If you live in New York City and use a manual wheelchair, you may soon be able to use the Lime app to order a free rental of an attachment that turns it into a power vehicle. The design is one of seven adaptive vehicles the micromobility company recently developed to make its services more accessible.
DRCOG had requested their counties form forums with the cities therein to prepare their Transportation Improvement Plans from which DRCOG must choose to fund. For the past two years that’s what the cities did. Instead of each city handing in choices, they worked together to get the most projects funded.
Now, DRCOG has to disburse COVID-19 CARES funds and some left over federal transportation funding from the TIP process. They’ve allocated amounts to the forums and the Arapahoe County Forum is now planning what projects to bring forward for their share of the money.
No final decisions were made. The Forum is also hoping to plan a way to raise money county-wide for millions of dollars worth of infrastructure, maintenance, and transit projects.
Denver South is the Transportation Management Organization for the I-25 corridor from about Belleview (Denver/Greenwood Village) to the south side of Lone Tree. The Transportation Champions is made up of representatives of the businesses making up Denver South. Their purpose is to figure out how get people out of their cars and into transit.
At this meeting the group was introduced to Debra Johnson, the new CEO of RTD. She could only spend abut ½ hour with them but she talked about where she hoped to take RTD in the future. With a lot of employees still working from home, the businesses are looking for ways to get people passes that were less expensive and less time limited. Eco Passes just aren’t working for employees coming into work only 2 or 3 times a week.
Following Debra Johnson’s remarks, discussion then revolved around the needs of commuters that might be taking transit: bike lanes, another free shuttle, enhanced walking experiences, e-bikes/e-scooter. This included discussion of how to pay for those upgrades needed.
LiVE, RTD’s income-based discount program gives eligible riders a 40% discount on regular fares. Eligible riders must be between the ages of 20 and 64 and have a gross household income at or below 185% of the federal poverty level. They must also live within the RTD service area. To apply, Interested riders can visit PEAK, the State of Colorado website, which is also used to apply for medical, food, cash, and early childhood assistance programs located at www.colorado.gov/PEAK.
To learn more about RTD’s LiVE program, visit the RTD website to watch the LiVE video series at www.rtd- denver.com/LiVE
Since the start of the pandemic, the number of Coloradans we serve has grown by more than 175,000 people. This growth is now projected to continue rather consistently all year, with the “likely extension of the Public Health Emergency” (PHE) through the end of 2021, as recently communicated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this same spirit, and in alignment with the federal government opening the federal exchanges, Connect for Health Colorado, our state exchange, is also holding a special enrollment period from Feb. 8 – May 15. Together, our efforts are connecting Coloradans to affordable coverage, especially those who have lost their jobs during this economic downturn. Thank you for your partnership on this important work. We are here for Colorado.
Mobile App Helps Fight COVID-19:
You can now download an app to help fight COVID-19, slow its spread, and protect yourself and your loved ones. CO Exposure Notifications will quickly notify you if you’ve likely been exposed to the virus, allowing you to seek timely medical attention and take action to protect others.
The app is free and does not share your personal information. It can alert you if you have been exposed to COVID-19 in the last 14 days. Visit AddYourPhone.com to watch a short video about how it works and how to turn it on with Apple or Android devices.
The year 2020 delivered a “gut-punch” to the public transportation industry. After riding high in 2019, seeing ridership gains for the first time in nearly a decade, transit agencies were caught flat-footed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the attendant government mandated shut-downs.
