New Denver program to pay for first mile of rental bike or scooter to transit stations

The link points to an advocacy group's discussion of the merits of the new pilot program, but for details of the rollout by RTD-Denver (Regional Transportation District), this article by local TV station ABC7 has that info: https://www.denver7.com/traffic/new-pilot-program-will-pay-for-first-mile-of-e-bike-e-scooter-trips-to-rtd-transit-stations

The summary is that RTD will spend some $120k over two years to support this idea, first pitched by a university student. The pilot will start sometime in 2026, for micro mobility trips that end at two designated LRT stations.

From the reporting, this only covers the first mile, such as one's home in the nearby suburbs to the University of Denver station. So it looks like the idea is to lower the barrier to getting into the transit system, to then access other destinations like the downtown or connecting to mainline rail services at Union Station. For the return trip, it doesn't seem like this program will cover the last mile from the station going back home. But human psychology is weird and people might be fine with this, since it's less logistically taxing on the return to just grab a scooter and head home.

Of course, for this program to be effective, scooters and ebikes have to be available in the catchment area surrounding both stations. This means operators need to make sure their equipment is distributed appropriately, or else potential transit riders might have to make a long trek just to get to a scooter, to then ride it to the transit station. But seeing as this is in the financial interest of operators, if the process is already in place, then this should happen automatically.

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The link points to an advocacy group's discussion of the merits of the new pilot program, but for details of the rollout by RTD-Denver (Regional Transportation District), this article by local TV station ABC7 has that info: https://www.denver7.com/traffic/new-pilot-program-will-pay-for-first-mile-of-e-bike-e-scooter-trips-to-rtd-transit-stations
The summary is that RTD will spend some $120k over two years to support this idea, first pitched by a university student. The pilot will start sometime in 2026, for micro mobility trips that end at two designated LRT stations.
From the reporting, this only covers the first mile, such as one's home in the nearby suburbs to the University of Denver station. So it looks like the idea is to lower the barrier to getting into the transit system, to then access other destinations like the downtown or connecting to mainline rail services at Union Station. For the return trip, it doesn't seem like this program will cover the last mile from the station going back home. But human psychology is weird and people might be fine with this, since it's less logistically taxing on the return to just grab a scooter and head home.
Of course, for this program to be effective, scooters and ebikes have to be available in the catchment area surrounding both stations. This means operators need to make sure their equipment is distributed appropriately, or else potential transit riders might have to make a long trek just to get to a scooter, to then ride it to the transit station. But seeing as this is in the financial interest of operators, if the process is already in place, then this should happen automatically.