16th Street Mall

Not to be confused with 16th Street.

The 16th Street Mall is a pedestrian and transit mall in Denver, Colorado that opened in 1982. The mall, 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) long, runs along 16th Street in downtown Denver, from Wewatta Street (at Union Station) to the intersection of 16th Avenue and Broadway (at Civic Center Station). The intricate granite stone sidewalks and streets were designed by architect I. M. Pei to resemble the scale pattern of the western diamondback rattlesnake. It is home to over 300 stores, 50 restaurants, and the Denver Pavilions shopping mall. In April 2022, construction started on a $149-million multi-year rebuild of the 40-year-old infrastructure, expected to finish in late 2024.[1][2][3]

History

Before the mall was built, downtown Denver experienced rates of bus congestion, especially on 16th and 17th streets, where more than 600 bus trips per day operated in 1970s, creating both air pollution and traffic congestion.[4][5][6] The design of the area also discouraged pedestrian activity. The solution proposed by the downtown Denver business community and the Regional Transportation District (RTD) was to build two bus transfer stations at either end of 16th Street, one at Market Street and the other at Broadway, and connect the two with a pedestrian mall that would include a free transit shuttle bus service. The final design was drawn up by noted architecture firm I. M. Pei & Partners, in collaboration with the urban design and landscape architecture firm, OLIN. Construction was funded by a US$75 million grant (equivalent to $286.2 million in 2024) from Federal Interstate Highway Transfer Funds and the Federal Urban Mass Transit Administration, with RTD providing a local match.

It took crews two years to install trees, lights, and granite pavers along the mall.[7] The mall opened on October 4, 1982, and over 200,000 people attended the opening day ceremonies.[8] The mall initially stretched between Market Street (the site of the Market Street Station) and Broadway (the site of Civic Center Station). Light rail service was added on California and Stout in 1994, creating a third transit hub along the mall.

RTD purchased Union Station in 2001 and started the process of redeveloping the historic station along with 19.85 acres (8.03 ha) of land in LoDo, to create a new transit hub that would replace Market Street Station. To enable the project, the 16th Street Mall was extended from Market Street to Wynkoop Street in 2001, and to Union Station in 2002 to coincide with the completion of the new light rail spur to the station. In May 2014, RTD opened a new underground bus concourse at Union Station, and Market Street Station was closed.[9] The land was sold to a developer for $11 million, which helped fund the redevelopment of Union Station, and the station site was transformed into a mixed-use building with residential, office, retail and restaurant space.[10]

FreeRide

The 16th Street FreeRide is a free shuttle bus service operated by the Regional Transportation District (RTD) along the length of the 16th Street Mall, with buses stopping at every intersection.

The service began in 1982 as the 16th Street MallRide, originally running between Market Street Station and Civic Center Station (16th & Broadway), two major RTD bus hubs at either end of downtown. In 1994, light rail transit service was added at 16th & California and 16th & Stout stations, creating a third transit hub along the mall. In 2011, the route was extended north of the mall on 16th Street to Denver Union Station. In 2014, Market Street Station was closed and replaced by the Union Station Transit Center.[9] In 2025, coinciding with the dropping of "Mall" from the 16th Street Mall name, the service was renamed 16th Street FreeRide.[11]

FreeRide
 Union Station
      
 Wewatta St
Wynkoop St
Wazee St
Blake St
Market St
Larimer St
Lawrence St
Arapahoe St
Curtis St
Champa St
Stout St
  
 California St
  
 Welton Pl
Glenarm Pl
Tremont Pl
Court Pl
Cleveland Pl
Civic Center Station (Broadway)

As of 2024, the route provides connections between the A Line, B Line, E Line, G Line, N Line, and W Line and the bus hub at Denver Union Station; the D Line, H Line, and L Line at 16th & California and 16th & Stout stations; and the bus hub at Civic Center Station. In 2018, the route saw an average weekday ridership of 43,971.[12]

Buses operate from 5:30 a.m. to midnight on weekdays, with slightly shorter service hours on weekends and holidays. During peak periods, shuttles can run as frequently as every 90 seconds, with service reduced to every 10 minutes in the early morning and late evening.[12]

Since the service’s inception, RTD has used custom-designed right-hand drive buses. This configuration gives operators improved visibility of passengers boarding and alighting from the curb side, as well as pedestrians who often move close to the buses, which travel at speeds up to 12 miles per hour (19 km/h) in the open mall setting. The buses also feature a low-floor design with an open interior with minimal seating (currently 18 seats, out of a capacity of 106), and three doors, enabling near-level boarding and accommodating fast passenger flow both inside the bus and during boarding and alighting.[12][13]

The first-generation buses, used from 1982 to 1999, were diesel-powered and front-wheel drive. The second-generation "EcoMark" buses, used from 1999 to 2006, were series hybrids with wheel hub motors powered by batteries charged from a 70 horsepower (52 kW), 1.6-liter compressed natural gas engine supplied by Ford.[14] The third-generation BYD K10MR buses, introduced in 2016, are fully battery electric.[15][16]

Impact as an urban space

The Project for Public Spaces says of the Mall that it "provides the entire downtown with shuttle bus circulation and high quality pedestrian access to Union Station. However, its success as a place has to do with its edge uses, over 300 shops and 50 restaurants that line the Mall with cafés, window displays, and buskers."[17]

In summer 2014, and again in 2015, the Downtown Denver Partnership and Downtown Denver Business Improvement collaborated on several Meet in the Street Sunday events, rerouting the Mall Shuttle to adjacent streets and opening much of the mall to pedestrians and cyclists, and featuring various activities to bring people together.[18]

On May 20th, 2024, Denver City Leaders and Mayor Mike Johnston announced that 90% of a $175.4 million renovation had been completed and the area will drop "Mall" from it moniker and be known as simply "16th Street" and will also be referred to as "The Denver Way", the main street of downtown, it is The Denver Way, by which you can make your way through downtown.[19]

References

  1. ^ "Here's what you need to know about the construction on the 16th Street Mall starting next month". Denverite. March 10, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
  2. ^ "Denver's 16th Street Mall overhaul is already getting mixed reviews from downtown businesses". The Denver Post. April 14, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
  3. ^ Storeowners say 16th Street Mall construction is hurting business, retrieved August 7, 2023
  4. ^ "16th Street Mall Alternatives Analysis and Environmental Assessment" (PDF). City of Denver. April 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 2, 2020.
  5. ^ "Free MallRide". Regional Transportation District (RTD). Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  6. ^ Young, Ricky (July 22, 1997). "New mall buses on tap 16th Street shuttles will be roomier". The Denver Post. p. A1. Retrieved August 10, 2025 – via NewsBank.
  7. ^ Levine, Allison (September 29, 2019). "Colorado History: Celebrating the 1982 Grand Opening of Denver's 16th Street Mall". KUSA (TV). Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  8. ^ "Sixteenth Street Mall". Colorado Preservation, Inc. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  9. ^ a b Proctor, Cathy (April 7, 2014). "RTD's buses are leaving, so what's next for Market Street Station?". Denver Business Journal. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  10. ^ McMurtry, Tara (March 13, 2019). "A Brief History of Market Street Station". Regional Transportation District (RTD). Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  11. ^ "RTD renames Free MallRide service to 16th Street FreeRide in support of city's revitalization effort". Regional Transportation District. June 6, 2025. Retrieved August 10, 2025.
  12. ^ a b c RTD Denver. "Electrification of the 16th St. Mall Shuttles" (pptx). Colorado Association of Transit Agencies. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  13. ^ Starcic, Janna (May 3, 2017). "Denver 'Charges Up' Fleet for Key Downtown Route". Metro Magazine. Archived from the original on October 14, 2017. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  14. ^ Franklin, Rod (August 26, 2002). "Buses combine natural gas with electrical system". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  15. ^ Proctor, Cathy (August 25, 2015). "New 16th Street Mall shuttles to be all-electric, quiet, less smelly". Denver Business Journal. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  16. ^ "Electric Buses Coming To 16th Street Mall". CBS 4 Denver. August 29, 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  17. ^ Nelson, David M. "Thinking Beyond the Station". Project for Public Spaces. PPS. Retrieved February 9, 2015.
  18. ^ Hendee, Caitlin (July 21, 2014). "Downtown Denver's Meet in the Street event steps toward urban engagement". Denver Business Journal.
  19. ^ Denver's 16th Street Mall to be known as "16th Street" after a $175.4 million renovation https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/news/content/ar-AA1F9oZS?ocid=sapphireappshare
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