16th Street FreeRide RTD Union Station — Local services in Denver

Reliably Unreliable. When you don't need the bus, there will be 3 of them stopped on the same street. If you do need it to catch a light rail train, they will be a full 15 minutes apart. Do not rely on these. Always plan for them NOT to be there. If you're not trying to get to a specific location at a specific time, then these are nice for taking you a block or two while shopping downtown. UPDATE - They have now gotten to the point where they will look you straight in the eye and shut the door on you when you walk up. This must be because they have to get back to union station so they can get out of their bus to smoke. I ran after the bus the whole way, just to watch that. Thanks for making me walk to Union Station with two 50 pound bags just so you can feed your addiction. I made it to Union Station (from Larimer) before another mall ride...

It’s free and fairly frequent. Not much else to say. The bus was clean and had a luggage rack, so one could catch it to union station to catch the train to the airport. It saves probably less than 20 minutes of walking, but that’s a nice option to have, and I imagine it’s even nicer in inclement weather. It’s a nice option if there’s one about to leave and you just want to hustle across 16th, like if you’re a local or you’ve already walked 16th several times during a visit. It has to contend with pedestrians, but not other cars or traffic on 16th Street, and only needs to stop at red lights at intersections, so I expect it’s pretty well spaced out and predictable in terms of timing. It gets decently crowded on a weekend moseying, but not uncomfortably packed. There’s not a ton of seating so there’s a decent chance you’ll end...

Great free mall ride! I enjoy the way the sunlight looks on the interior of the bus as it passes between the shadows of the buildings. Good aesthetic! The ride is very smooth and the drivers are usually nice, but they have lots of hand rails and some escape hatches on the roof just in case the bus flips, which is a very comforting feature! The advertisements are usually tasteful and have interesting content to read while you wait for your stop. Sometimes I’m a little worried I’ll get bedbugs or other critters, but haven’t gotten anything so far! (I think standing helps prevent this). The doors aren’t squeaky and they don’t play offensive music during the ride. It would be nice if they offered free WiFi, but maybe they’ll...