was no baseline provided.”