Test-driving Mobility’s Future in Boulder, Colorado

This case study describes the 'Door to Downtown' (d2d) mobility services pilot in Boulder, Colorado, which provided discounted rideshare and taxi trips to downtown to test the price elasticity of demand for mobility as a service (MaaS) relative to personal vehicle ownership.

• The 'Door to Downtown' (d2d) pilot program, launched for the 2016 holiday season, provided riders with $5 discounts on trips to downtown Boulder using Lyft, Uber, or zTrip. Return trips were discounted for those making a minimum purchase from participating merchants. As of the report date, over 4,000 people had registered for the program, which ran through Valentine's Day, 2017, with a limit of five rides per person.
• The d2d pilot aims to test the price elasticity of demand for mobility services by bringing the cost of ridesharing to parity with the cost of driving and parking. The document notes that the total cost of owning and operating a personal internal-combustion vehicle is roughly $0.60 per mile, meaning a 10-mile round-trip to downtown Boulder costs approximately $10 including parking.
• Boulder faces significant parking challenges; the city estimates a need for 2,700 additional downtown parking spaces by 2035. Meeting this demand would cost between $40 million and $67 million in capital expenditures, plus approximately $800,000 in annual maintenance and operations. The city views these potential structures as possible 'stranded assets' if MaaS reduces the need for personal vehicles.
• The document references a broader trend toward MaaS, citing an RMI report 'Peak Car Ownership' which found that shared, electric, autonomous mobility services could reach cost parity with the total cost of owning, operating, and parking a car as early as 2018.

APA

RMI (2017). Test-driving Mobility’s Future in Boulder, Colorado. https://rmi.org/resources/test-driving-mobilitys-future-boulder-colorado/

Chicago

RMI. Test-driving Mobility’s Future in Boulder, Colorado. 2017. https://rmi.org/resources/test-driving-mobilitys-future-boulder-colorado/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Test-driving Mobility’s Future in Boulder, Colorado |date=20 January 2017 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/test-driving-mobilitys-future-boulder-colorado/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2017testdriving, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Test-driving Mobility’s Future in Boulder, Colorado}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2017}, month = jan, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/test-driving-mobilitys-future-boulder-colorado/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }