The 16th Street Mall is a
pedestrian
A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term usually refers to someone walking on a road or pavement, but this was not the case historically.
The meaning of pedestrian is displayed with ...
and
transit mall
A transit mall is a street, or set of streets, in a city or town along which automobile traffic is prohibited or greatly restricted and only public transit vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians are permitted.
Transit malls are instituted by communi ...
in
Denver, Colorado
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
. The mall, 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) long, runs along 16th Street in downtown Denver, from Wewatta Street (at
Union Station
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
) to the intersection of 16th Avenue and Broadway (at
Civic Center
A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...
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
The western diamondback rattlesnake or Texas diamond-backWright AH, Wright AA. (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes''. Comstock Publishing Associates. (7th printing, 1985). . (''Crotalus atrox'') is a rattlesnake species and member of the viper family, ...
. It is home to over 300 stores, 50 restaurants, and the
Denver Pavilions
Denver Pavilions is a shopping mall located on the 16th Street Mall in Downtown Denver, Colorado. Originally opened in 1998, the mall has over 40 stores and restaurants.
An open-air mall, the Pavilions takes advantage of Denver's many sunny day ...
shopping mall.
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.
The design of the area also discouraged pedestrian activity. The solution proposed by the downtown Denver business community and the
Regional Transportation District
The Regional Transportation District, more commonly referred to as RTD, is the regional agency operating public transit services in eight out of the twelve counties in the Denver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical Area in the U.S. state of Col ...
(RTD) was to build two bus transfer stations at either end of 16th Street and connect the two with a
pedestrian mall
Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...
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 Olin may refer to:
People
Organizations
* OLIN, American landscape architecture firm
* Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis
* Olin College, an undergraduate engineering college in Massachusetts
* Olin Corporation, a chemica ...
. Construction was funded by a $75 million grant from Federal Interstate Highway Transfer Funds and the Federal
Urban Mass Transit Administration
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transportation systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administration ...
, with RTD providing a local match.
It took crews two years to install trees, lights, and granite pavers along the mall. The mall opened on October 4, 1982, and over 200,000 people attended the opening day ceremonies. 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
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
in 2001 and started the process of redeveloping the historic station along with of land in
LoDo
LoDo (Lower Downtown) is an unofficial neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, and is one of the oldest places of settlement in the city. It is a mixed-use historic district, known for its nightlife, and serves as an example of success in urban reinves ...
, 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
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
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.
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.
MallRide
A
free shuttle bus service, operated by the
Regional Transportation District
The Regional Transportation District, more commonly referred to as RTD, is the regional agency operating public transit services in eight out of the twelve counties in the Denver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical Area in the U.S. state of Col ...
(RTD), known as the MallRide, operates along the length of the mall, and continues north on 16th Street to
Denver Union Station
Denver Union Station is the main railway station and central transportation hub in Denver, Colorado. It is located at 17th and Wynkoop Streets in the present-day LoDo district and includes the historic station house, a modern open-air train shed, ...
. Buses stop at every intersection along the route.
The service was introduced when the mall opened in 1982. It originally traveled between Market Street Station and Civic Center Station (16th & Broadway), two hubs for RTD buses at either end of downtown. Light rail service was added at
16th & California and 16th & Stout stations in 1994, creating a third transit hub along the mall. In May 2014, Market Street Station was closed and replaced with the Union Station Transit Center.
Today, the route continues to provide a connection between the
A Line,
B Line,
C Line,
E Line,
W Line and the underground bus concourse at Union Station; the
D Line,
F Line,
H Line, and
L Line at
16th & California and 16th & Stout stations; and the bus concourse at Civic Center Station. RTD estimates the MallRide shuttle removes nearly a thousand daily bus trips from the streets of downtown Denver, reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality.
As part of the Union Station Transit Center opening, RTD introduced the MetroRide service with operates parallel to the MallRide on 18th and 19th Streets, but operates much faster by making far fewer stops between Union Station and Civic Center Station.
The MallRide has always used a fleet of
right-hand-drive
Left-hand traffic (LHT) and right-hand traffic (RHT) are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes referred to ...
buses that were custom-designed and purpose-built. The right-hand-drive setup gives the operators a better view of passengers entering and exiting the buses from the right-hand side and of pedestrians who often 'wander' around the open mall and get close to the buses that can travel up to . The first-generation buses which were used until 1999 were diesel-powered and front-wheel drive. The second-generation "EcoMark" buses were introduced in 1999 and were
series hybrids with batteries charged by a 1.6-litre
compressed natural gas
Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in cy ...
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
engine. The third-generation "
BYD K10MR
BYD K10MR is an electric bus built specifically for RTD's 16th Street Mall service, called Free MallRide, in Denver, CO
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. It ...
" buses were introduced in 2016 and are
battery electric.
Impact as an urban space
The
Project for Public Spaces
Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is a nonprofit organization based in New York dedicated to creating and sustaining public places that build communities, in an effort often termed placemaking
Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the pla ...
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."
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 fun activities to bring people together.
References
External links
The Downtown Denver Partnership website on the 16th Street MallRocky Mountain News: Don't realign city's spine, panel says, May 30, 2008Regional Transportation District webpage provides Mall Shuttle information including frequency by time of day.
16th street mall an entertaining placeSAH Archipedia Building Entry
{{RTD Bus & Rail
Tourist attractions in Denver
Regional Transportation District
Transportation in Denver
Streets in Colorado
Pedestrian malls in the United States
Shopping malls in Colorado
Shopping malls established in 1982
Buildings and structures in Denver
1982 establishments in Colorado