Denver Advocates Sue RTD for Charging People With Disabilities for On-demand Transit

A group of Denver residents is suing the Regional Transportation District, claiming that the agency’s plan to charge a $4.50 base fare for riders using RTD’s Access-on-Demand system amounts to illegal and “disparate” treatment.

According to an article in The Denver Post by Bruce Finley, “Attorneys representing the Atlantis community and American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, an advocacy group known as ADAPT, argue that transit officials have increased fares and reduced the hours for Access-on-Demand service for riders with disabilities while reducing fares by 10% to 33% for riders without disabilities.”

The suit claims these actions violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act and ‘unfairly target “the people who need transit most of all,’” many of whom are on a fixed income and may not be able to afford the new costs. According to the lawsuit, “RTD is singling out riders with disabilities by drastically increasing the costs and cutting the services of Access-on-Demand while at the same time enjoying revenue that is supposed to be used to maintain services for disabled riders and even reducing the cost of services for Coloradans without disabilities.”