Denver area bus riders and rail commuters are ecstatic about the services the Regional Transportation District rolled out last year.
At least, that's the apparent takeaway from a new customer satisfaction survey from the transportation agency.
The 2017 RTD Customer Satisfaction Survey tells the story that despite reports of delays and malfunctions, the most high-profile case being with the A Line, customers are happy with the transportation agency. The survey also tells another story: Those satisfied riders tend to be white, making at least $50,000 and have access to vehicles.
On average, the more than 9,000 people who gave RTD feedback in spring 2017 indicated RTD was worthy of a 4.22 out of 5 score ranking.
“It is wonderful to know our passengers are extremely happy with our services, will continue to use them and will recommend it to others,” said RTD general manager and CEO Dave Genova.
“We strive to provide safe, clean, reliable, courteous, accessible and cost-effective bus and rail services to our customers,” Genova said in a statement.
The latest numbers from RTD estimate its ridership at 101.3 million people from December 2015 to November 2016. The survey released Friday gives an idea of who those people are that ride RTD on any given day.
Three-fifths of passengers (58 percent) reported having a college degree; more than half (54 percent) were older than 45; and a third lived in Denver, according to the report.
Sixty-seven percent of riders were white which is on par with the demographic breakdown of the metro area. The largest chunk of people who took the survey (26 percent) said they make $100,000 or more. More than half (54 percent) said they make somewhere between $50,000 and an excess of $100,000.
The median household income in metro Denver is $73,271, according to the Metro Development Economic Development Corp.
"Based on the sample size and how we executed data collection, we are confident the demographics (and other results from the survey) are reflective of the larger population of RTD riders," RTD said in a statement.
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Business & data reporter Adrian D. Garcia can be reached via email at [email protected] or twitter.com/adriandgarcia.
