It is hard to tell if RTD is using the new light rail line to get rid of bus service or reorganize it. Almost all of Lakewood's bus service is going to be replaced with Call-n-Rides.
Now, this is not going to work for multiple reasons.
First, Call-n-Rides are invisible on the RTD website. You can't find out where they go or how to use them. If they are going to be how everyone in western Lakewood and Golden is supposed to get to the light rail, this has to change.
Second, there is not going to be enough space. The Applewood Call-n-Ride is going to replace three bus routes that together have at least 114 seats an hour. More when those buses run more than once an hour. They also have room to stand. There are going to be two Call-n-Ride buses with a total of 30 seats. I have heard of Call-n-Ride buses filling up with only eight people. Last week after rush hour ten people from my neighborhood got on a single bus. At least two or three got on the 28. That means that my neighborhood would have taken an entire Call-n-Ride bus. What about all the other neighborhoods?
However, things may not be so bad. Bus service west of Wadsworth needs to change, but RTD's planners need more information about where people want to go. The purpose of the Call-n-Rides may be to determine where bus service should go. They may evolve in a couple of different directions. New fixed routes could be created from the data collected by the Call-n-Rides. They may become flex routes which are routes that do have set stops, although fewer than fixed routes, and that have the ability to stop at other places within their service area. In Longmont, they are thinking of creating a circulator that picks up and drops off people within two blocks of its route. It is possible for a flex route to change during the day. It could have stops in front of schools only when students need those routes. Those buses could stop at work places during rush hour, stop at grocery stores and shops in the evening, etc. If this works, people could be picked up at work, taken to where they shop, and then go home by bus or taxi.
There are a couple of things that we need to do to make this work. The capacity issue is a major one. Fortunately, this is fixable. We can get more Call-n-Ride vehicles or we can use the kind of small buses that most people think of when they think of circulators. Examples are the HOP and BOUND in Boulder. These buses don't have a lot more seats than the Call-n-Rides, 20 or so, but people can stand if the bus is briefly overbooked, and they don't feel as crowded when full.
We also need to make sure that people know how to use the new system. Information about Call-n-Rides needs to be easily available on the RTD website, on the Google trip planner, and anywhere else that people get information about how to get around. We need to help people who use the present system sign up for the new one. And we need to do this as early as possible so that we can make sure that there is a spot for everyone, and that we know where people want to go as quickly as possible. We especially need to make sure that people who have difficulty calling for service get assistance.
We also need to be prepared to take action if RTD does not take action to make sure that everyone who wants to use transit is able to do so. The fact that only half of the public meetings were accessible by transit is a bad sign. This is an opportunity, we need to make sure that we take this opportunity to change things for the better.
