Transportation Transformation: From Transit Authority to Mobility Integrator

Target Audience: The target audience for RTD's Transportation Transformation one-day symposium included regional transportation mobility partners, including the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Denver Regional Council of Governments, transportation officials from cities and counties within the RTD District, elected officials, and transportation management organizations/associations.

Strategy Objective:RTD hosted a half-day informational summit on September 18, 2018 and invited transportation officials from around the city to participate. Hosting this event allowed us to position ourselves as a natural leader in the initiative and allowed us to begin an open and transparent conversation with partners on how to proceed. To entice greater participation the event was branded and positioned as a "summit" to give credibility and substance to the initiative. Various speakers discussed micromobility initiatives, while panel and breakout sessions encouraged shared thought, open thought, and free exchange of ideas. The design of the event mark and typeface exemplified both the multitude of mobility options as well as the opportunities for integration.

Situation Challenge: As innovative technologies like bike-sharing, micromobility, and ride sourcing services are changing the way people get around, RTD is taking a proactive approach to participate in how these evolving trends are creating new and expanded opportunities for public transportation. As RTD is the primary provider of public transportation in the Denver Metro Region, the agency is taking a lead role in bringing the region together in a collaborative effort to assess and address the changing mobility needs of the public. As each regional partner has their own mobility challenges to address, the challenge was how to bring all entities together with RTD at the helm.

Results Impact: Over 125 regional transportation mobility partners attended the event to engage in a conversation about mobility trends and the current state of practice, local projects underway in the Denver metro area, and RTD's plans to lead a regional initiative to determine how public transportation will integrate with Denver's changing mobility landscape. The event included feedback measures through interactive polling (Slido) and audience engagement. The participation and feedback received validated RTD's perceived role as an obvious leader in transit mobility efforts.

Why Submit: The transportation landscape is changing. Transportation and mobility experts agree that an integrated approach to mobility options could have positive impacts' reduced car ownership, increased public transit use, and widespread use ridesharing and other emerging services. RTD plays a critical role in making that happen by serving as a leader in building upon and interfacing with the emerging modes to create an integrated, multimodal transportation network in which all of these work together harmoniously. The Transportation Transformation summit allowed RTD to create a shared forum in which we could bring all these partners together to discuss and share ideas and establish well-meaning collaborations. As a follow up to this summit, monthly meetings are being held to continue the dialogue.