Door-to-Downtown

The report 'Door-to-Downtown' details a public-private partnership pilot program in Boulder, Colorado, designed to test the viability of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) as an alternative to personal vehicle use for accessing the city center. By subsidizing rideshare trips to be cost-competitive with driving and parking, the city aimed to reduce parking demand and test the potential for a future transition to electric, autonomous vehicles (EAVs).

• The 'Door-to-Downtown' (d2d) pilot program, running from November 25, 2016, to February 14, 2017, successfully attracted 5,400 registrants, representing more than 6 percent of Boulder's adult population.
• During the 11-week pilot, users took 2,477 inbound trips, with the highest volume occurring on Fridays, averaging 60 trips per day, which coincides with the most challenging parking conditions in downtown Boulder.
• The pilot demonstrated a positive economic impact, with d2d users spending an average of $87 per person while downtown, generating estimated sales tax revenue between $8,318 and $14,972, which offset a significant portion of the $9,802 subsidy cost.
• The program effectively reduced parking demand; approximately 1,040 personal vehicles avoided parking downtown because 42 percent of survey respondents stated they would have used a personal vehicle without the d2d service.
• The pilot's cost-structure was designed to test the hypothesis that people would switch from personal vehicles to MaaS if the cost were equivalent to driving and parking. The City provided a $4-per-ride subsidy, matched by a $1 discount from transportation service providers (TSPs).
• Marketing efforts showed that social media and word-of-mouth were the most effective channels for recruitment, while digital direct mail was particularly successful in reaching the priority 45+ age demographic.
• The report argues that the current personal vehicle paradigm is unsustainable, noting that privately owned vehicles sit unused 95 percent of the time and that the U.S. spends $160 billion annually maintaining a system that requires $2 trillion to $4 trillion in upgrades to meet minimum safety standards.
• RMI projects that a fleet of electric, autonomous service vehicles could provide ubiquitous city service for $0.35/mile or lower by 2035, compared to the average personal vehicle ownership cost of $0.58/mile.
• The pilot utilized a public-private partnership (P3) involving the City of Boulder, Downtown Boulder Partnership, and TSPs (Uber, Lyft, and zTrip), with the Commutifi platform enabling seamless digital coupon delivery and multi-provider integration.
• To ensure equal access, the program included zTrip to provide wheelchair-accessible vehicles and a telephone-based dispatch system for users without smartphones, complying with the ADA and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

APA

Klock-McCook, E., & McIntosh, R. (2017). Door-to-Downtown. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/Mobility_Report_Door_to_Downtown_2017.pdf

Chicago

Klock-McCook, Edward, and Robert McIntosh. Door-to-Downtown. RMI, 2017. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/Mobility_Report_Door_to_Downtown_2017.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Klock-McCook |first1=Edward |last2=McIntosh |first2=Robert |title=Door-to-Downtown |publisher=RMI |date=May 2017 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/Mobility_Report_Door_to_Downtown_2017.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{klockmccook2017doortodowntown, author = {Klock-McCook, Edward and McIntosh, Robert}, title = {{Door-to-Downtown}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2017}, month = may, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/Mobility_Report_Door_to_Downtown_2017.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }