Incentives to Ditch Your Car

Program participants will get hundreds of dollars in Lyft, Zipcar and RTD benefits

Transit officials in the metro area are teaming up with ridesharing service Lyft and carsharing service Zipcar to try to bridge the perennial firstmile, lastmile puzzle — the challenge of how to move people to and from a transit stop to their home and workplace without use of a private vehicle.

And there’s something in it for the 50 people who enroll and are selected for the Ditch Your Car program, an initiative that was unveiled Wednesday morning at the Interstate 25/Broadway light rail stop.

Participants, who will be chosen at random, will get $300 in Lyft shared credit, $150 in Lyft Scooter credit, a onemonth regional RTD pass valued at $171 and a onemonth Zipcar membership with a $100 drive credit to use toward covering the distance from their homes and offices to a train or bus stop. The program will run from Oct. 8 to Nov. 6, and the deadline to sign up is Sunday.

The program is not limited to Denver residents, though Lyft’s scooters are not available beyond city limits.

“It’s not a secret that in the last 10 years we have experienced unprecedented growth in the Denver area, and in the last few years a dramatic increase in the number of options people have to commute — cars, buses, trains, Lyft, bikes and now scooters,” Mike Meader, chief safety and security officer for the Regional Transportation District, told reporters Wednesday. “At RTD, we know we need to be inventive, innovative and bold in forging partnerships in continuing to lead people to transit.”

A similar though less comprehensive effort was tried two years ago, when Centennial teamed up with Lyft to provide firstmile, lastmile rides to and from the Dry Creek light rail station. The program lasted for six months.

Gabe Cohen, Rockies region general manager for Lyft, said the effort in Centennial was a targeted and limited one. Ditch Your Car, he said, is part of a nationwide effort that began in Chicago last month and on Wednesday was rolled out to 35 cities, including Salt Lake City, New York, Miami and Phoenix.

“We want to build public awareness around the idea that you can give up your car, or your second car,” Cohen said. “We are committed to cities that are built around people, not cars and parking lots.”

RTD hopes that by providing a variety of travel modes, people will be more willing to try the journey from their doorstep to the train station without opening the garage door. But Meader con