First Mile Free Pilot Program Offers Commuters a Leg Up

Sarah Hassan, a University Park Resident, loves taking the bus in the morning. Since moving to Denver in 2023 to attend graduate school at the University of Denver, she has elected to use RTD for day-to-day commuting while occasionally renting a car when she needs one.

“It’s kind of a sense of camaraderie,” Hassan said, reflecting on her morning commute on the 21 bus. “Even though we’re not talking to each other, it’s like, this person’s riding and they’re getting off at Comcast, or this person’s riding so they can get off at that hospital. It’s a nice experience.”

Though Hassan enjoys her morning ride to the customs office where she works in Aurora, the afternoon is a different story. Then, she says, the bus is crowded, and disruptions are far more common. And taking the bus beyond her established route—a straight shot along Evans, bookended by five-minute walks to and from the bus stops—can be a hassle. So much so that Hassan, who detests driving, is considering getting a car now that her work requires her to travel more around Denver. 

“Having to take multiple buses or even just taking (one) bus when you have to go and meet a client while you’re on the clock is just not practical,” Hassan said, citing long wait times and infrequent service. “If it’s something that has a set time, it makes it really inconvenient to be able to use public transit.”

Though the five-minute walk to her bus stop is shorter than it is for most Denverites, Hassan’s other complaints are not uncommon. While RTD operates 102 bus lines and 10 rail lines on the Front Range, Denver Moves Everyone’s 2024 annual report found that 80% of Denverites live beyond walking distance from a high-frequency transit network (defined as a ¼ mile walk to a bus stop or a ½ mile walk to a rail stop that receives service every 15 minutes), and most buses only come once every 30 minutes or hour.

First Mile Free: the pilot

Enter First Mile Free, a pilot RTD Community Partnership program seeking to address some of these issues. Headed by Joel Cox, an environmental policy graduate student at the University of Denver, the program pays for the first mile of any Lime or Bird e-scooter or e-bike trip ending at RTD’s University of Denver and Decatur-Federal light rail stations. The goal, Cox said, is to increase public transportation ridership by making it easier for people to get to RTD stations.  

“In Denver, I want to use public transit, but it does feel like a sacrifice,” said Cox, who lives a mile from the nearest light rail station. “This is one step that…I know would make a huge difference in terms of my ability to use public transit, and I would imagine that it would also have that effect on other people as well.”

RTD announced that the pilot program, which will begin this coming January and run for two years, was formally approved for $122,554 in RTD Partnership Program funding on Aug. 5. Together, Lime and Bird will contribute $24,510 to the program directly and will offer $40,850 through discounted rides, bringing the project’s total budget to just under $190,000. 

The discount (roughly $5 in savings) will be automatically applied to riders traveling to these two stops and will cover approximately 40,000 trips. Compared to heftier RTD infrastructure improvements, which often run into the millions of dollars, Cox says this project is a practical approach to bridging the gap between commuters and transit quickly.

“Right now, people just need to be able to get to the lines that do exist, and the cheapest and most effective way to close that gap, I would say, (is) First Mile Free,” Cox said. 

The program will be run by the nonprofit West Corridor TMA with the goal of quadrupling the number of scooter rides ending at the stations over the next two years. That said, Cox made it clear that he doesn’t see the project as a permanent fix for Denver’s public transit. 

“We have a very clear understanding (from transit data) that we need to focus heavily on increasing frequency and reliability, right?” Cox said. “So we need more routes. We need more frequent routes, but that’s going to take a ton of money, and I think we should continue pushing for it, but in the meantime and in the short term, we have to be realistic.”

Cox selected the two sites because of their multi-modal nature. Decatur-Federal lies along six bus lines and a light rail route, while the DU station hosts two light rail routes and one bus line. 

While the neighborhoods surrounding each transit hub have very different demographics—Sun Valley and Villa Park are lower and mid-income and are home to many Latino residents, while the neighborhood surrounding DU skews affluent and white—Cox pointed out that both have high numbers of public transit users. Also, as a proud DU student himself, he says he “would love” to see the program help his fellow students and staff.

The project has been endorsed by Councilmembers Paul Kashmann and Jamie Torres and RTD Directors Chris Gutschenritter and Michael Guzman, whose districts include the University of Denver and Decatur-Federal stations, as well as by Councilmember at-large Sarah Parady.

“Projections show that every $100,000 in funding could support up to 20,000 free rides,” Councilwoman Torres noted in her letter of support. “The pilot is a low-barrier, high-impact way to expand safe, sustainable transit access for the residents of West Denver.”

A major part of the pilot will be data collection and evaluation, which Cox said will likely start towards the end of 2026. In addition to collecting ride details, Lime and Bird will prompt users to answer a short survey about their experience and attitudes towards public transit following each eligible trip.

“The idea is that once this pilot is complete, we’ll be able to show that we were able to increase ridership to those locations,” Cox said. “I envision this then being scaled city-wide.”

The scooter-shaped elephant in the room

Though the project is a fresh take on RTD’s post-pandemic ridership issues, it is not without its perils. Scooters are known for being risky, with DPD noting 64 collisions and Denver Health recording nearly 1,450 e-scooter-related encounters in 2023.

In an effort to make the “micromobility” alternative safer for pedestrians and riders alike, this past spring, the Denver City Council passed a new law penalizing scooter companies for riders who leave scooters outside of designated parking spots or ride scooters on sidewalks. The law will go into effect next summer on July 1, 2026.

Safety is particularly relevant at the Decatur-Federal transit hub, which is situated right next to the intersection of Howard Pl. and Federal Blvd. According to DPD data, crashes at that intersection have killed five people over the past five years, including two pedestrians in April. While Cox was confident that First Mile Free would improve overall scooter safety by reducing longer, riskier trips and decreasing sidewalk clutter, he called the safety situation at Howard and Federal “interesting.”

Cox said that he and the First Mile Free team had assessed bike and sidewalk infrastructure in that area and “felt that within a one-mile radius of that station, it was built out enough where we could assume that people could use scooters safely to reach that stop.” Still, the six-lane stretch of Federal is already daunting for pedestrians, and how scooters play into existing traffic patterns remains to be seen.

Safety was also a big concern for Hassan. Though she thought the project sounded “really cool,” she was hesitant about using a scooter herself. 

“I’m kind of scared of those,” Hassan said. “There’s a little depot on the street next to my house that has a few, so I’m pondering, maybe on a weekend, just getting up really early in the morning and then trying to take them. I’m just scared because of the cars.”

For other commuters, particularly students at DU, Hassan thought the program would be a hit, and she said she’d be open to using an e-bike if she lived further from her bus stop. But for now, she’s content with her route and plans to continue taking the bus even once she gets a car, though she hopes RTD will expand its service times and security.

“I don’t have to worry about parking or anything (and) it’s great for the environment,” Hassan said. “I actually really enjoy it.”