Fare free fall funded for RFTA riders

Roaring Fork Valley bus riders will get a break from fares this coming fall. 

The elected officials transportation committee (EOTC) approved funding for the program at their Thursday, May 15, Aspen meeting.

EOTC is comprised of elected officials from various government boards in the valley. They approved $275,000 of the $550,000 that Roaring Fork Transportation Authority needed for the program unanimously, displaying alignment from a variety of municipalities in the valley. 

RFTA was seeking $550,000 in funding for their fare free pilot program to offset potential losses of revenue in the fall. Aspen City Council was the first to commit $275,000.

Both Aspen and EOTC have promised “up to” $275,000. This means that as RFTA seeks more funding from other sources, the funding promised from both groups can decrease as more money comes in.

The fare free fall program is a pilot program for RFTA that will provide multiple potential benefits to the bus operator; according to RFTA Chief Operating Officer David Pesnichack, the program falls in line with their climate action plan that identified increased ridership on RFTA buses as one way to drive greenhouse-gas emissions down in the valley.

Additionally, the 60-day pilot will help RFTA determine what additional resources they would need if it tries to continue the program regularly. 

“So if we did want to do a regular free fare in each spring and fall season, for instance, or if we wanted to roll it out during one of our peak times, what that would mean operationally?” asked Pesnichack at the Thursday EOTC meeting. “How many more buses, how many more drivers would we need? We would be able to program that (from data we took from this program).”

By measuring the difference between passenger counts from past fall rider seasons, RFTA can help determine what Pesnichack calls “elasticity.” By measuring how many more riders different routes get during the fare free season, RFTA can get a sense of what they can expect future seasons of free fares to look like.

RFTA is targeting fall for this program because fall is typically a lower ridership season.

“The reason we’re looking at a time when we have low ridership is we’re anticipating an increase in riders on our system,” said Pesnichack. “If we did it during our peak times when we already have congestion issues, then we were concerned that we wouldn’t be providing the level of service that we want to be providing.”

EOTC board members were excited about the program for reasons beyond the greenhouse-gas emissions as well. 

“I look at it as a way to explore flattening the demand curve for people on the highway,” said board member Greg Poschman before the board voted to approve funding. “This could actually make a substantial impact on the amount of cars on Highway 82 if we sort this out. So full speed ahead.”

Riders can look forward to fare free rides from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30.