2025 Year in Review: Accomplishments and Goals
In 2025, CU 91Ҹ Transportation continued to roll towards providing more sustainable, accessible, safe and efficient transportation options for getting to and around campuses. From earning Platinum Bicycle Friendly University status to expanding electric bus service and launching Buff Ride, our first on-demand mobility program, we continued to align transportation operations with the university’s mission of excellence in education, research, and public service.
Driving Progress Toward Climate Action Plan Goals
CU 91Ҹ’s Climate Action Plan lays out specific targets and objectives for Category 7 Scope 3 goals, which focus on employee commuting.
Strategic Planning and Improved Services
- Transportation Services launched CU 91Ҹ’s first comprehensive Transportation Demand Management (TDM) planning process, led by Alta Planning + Design, a nationally recognized mobility planning firm in line with Climate Action Plan objectives. Final report and recommendations are due during the third quarter of 2026.
Enhanced Measurement and Data Tools
- Completed a campus-wide Transportation Survey of students and employees in the Fall—produced in collaboration with CU Data & Analytics—to better refine and understand our transportation mode splits, commute frequency, and emerging trends.
- Developed a GIS-based residential distance dashboard to measure daily Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) for the Climate Action Plan monitoring and emissions modeling.
Operational Efficiency
- Completed the first phase of organizational consolidation by integrating Parking Services and Transportation Services into a single unit, to improve coordination and long-term service delivery.
Electrification and Fleet Modernization
- Expanded CU’s electric fleet, and working to improve electric bus uptime and integration of new electric vehicles across operations such as waste hauling and distribution services.
- Developed a campus-wide Electric Vehicle Plan to guide future charging expansion, fleet conversion, and infrastructure investments.
Preview of GIS map showing CU employee residences and their distance from their workplaces.
Highlights by Mode
Transit Summary: Buff Bus, RTD, Buff Ride
In 2025, CU bus riders took more than 1.4 million rides on public transit thanks to free bus access added to their Buff OneCards. Combine that with over 1.1 million Buff Bus trips, and CU 91Ҹ’s bus and transit programs continue to be the backbone of our sustainable transportation efforts.
Highlights
- CU Buff Bus team combined the Will Vill, Will Vill Limited and Bear Creek Express into a single new route and implemented “Bump and Go” and “Breakers” on Will Vill operations, dropping headways from 6 to 11 minutes down to 4.
- Launch of the Buff Ride, a convenient, app-based, on-demand campus transit option which allows riders to request rides between eight designated stops on the CU 91Ҹ campuses.
- Buff Bus added two new Battery Electric Buses to the fleet and oversaw production of two more, with delivery scheduled for summer 2026.
- RTD’s re-established the Flatiron Flyer express (FF2), the FF4 and the AB2 to the airport helping increase CU ridership.
Trends
- Ridership and total boardings rose by more than 8,000 trips over 2022-2023 numbers, from 2.14 million to 2.95 million, but continue to be far below pre-Covid numbers.
- Total bus pass "unique users" are also up, from 5,043 in 2022-2023 to 5,709 in 2025.
- Around 5,000 users are considered “regular users”, taking between 50 to 200 trips annually.
- Over 2,000 CU transit riders take the bus for the majority of their commutes, taking over 675,000 trips annually! This is around 6.7% of CU pass users.
Compared to numbers in 2023, BCycle, Lime, and Buff Bus trips have grown in 2025. In 2025, BCycle reached about 783,700 trips, Lime reached about 773,600trips, and Buff Bus trips reached about 1,170,700 trips.
CU Bike Program
2025 was a big year for the CU Bike Program which was awarded Platinum status from the League of American Bicyclists’ , placing the university among only 10 universities nationwide to hold the program’s highest status.
Highlights and Trends
- CU was the first new addition to the Platinum “Bicycle Friendly University” list in over 10 years!
- The Bike Program added free access to BCycle to all employees as of August.
- Five new BCycle stations and expanded dock counts were added, creating a total count of 319 docks on campus.
- E-bike ownership is growing annually. The 2025 transportation survey notes that 13% of those who rode a bike to work rode an e-bike.
- BCycle ridership was just slightly under 2024’s record breaking stats with 717,000, which was 87,000 more than 2023.
Lime Scooters
A key partner with CU, Lime works with our team to control speed, rideable zones, and parking hubs.With around 790 scooters in 91Ҹ, Lime has become an integral part of CU’s transportation options.
- Lime had its biggest year yet in 91Ҹ with 773,600 trips, and its best month yet with over 131,700 trips taken in October!
- Lime’s single biggest day with 7,025 trips corresponded with the CU Football game against the University of Wyoming.Sko Buffs!
Night Ride
CU’s Night Ride program continues to provide safe and convenient free rides throughout 91Ҹ. With an eye towards sustainability, the Night Ride fleet is comprised of four fully electric Chevy Bolts, three hybrid vehicles, two plug in hybrids, with just one gas powered vehicle required for providing wheelchair lift service.
- With over 30 student drivers, Night Ride provided over 16,000 trips in 2025.
- Spring 2025 saw 9,781 trips in 111 nights, an average of 88 rides each night.
Vanpool
CU 91Ҹ participates in the Way to Go Vanpool program and subsidizes ride costs so that members pay a set monthly fee that covers the cost of the van, gas, maintenance, insurance and parking.
- Trending up – On average, the total count of vans increases by 3 per year.
- The Vanpool program topped 20 vans for the first time ever, surpassing 100 members with 112 at the end of 2025.
- Members largely represent Facilities Services, Housing and Dining, with more than 8 primary languages spoken:
- Spanish 36, English 29, Lao 24, Nepali 14, Chinese 4, Tibetan 3, Thai, Hmong
- "Driving miles avoided" topped 1 million miles!
Carshare
CU 91Ҹ partners with Colorado Carshare and Zipcar to offer flexible, low-cost access to short-term rental vehicles for students and employees.
- Colorado Carshare added a new location and electric vehicle near the University Club in lot 204, bringing the total number of EVs to three.
- Zipcar remains popular with over 900 active users.
- Trending down - Even with the addition of EV options, and a minor decrease in the number of active members, usage of carshare at CU has dropped significantly from 2024 to 2025. Colorado Carshare usage dropped almost 50% to around 260 bookings per vehicle, while Zipcar usage dropped almost 20% to 387 bookings per vehicle.
Electrification of Transportation
CU 91Ҹ continued expanding its electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure in 2025 to support cleaner travel. New fleet EVs were added by the Distribution Center, the Environmental Center, and the first electric trash truck order was placed. Meanwhile, chargers were installed in two lots near the 18th and Broadway gateway to campus, lots 204 and 310.
- Total ports available to commuters topped 50, with 53 charger ports available at nine locations on campus.
- EV charging sessions were up by over 2000 sessions compared to 2024, with 6,569 sessions by 1,397 unique users.
- Gas avoided by EV commuters topped 5,000 gallons.
CU students joined our team to tour the 30th and Colorado underpass and CU’s electric bus and Bike Program facilities as a part of the ENVS Campus Climate Action Planning and Implementation course, taught by Josh Radoff (Director of Campus Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resilience).
Engagement
Transportation staff were busy with outreach and communications throughout the year, including the monthly Be Mobile newsletter, tabling at Move-in, presenting at CU Discover onboarding, working with students for multiple class projects, and more.
Highlights and Trends
- Bike Fest tabling got us in front of hundreds of students alongside 18 other tents and vendors.
- The Be Mobile monthly newsletter averaged 243 readers per month, peaking with 261 in August. and receive monthly news for your commute.
- Parking and Transportation website visits almost doubled compared to two years ago, in large part due to the addition of daily parking options, with 109,000 total visits.
- Our top Instagram post got 5,000 views and was a joint post with MENV for their welcome back event.Get campus transportation news on Instagram by following our account !
- Our team also collaborated with the ENVS Campus Climate Action Planning and Implementation course, taught by Josh Radoff (Director of Campus Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resilience), and the Climate Action Planning course (GEOG 4022).
What’s Next: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead
As CU 91Ҹ looks toward the future of campus transportation, we’re identifying key areas for growth and improvement. In 2026, we will focus on expanding carpool options, improving electric bus reliability, and addressing crash trends and commuter behaviors. Our team will complete the Transportation Demand Management (TDM) plan to support climate goals, while continuing to monitor parking demand, work-from-home rates, and cost-of-living impacts. These are just a few of the efforts that will help us build a safer, more efficient, and more inclusive transportation system for everyone coming to and navigating campus.