Many elderly and disabled rural Coloradans rely on transit to get to doctor’s appointments or even to go grocery shopping.
As the Colorado Independent reports, Colorado logged 14 million rural transit trips in 2016 – more than any other state.
Because of greater demand, not enough buses and not enough drivers, the wait time for shuttles in eastern Colorado over the last two years has stretched from 24 hours to one week.
Morgan County logged close to 1,500 trips in May with about the same number of riders - who traveled a total of 16,000 miles in one month – for context, the US is 2,680 miles across.
Democratic lawmakers typically want more money for city transit projects and Republican lawmakers often want more money for roads. The political rift leaves rural public transit the odd man out when it comes to funding.