Three years ago, commuting in Denver’s Westwood neighborhood got a bit tougher.
The Regional Transportation District, facing a budget shortfall in early 2012, canceled Route 4 that mainly served Westwood residents, taking riders up and down Morrison Road.
The neighborhood is on Denver’s west side between Mississippi and Alameda avenues and Federal and Sheridan boulevards. It is populated with mostly low-income people, and a large percentage is Hispanic.
Since Route 4 was canceled, residents like Mark Hoffart, Leticia Ramirez and Marisol Valencia have had to walk as many as 15 blocks to catch the bus.
But that is going to change in May as Route 4 is likely to be reinstated at the Feb. 17 RTD board meeting as part of the proposed service changes for 2015. If passed, the route would resume May 11.
“If we had been in a better budget situation in 2012, I think we would have kept it. It didn’t perform poorly,” RTD senior service planner Doug Monroe said, adding that RTD felt there were other viable, walkable options for the residents in the area.
Hoffart, who hasn’t driven a car since 1998, is legally blind and relies on the bus to get to and from work. With Route 4, he’ll have a two-minute walk to the bus, whereas now it takes about 10 minutes and he has to cross Morrison Road, a typically busy street without many crosswalks.
“That’s the one thing that will help my day,” Hoffart said as he jogged across Morrison Road on a Friday morning just in front of an oncoming school bus.
Ramirez and Valencia, who both spoke through an interpreter, said they also have to cross busy intersections — whether Morrison Road or Federal Boulevard — and have reduced their travel as a result.
Ramirez now walks up to 15 blocks to get to Federal and Alameda, where an RTD bus stops most frequently. Valencia, who is pregnant, said she has made fewer trips to the doctor due to the struggle to get to a bus stop.
Both Ramirez and Valencia worked with 9to5 Colorado — a membership organization of working women — to bring awareness to the neighborhood in hopes of getting the route back.
Zoe Williams, a transit organizer with 9to5 Colorado, said the conversation began in late 2012 and the lack of a meaningful bus route resonated with the organization.
“This is a neighborhood that is less than five miles from two light rail lines and no clear connection,” Williams said.
If the Route 4 reinstatement is approved, the route will run with longer hours and more frequently than it did before it was canceled. RTD will also extend the route further to provide better connectivity to shopping centers along Sheridan Boulevard.
The new route would run between Alameda and Sheridan on Morrison Road and go between the Alameda Station and Sheridan and Evans along Alameda with approximately 25 stops.
The bus used to operate during peak hours every 45 minutes. The new route will run weekdays between 5 a.m. and 8 p.m. and run every 30 minutes during peak hours. In off peak times it will run every 60 minutes.
“We think extending it out to the shopping area will improve it this time around,” Monroe said.
The route could be extended in the future to include weekends. Monroe said that would depend on how the route performed in off-peak hours.
Both Williams and Monroe said it was a community-led effort to get the route back and bring the need to RTD’s attention.
“It was really informed by the community,” Williams said. “It was defined by people who need it the most.”
Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, jvaccarelli@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joe_vacc
