RTD driver has been around

Who has driven the equivalent of nearly nine trips around the globe without leaving the 16th Street Mall? Russ Nipper, 61, an RTD driver who has driven a mall shuttle bus since the first day, Oct. 6, 1982.

In that time, the Lincoln High grad has logged more than 200,000 trips from end to end on the 1.1-mile strip:

I think the mall saved downtown Denver. It was dead down here after 5 o'clock, and that was true for a long time before the mall went in. But now there's so much down here, people living here. It's busy now even at night.

What do I miss? I miss J.C. Penney's. The Woolworth's used to have the best lunches on the mall. The old Walgreen's had a lunch counter, too.

I miss the fact that I used to cruise 16th Street when I was young. I had a '35 Ford coupe with 580 horsepower and a 427 engine.