MallRide to FreeRide: Back to the future
The RTD 16th Street FreeRide is the agency’s signature service, connecting over 1.5 million customers in 2024 to destinations across the RTD network from the service’s major terminals at Union Station and Wade Blank Civic Center Station, as well as light rail and other bus routes at its numerous stops within central downtown.
Opened as the FreeMallRide in October 1982, service commenced between Blake Street and Broadway along the newly constructed 16th Street Mall. Connecting two newly constructed bus terminals at Market Street and Civic Center by 1984, the recently rebranded 16th Street FreeRide reduces traffic congestion throughout downtown, while connecting customers to regional and express bus routes to all corners of the metro area. Throughout its over 40-year history, the FreeRide service has undergone significant expansion, including an extension in 2002 from Market Street Station to Union Station, which connected with the new Central Platte Valley Light Rail Line – known today as the E and W lines.
In June 2025, RTD announced the renaming of the former Free MallRide service to the 16th Street FreeRide to align with the city’s revitalization efforts and the recent rebranding of the transitway. However, the new branding isn’t RTD’s first stint with the “FreeRide”; the name dates back much earlier, almost 50 years to be precise, to the service that the Free MallRide replaced.
In April 1971, the City and County of Denver acquired the Denver Tramway Corporation, the previous privately owned transit provider in the area. This created Denver Metro Transit (DMT), laying the foundation for a truly regional transportation network. In June 1972, DMT launched a new service designed to revolutionize the way Denverites traveled downtown. Called the “DART” or Downtown Area Runabout, the new service operated along two routes between Larimer Square, the State Capitol, and the City and County building, each traveling along 16th and 17th streets and departing every 6 minutes from Larimer Square during the day. The DART network later expanded to encompass a few other routes, including the Aurora DART from Civic Center Station to Auraria Campus and the Sakura Square Shuttle from the Denver Auditorium Arena (now the Colorado Convention Center) to Sakura Square and the Federal Complex at 19th Street.
In 1976, the country turned 200, Colorado celebrated its centennial, and RTD (which had integrated DMT service two years earlier) announced its first fare-free service. The newly rebranded “FreeRide” connected the same locations in downtown with the same schedule, all at zero cost to the customer. Instantly, ridership took off. RTD’s then-internal newspaper (The Frontier) reported that on the first day of free service, ridership rose from around 1,000 daily customers to 2,500, and its growth continued. By the first anniversary of the FreeRide, it was clear that the service was here to stay.
Planning had already begun for a new transitway to connect the centers of business and commerce of central downtown with a proposed transit center across the street from the State Capitol. Construction on what became the 16th Street Transit Mall began on Feb. 3, 1980, not only bringing a future of frequent and convenient access to transit one step closer to reality, but it also brought the FreeRide a step closer to its eventual replacement.
The Free MallRide opened on Oct. 4, 1982, permanently replacing the FreeRide. Forty-three years later, the resilient brand of yesterday will launch as the route of the future. A grand opening ceremony and public celebration for the newly reconstructed 16th Street will be held on Oct. 4, 2025, exactly 43 years since it first opened. The wheels will continue to roll on the new FreeRide, one that honors its legacy while driving Denver into the future.