Brighton to roll out new micro-transit program

BRIGHTON — Come next year, residents in need of citywide transportation to specific locations can take a ride in Brighton’s newest transportation service.

The Brighton City Council on Tuesday, Dec. 3, unanimously approved a three-year micro-transit pilot program that will operate similar to Uber — without the need for a credit card. The city received a $1.8 million grant from the Regional Transportation District in Denver to create the program from 2025 to 2027. With its approval, the city council agreed to a $600,000 match to fund the program, which will provide four minivans to transport residents for free throughout the city for the first few months to gain ridership. Officials will consider low-cost options for residents after gaining initial interest.

“I’m tremendously excited for this program,” said Mayor Pro-Tem Peter Padilla. “I realize I rarely have a nice thing to say about RTD, but tonight will be an exception.”

The program will be modeled after the city of Lone Tree’s Link On Demand program, which has been providing vehicle service to residents for 10 years. While Lone Tree’s program is free for residents, it also will start out as free in Brighton, but it will eventually seek some remuneration.

“It’s for anyone in the city limits who wants to use this service. It’s an on-demand service like Uber or Lyft,” said Greg Labrie, Brighton’s public works director, in an interview. “We’ll have an outside company that will create the platform, you can download an app or reserve a ride on a website.”

Providing a better transit service for residents has been on Brighton City Council’s wish list for years, Labrie said. The city does have limited bus routes, but residents can’t get within a quarter mile of the courthouse, as an example.

“I appreciate including the Adams County facilities. You can’t get within a ¼ mile of the courthouse today,” Padilla said. “This helps tremendously with that last mile. With my own family, I have a blind sister who had to move within a half mile of a grocery store. … I definitely appreciate the shared investment into meeting a significant gap for micro-transportation in town.

“This has every opportunity to be a great program to the city, but it also has the opportunity to be just $2 million down the drain,” Padilla said.

One council member worried about abuse of such a program, for example, with parents using the service in place of their own duties to transport kids to and from school, or people who use it to travel to a bar — although one pointed out that getting a ride home from a bar might just be a good thing.

Labrie answered that volume is what they’re looking for, regardless. If he sees the program is being abused, it may then be time to rethink how they charge for the program.

Until then, he said, the program could develop into a citywide partnership.

“Once we roll the program out, and see how people are using it,” it could inform future routes or partnerships with businesses, he said in the interview.

As an example, a city in Georgia learned through its program that riders were using the service going to Walmart or medical facilities. If city officials learn that riders in Brighton are routinely traveling to certain spots, that might be an opportunity for cost-sharing with businesses to keep the costs low to residents in the future, Labrie said.

The city will put out requests for proposals in January. Labrie said he hopes to have the service running in June or July.

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