Meet Jack Rosenthal

Transit only works if people can figure out how to use it. A first-time rider, a visitor, or someone who doesn't speak English shouldn't have to guess where a bus goes. I worked with Boulder County leaders, including State Rep. Junie Joseph, to write the Transit Access Bill and testified for it at the State Capitol.

It's now Colorado law, requiring clear system maps at major stops and stations and expanded language access statewide. I also fought for two provisions that didn't make the final bill: a Partner Pass program giving homeless and domestic violence shelters transit passes for the people they serve, and a statewide low-income fare discount. On the board, I'll bring both forward at RTD and make sure it implements the new law in full.

Until just before the pandemic, RTD ran dedicated event service like RunRide, RockiesRide, and BroncosRide, taking riders straight to the race or the game and home again. RTD cut them all without a good reason, and now runs a reduced holiday schedule even on Memorial Day weekend, when the Bolder Boulder brings hundreds of thousands of visitors to Boulder. I pushed RTD from the start to bring them back.

That pressure worked. RTD is now planning high-volume event service again and evaluating a pilot for the 2027 Broncos season. One pilot isn't enough: on the board, I'll push to restore RunRide and RockiesRide, and to create new service for the Sundance Film Festival when it comes to Boulder.

Riders should be able to see where they're going. Ads wrapped over the windows of nearly 500 RTD buses and more than 170 rail cars blocked the view, made it harder to spot your stop, and left vehicles feeling dim and uninviting. I pushed RTD from the start to stop selling them, and RTD listened: new advertising contracts can no longer cover windows. The digital ads that used to cover schedules on public information screens are gone too.

These are small changes riders notice on every trip, and they're one example of how I think about RTD. The rider experience matters, from the view out the window to how a stop feels at night, and on the board I'll bring forward policies that put riders first.

When RTD proposed cutting Route 228, Superior's only neighborhood bus, I built a website, posted flyers at bus stops, and rallied riders. The 228 was saved.

When plans for RTD's bus network redesign assumed cutting 20% of all service, far deeper than the $20 million in cuts the board asked for, I sounded the alarm. Then I found where the money could come from instead: RTD plans to spend $284 million on new diesel buses, even though its own records show none of its buses are past retirement age. I urged the board to audit that spending before cutting anyone's service.