Come on, and Take a FreeRide: Experiencing Downtown Denver on 16th Street Bus

The new 16th Street isn't just about shopping and margaritas and takeout lunches for nearby office workers; it still must function like the old 16th Street, the asphalt and concrete strip that bears the weight of tourists and commuters and street people as they cross downtown.

A free RTD bus line has serviced 16th Street – the spine of downtown Denver – since its opening in 1982. Formerly the 16th Street MallRide, under the new branding it’s becoming the 16th Street FreeRide...although the signage on the buses has yet to transition.

The buses run every five to ten minutes, depending on time of day, starting at Civic Center Station at the street’s southeast tip near the State Capitol. It's clean enough inside the station, which offers a chilled respite on a hot weekday. The bathrooms are down a brief corridor just past a security booth and signs demanding that no more than two people enter the restroom at one time. At just past nine in the morning, the men’s room doesn't even have an odor; it once lacked doors on the stalls.

Two FreeRide buses are queued up in the circle out front. The route is currently diverted from still-under-construction 16th Street for the southeastern half of its run; you head northwest on 15th Street from Colfax as you leave Civic Center Station, eventually cutting over to 16th Street at Curtis. This part of 16th Street is pretty quiet in the morning, with just a few downtown workers and street people meandering. Things get a little livelier at Union Station, where you must leave the bus you arrived on. But there are several other idling FreeRide buses ready to take you back.

A second round trip later shows a more revived 16th Street. On the approach to Civic Center Station, a woman talking to herself comes head-on screaming, “I don’t give a fuck!” There are a few more folks kicking it outside the station, and as the bus cruises past the Denver Pavilions, you can see the pulse of downtown has quickened in the noon hour.

While some kiosks are closed, like the Denver Doner kebab shack, others, including a haircut stand inside a sidewalk shanty, are bumping. Lunchers are on the patios on the shady side of the street, and you can spot tourists among the office workers toting their to-go boxes back to their cubicles. On the bus, a girl rolls a single die onto the back of her left hand, playing a secret game. A man with heart-shaped wire-rimmed sunglasses dozes.

The bus passes plenty of signs advertising office space and retail square footage for lease, which tell the back story of 16th Street’s diminishment since COVID times.

Back at Civic Center Station, a wall of vomitous stench now attacks visitors to the men's room — a true blast from the past.