I'll start by saying - I really love(d) RTD. I rode it nearly every day for almost ten years - sometimes combined with walking, sometimes with a bike, and often combining buses and trains.

I appreciated the convenience, how it mostly was reliable and on time, and how I could do other things while being whisked to my destination. There was a small price to pay in terms of speed (it rarely was faster than driving) and convenience (first and last mile is always a consideration) but overall, it was a good tradeoff.

The stars lined up for me today - I needed to travel across town to I-25 and Lincoln and I had a ride there but not back. Since RTD is free at the moment, I figured I would give it a go and see how they were doing. I haven't been riding much in the last three years and almost none in the last two.

First strike - the track work has totally fucked up the SE light rail lines and RTD is doing a poor job of communicating that to anyone who isn't totally on top of it. The train was late (~5 minutes, forgivable) but didn't go where I wanted (Peoria). I routed downtown and around to use the A-Line. That added a lot of time to my trip. And this shit is scheduled to go on through OCTOBER?!

Credit where it's due - the trains were clean and (mostly) void of tweakers. Lots are riding with a dog, though - at least three clearly non-service animals rode with me today. Aside from one half-tweak having a very loud conversation about his dog, it was mostly what I remember from the before days - quiet people trying to go places sprinkled with a handful of raver kids headed to Global.

**But it is SO SLOW. SO. SLOW. ** God, it is slow. The same drive would have taken me 40 minutes in the heaviest traffic imaginable. I walked in my door after an hour and 55 minutes. Almost three times longer. It's too fucking slow. And the headways are unworkable. Half an hour between trains? What? No. Even if RTD lowers the fares (yay! a good move) it desperately needs to make the system more efficient because I don't know anybody who's going to go for a commute that's three times as long, even if it's substantially cheaper.

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk, happy Friday, y'all.

Conversely, if they can move two straight days of free fares with the biggest game in town it might be the very beginning of a redemption arc*

*probably not, but a guy can hope