[Colorado-Talk] RTD Paratransit Survey Breakdown

[tkeenan79 at gmail.com]

Hooray, they fixed the survey! You should have received an email with a new
link.

 

For those of you who use RTD paratransit and haven’t received it (I don’t
believe it will be sent to every customer,) here’s a breakdown of what they
ask. This might help you when you’re leaving your feedback.

 

First, they ask how often you use AAR and AOD.

Then, they ask you to rank five aspects of the service in order of
importance, including trips per month, trip cost, service area, and a couple
I can’t recall right now.

Next, they present three possible scenarios for AOD and ask you to rank your
preference.

 

Before listing these scenarios, they reiterate that:

In the following scenarios, Access-a-Ride ADA service is provided in the ¾
mile boundary around all non-commuter fixed-route bus routes and rail
stations, during the time of day and days of week those fixed services are
offered.  Access-a-Ride trips have a fare of $4.50/trip.

 

Currently, the Access-on-Demand program provides a $25/trip subsidy for up
to 60 trips per month.  Service is provided within the entire RTD service
area. Customers pay no fare.

 

So, you can see they’re really trying to hammer this equity thing.

 

Scenarios:

 

Scenario A: Provides a $30 per trip subsidy for up to 30 trips per month.
The customer will pay a fare of $4.50, equal to the AaR fare.

 Scenario B: Provides a $25 per trip subsidy for up to 40 trips. The
customer will pay a fare of $5.50.

Scenario C: Provides a $25 per trip subsidy for up to 50 trips per month.
The customer will pay a fare of $6.50.

In all scenarios, service will be provided within the ADA service area (3/4
mile from fixed route service).

 

Then, they ask:

Regardless of your preferred scenario above, if RTD were to provide
Access-on-Demand service outside the ADA service area, but within the RTD
boundary, and charge a premium fare of $10-12 per trip, how likely are you
to use that service?

 

To me, this is confusing because it doesn’t say whether you’d have to pay
anything on top of this fare. 

 

Then, they ask you how implementation of any of the listed scenarios would
affect your use of AOD and AAR.

 

After that, they ask you what other modes of transportation you use. This
includes riding in family/friends’ vehicles.

Finally, they ask you whether you use a wheelchair, followed by the usual
demographic questions, including your annual income and how many other
people live in your home.

 

And that’s that.

 

Oh, and when they sent the original botched one yesterday, the survey had a
due date of next Monday. I didn’t think to look whether they extended that.
Either way, not a very long time to fill it out for those of us who received
the survey, though it’s quite short and to the point.

 

 

This certainly raises some questions. The only one I’ll pose here is:

In one of the listening sessions, someone said that they thought it would be
illegal for them to raise the AOD fare beyond the AAR fare. I guess we need
to know whether that’s really the case.

 

Thanks, everyone!
Happy feedbacking!

 

 

-Tim

 

 

 

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