The Regional Transportation District on Monday released its annual customer and community survey results, which show rising satisfaction among bus and rail riders.

But critics said those gains mask a deeper disconnect with broader metro Denver and statewide preferences for personal vehicle travel.

RTD reported 82% satisfaction among bus customers and 87% among rail customers in its 2026 surveys.

“The surveys’ results underscore the important role public transit continues to play in connecting people across the Denver metro area,” General Manager and CEO Debra A. Johnson said in a news release. “Throughout the past year, the agency has continued to advance initiatives focused on creating a welcoming transit environment and improving the overall customer experience. It is encouraging to see these efforts reflected in the results, particularly as RTD continues to perform strongly in several key areas nationally.”

But overall transit use continues to stagnate or decline despite small post-pandemic gains, with systemwide ridership remaining about 38% below 2019 levels.

Federal census American Community Survey data shows public transit’s share of work commutes in the Denver area has fallen well below 2019 levels, even as state and city policies aggressively pursue shifting drivers out of their cars through “road dieting,” lane reductions and expanded transit priority.

Critics argue the positive feedback from current riders does not reflect the majority sentiment in a region, where roughly 90% of downtown trips and 96% of all commutes rely on personal vehicles.

Jon Caldara, former RTD board chairman and president of the Independence Institute, a Denver Libertarian think tank, said projects such as bus rapid transit lanes on Colorado Boulevard deliberately reduce vehicle capacity.

“What they’re doing on Colorado Boulevard is what they’re doing on Colfax, which is destroying the overall capacity of vehicle traffic on that roadway,” Caldara said. “It is quite obviously a way to make traffic worse and make traffic jams bigger in hopes that people will switch over to transit, which they will not.”

Supporters of projects, such as bus rapid transit on corridors like Colorado Boulevard, say the improvements can benefit all users. Ryan Knowles, Colorado Department of Transportation bus rapid transit program manager, said the projects address safety, congestion and air quality while maintaining vehicle capacity.

“When you improve transportation options for the traveling public, then you’re able to see more trips take place on other modes of transportation,” Knowles said. “We feel that we can really make taking the bus competitive.”

Knowles pointed to transit signal priority technology, which can shorten red light delays for buses and allow all traffic to proceed through intersections more efficiently. He said certain designs, such as curbside bus lanes that also function as right-turn lanes, could remove turning vehicles from the main flow of traffic.

“Certainly, we recognize that people still will drive, that our transportation system overall is still primarily focused on personal vehicles,” Knowles said. “We’re not trying to make it harder to drive.”

The debate occurs against a backdrop of major governance changes at RTD.

A law signed by Gov. Jared Polis last month reduces the board from 15 elected members to nine, with five elected from much larger districts and four appointed by the governor. The changes take effect in 2029.

RTD Director Chris Nicholson, whose central Denver district seat will be restructured, criticized the shift for reducing local democratic representation.

“The biggest concern in the bill … is representation,” Nicholson said. “This bill creates a system where districts are so large as to make it functionally impossible for someone who is not of means or already famous to run a reasonable campaign.”

RTD officials said they are reviewing the survey results for opportunities to improve service and are directing some FasTracks surplus funds toward Front Range Passenger Rail development.