Who could have guessed the elevator doors would be a critical element of reducing illicit drug use at transit stations around the Denver metro?
Keeping stations’ elevator doors open when the carriages are at rest is just one public safety measure the Regional Transit District (RTD) is touting as it announces a roughly two-thirds decline in incident reports. According to RTD, these efforts have resulted in a 65 percent decrease in the average number of drug activity reports per month by riders in 2025. And while drug activity calls made up 60 percent of RTD app reports in 2022, drug-related reports are currently responsible for only 21 percent of Transit Watch submissions.
A new study titled “The Impacts of and Response to Drug Use on Transit” by the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) evaluated RTD and transit systems in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon, to examine strategies to deter illicit drug activity. RTD’s Customer Experience Elevator Program, wherein elevator doors at select rail stations remain open when at rest, was highlighted as a deterrence strategy; it is now being replicated by LA Metro Authority…