RTD Rte #15

Holy cow the comments here. What are you expecting, a pristine school bus full of private school kids who are forced to be well-​behaved?
You’re taking the main Colfax route, through a large metropolitan city.
It’s public transportation. Mind your own business, be firm but polite if approached, and just ignore people.
The bus is smelly, the people are odd, but it gets you across town pretty easily.

Occasionally ride it during the week to commute. Really depressing, smelly, ignorant. Worse in the winter when East high is in session.
Some really horrifying people — and they won’t stop breeding
Some of the bus drivers are worse than the passengers

Have you ever had the pleasure of riding a public bus in NYC?
If you answered yes, then you may know what I mean when I say the 15 is the closest equivalent that Denver has to offer.
If you answered no, then make your way to the closest 15 stop, and get ready to enjoy the show.
This bus is absurd. I rarely have a reason to take it, but when I do, it cracks me up. There are people from ALL walks of life on this bus. It’s as much of a people-​watching spot as it is a method of transportation!

I have usedthe bus in different parts of the Denver Boulder area for many years, This route is the worst i have ridden in terms of on time service. Buses can be very very late and this is not due to just traffic. Especially between the hours of 10pm and 11pm it is really bad but I have had bad service at any time during the day.
Some positive first.
1. The drivers are nice people and very professional working in sometimes very hard conditions
2. the buses themselves are adequate, in terms of offering bike racks, handicap access, however i wonder if they just make longer buses to save money at the cost of more buses and better service.
now the bad.
1. The Price The bus prices are outrageous and I can tell that the money is not well allocated, and that government should put more money into helping lower the price. I think people do not even know how much they are ripped off, especially on some routes where the buses are overcrowded and often late. I think the people have been ripped off. in Brazil a lot of people marched when they tried to raise the bus prices. here it happens all too often. It is highway robbery. I have an old small car with pretty good mpg, and if I ride the bus it cost 4 times more in terms the money I would pen on gas for my car. This is to ride a crowded bus I am paying 4.50 (for round trip) on what would only cost me $ 1 in gas for riding my car. That is outrageous. Even with the title and insurance and registration costs driving a car should not be so much cheaper than the bus. when I look at all the low income people on the buses in Denver who pay by cash, I cannot believe they are ripped off. The cost of buss and public transportation in many cities should not be so high unless they are really delivering extremely excellent services.
2. Crowded an late buses. The buses on this route is often so late, even at times of day and night when there is little or no traffic, it is not the drivers fault. I took a bus three days in a row instead of driving and it was late at least 10 minutes each day. If there is a route with poor service they should improve it, however there are some routes in poor neighborhoods with high ridership levels (because people have no choice) that have had very poor service for years. I think the buses in the poor neighborhoods should be just as good as the ones in a rich college towns like boulder. There is a real disparity. I think they can afford to put more buses on some routes. if the bus is always late and and although it has high ridership it is not like there is overcrowding because there are enough seats, but i think they need more regular smaller buses on this route or just more buses. They do not think about the time of loading and unloading on some routes where a lot of handicap or bike riders or people with shopping bags get on and off. On these routes they need more buses, not just longer buses. Since RTD cannot fulfill the schedule timeline they have they should spread out schedule time to at least not be over 10 or 15 minutes late in a repeated fashion.
3. Flex pass and eco-​pass. These discounts are very small for small businesses and schools to pay. RTD is a hard bargainer. Even with the small saving I think it is overpriced. You think you are saving a little but it is really way overcharged to begin with. Buses should be lower price for everyone and students who are already in deby should have a much bigger discount.
People will continue to buy cars and we will not have a greener economy without public transportation improving. The price just makes poor people poorer. This is something that should change.

What a trip this bus is. I will never forget the time I was riding and saw a woman get on who had GREEN (I do not kid) skin. I won’t lie, I usually catch the #10 through Cap Hill, but if I’m feeling daring and don’t mind walking an extra few blocks, I snag the #15 and keep an open mind.

One star, and yet I still gotta love this bus. Mostly because if I hated it, I’d be miserable headed to campus and back every day. But seriously, bring some headphones and loud music or you might lower your own IQ a little bit listening to all of the inane bullshit.
On the plus side, scrawny white college chicks can totally pull off drinking on the 15 at night on the way downtown, so…

Where else will you see people twitching, strung out, and talking to themselves… all while sitting next to a guy in a nice suit. This bus has it all! Stay classy Colfax!

A wonderful circus on wheels. Catch people rolling spliffs, passed out drunk, cracked out of their minds, getting into fights, praying to God, or just staring out the window of the bus.
You can see everyone and anyone on this bus.
Tip: Catch the 15L if you can, it’s faster. Best to catch it BEFORE the Broadway stop (if you’re leaving from downtown) if you want to get a seat.
The 10 and 12 offer alternatives to/​from downtown (especially if you’re in the Capitol Hill area) but don’t come close to the awesomeness that one can experience on the good ol’ 15.

Riding the 15 can be a lot of fun if you enjoy people watching and revel in some diversity.
About every personality type rides the 15 from grade school kids to the weel heeled to the out of luck.
The Limited 15, stops less than it should. Going a mile without a stop, is quick, but indeed «limiting».
Enjoy all there is to see and smell!

I have never heard the N-​word so many times in my whole life than I did riding that bus just one time (I do not care who uses it, I hate that word). And with that being said, this is the 15 bus.
Usually, I try to catch this bus when I’m already downtown. It’s pretty quiet then. But once the bus gets to Colfax and Broadway, forget about it being quiet. Everybody and their baby and their baby daddy is on this bus. And from that point on, you’re riding the 15 bus, wondering who’s hand is on your rear and who’s dry humping your leg (usually the same person, but not always the case).
Lots of hoodlums on this bus (the aforementioned N-​word users), probably because this bus passes by East High School. Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against the Denver schools because they’re actually pretty swell. But you know how high school students can be.
Colfax is an interesting place to ride by and watch. Since it’s such a long street, the bus can take you all up and down it, and back again. So I’ll ignore the fact that I’m usually standing when I get on this bus and end up talking to some weirdo. You ain’t a true Denverite (or at least a true bus rider) until you ride the 15.
Drunks and hoodrats and babies and dancers and rapppers and crackheads and oddballs, oh my. The list goes on. This is the 15 bus, and I love it.
And if anyone from RTD is reading this, how about getting one of those longer busses, eh?