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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#467886" vlink="#96607D" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Hello all:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Shown below please find the text of email I sent out today to all 15 members of RTD's Board of Directors.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><Begin Excerpt><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>My name is Curtis Chong. I am a totally blind person who now has the fortune of being able to retire in the state of Colorado--specifically, in the city of Aurora. Because I am blind, I am not permitted by law to drive. Consequently, I must rely on the transportation services available from the Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD) to get where I need to go. While I am not a person who has signed up with RTD to receive what is generally referred to as paratransit services, as an activist and a leader in the blind community, I have worked on a variety of RTD transit-related issues.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>When RTD began providing Access-on-Demand service to paratransit customers to the tune of $25 per ride, sixty rides per month, and with no restrictions as to when and where a customer would be picked up or dropped off within its large service area, its intentions may have been altruistic, but the end result seems to be a system that is now costing RTD more than $1.2 million every month. RTD is telling the public that this cost is "not sustainable."<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I have to wonder how it is that RTD created this spectacular disaster in the first place. Did its management and staff not know that the traditional Access-a-Ride service was plagued with so many problems that most people would choose not to sign up for the service unless they were desperate to receive this alternative form of transportation? Did RTD management and staff not understand that, with respect to Access-on-Demand, they would have created much less resentment and public acrimony if they had started by offering a little bit of service and gradually expanded service as they could afford to provide them rather than throwing open the floodgates, offering everybody everything for nothing, then finding themselves in a position where they had to take services away from people who have now become dependent on it? Why is RTD management and staff surprised that Access-on-Demand has been flooded with a lot of new customers who would never have applied to receive paratransit services to begin with?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The Access-on-Demand service as we now know it has been operating for a little more than two years. Before Access-on-Demand, what did the people who now rely on this service do to go to and from work, participate in social events, or travel to medical appointments? I am sure that while some folks did stay at home, other people found alternative ways to get around--ways, I fully understand, that cost them a lot more than Access-on-Demand does today.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>RTD is now in an untenable position. No matter what it does to keep Access-on-Demand alive, it will incur anger from a community of paratransit customers who will feel that they have been forced to make a sacrifice in their personal independence simply to help a large government bureaucracy to reduce spending. The blind community and the community of folks with other disabilities will experience a reduction in one or more aspects of the Access-on-Demand program. As you, the RTD Board of Directors, decide on the specific reductions that are to be made to Access-on-Demand, please keep the following points in mind.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in'>1. According to what I have heard from RTD staff, restricting Access-on-Demand service so that trips must originate and end within three quarters of a mile from a fixed route or rail station will result in an estimated 6% reduction in the number of Access-on-Demand trips, saving approximately $49,000 each month. This suggested program modification will require changes to both the Uber and Lyft software that Access-on-Demand customers must use to arrange transportation. How much time and effort will these changes require to implement? How much more will it cost RTD to modify these systems when routes are added or changed? In other words, is $49,000 per month a truly accurate estimate of the savings that would result if the Access-on-Demand service area were to be restricted? If only 5% of Access-on-Demand trips start or end outside of the traditional RTD service area and if fewer than 4% of riders take trips this way, what is the harm in simply continuing to have Access-on-Demand provided without regard to distance from a fixed route or train station?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in'>2. The staff recommendation to reduce the number of Access-on-Demand rides per month from 60 to 30 will be problematic, especially for people who use this service to get to or from work. People whose ability to get to and from work is now dependent on Access-on-Demand would not have enough subsidized trips to keep their jobs without losing income given the average of 22 work days per month for someone who is employed full time.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in'>3. Finally, is it really helpful to increase the Access-on-Demand per ride subsidy from $25 to $30? If the average cost per trip is only $17.20, there seems to be no compelling reason to implement this increase.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>RTD should learn from its mistakes, obtain truly meaningful data from the community of paratransit riders, and implement cost-saving reductions in Access-on-Demand so as to hurt as few individuals as possible. Alas, no matter what happens with Access-on-Demand, RTD will still have a lot of angry Access-on-Demand constituents.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Very truly yours,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Curtis Chong<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><End Excerpt><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>