Review and Highlights - the Denver "Bus" System

Denver's Bus System Long Ago Evolved into the RTD - Regional Transportation District

Recently a friend, who knows I am a native of Denver, Colorado, asked me about the bus system there. At first he was taken aback when I told him, they don't have a "bus system." Then after I let that sink in and observed the shock on his face I added, "They have one hell of a good Regional Transportation System." He was pleased and then I explained what I know about the Denver metropolitan area RTD.

Denver was originally laid out along the generally north and south running South Platte river. The main street north and south for years was Broadway. The main street from the farthest reaches of Denver's eastern boundary and west almost all the way to Golden was Colfax avenue. Except for Speer Boulevard that still runs from city center south east along Cherry Creek those were the main routes of transportation for Denver. The first horse drawn trolleys ran north, south, east and west along these main roads. Eventually these were converted to electric trolleys on rail over parts of the route and electric bus on the outlying districts. In the early 1960's the rails and electric buses were replace by pollution belching gasoline or diesel powered buses. They were often blamed for part of the pollution problems that Denver had at that time. When the Interstate highway system came along it too followed the same general routes with I-70 parallel to Colfax running east and west and I-25 running north and south from the northern boundary of Colorado, with Wyoming, all the way to the southern state border with New Mexico at Raton.

In the early 1970's the city began to discuss and plan for mass transit of the future. Those plans resulted gradually in what is today called the RTD. Now the RTD manages and operates the Denver Bus System, the Denver Light Rail System and soon the DIA ( Denver International Airport Route Light Rail Route ). The interesting thing is that all these systems still follow the same main streets and paths laid out by the original city founders many years ago.