Denver’s 16th Street Mall is unparalleled in its ability to move people from one end of downtown to the other. But getting them to hang out? Not so much. As the mall approaches its 33rd birthday, officials are searching for ways to revitalize the 1¼-mile corridor. It attracts thousands of people each day but scares away others because of its urban grittiness.

“It’s obviously an incredibly successful transit mall,” said Brad Buchanan, executive director of Denver Planning and Community Development. “But the issue is how to create a sense of place that attracts people and gets them to linger.”

Lingering, if not a part of every planner’s lexicon, is viewed as a vital objective in improving the mall’s economic health and social desirability.

When city officials and a high-profile outside consultant began last year to study the mall, a surprising revelation came to light.

While thousands of people traverse the mall each day on foot or via shuttle bus, an extraordinarily low number of them stop to enjoy their surroundings.

According to the consultant — Copenhagen, Denmark-based Gehl Architects — vibrant urban corridors such as Broadway in New York City and Covent Garden in London have a common element: one-quarter to one-third of their pedestrians stop to converse, window-shop or even just sit for a few minutes on a bench.

But when researchers last summer observed one of the busiest sections of the 16th Street Mall, the block from Stout to Champa streets, they found that only 1 percent of pedestrians lingered.

“I’m surprised there are not more people spending time on the mall,” said Jeff Risom, a Denver native who manages Gehl’s U.S. operations from a Copenhagen office. “It’s the most important street in the city, but it is surprisingly underperforming in relation to its potential.”

Gehl is working with the Denver planning office and the Downtown Denver Partnership under a $650,000 initiative called “The Mall Experience: The Future of Denver’s 16th Street Mall.”

No recommendations have been made or permanent actions taken. Yet planners are likely to push for “pedestrianizing” the mall, possibly by changing or restricting the use of RTD’s Free MallRide shuttles along 16th Street.

A preliminary report from Gehl states: “16th Street is already a vital bus corridor. It is time to reimagine … opportunities for more freedom of mobility — walk, bike, car share, etc.”

A diagram in the report illustrating how downtown might be transformed shows buses running on 15th and 17th streets, but only pedestrians and bicycles on 16th.

Risom of Gehl said recommendations to be offered this year won’t necessarily change the way shuttles operate.

“Everything is on the table,” he said. “We need solutions that include all modes of transportation.”

But the possibility of diverting shuttles is a concern to RTD officials, who fear that changes could cause problems for workers and visitors using transit to get downtown.

“We don’t feel it’s appropriate to experiment with our customers,” said Bruce Abel, RTD’s assistant general manager for bus operations.

Abel noted that a cornerstone of RTD’s commuter program is transporting passengers on the shuttle after they’ve arrived via bus or light rail at the Union Station or Civic Center terminals.

Part of the mall study involves the Downtown Denver Partnership’s “Meet in the Street” program, in which the mall is closed to shuttle buses on five Sundays this summer while special events take place on sidewalks and bus lanes.

“It’s just to see what happens to the mall when we pedestrianize it,” said John Desmond, the partnership’s executive vice president for Downtown Environment. “We need to get out of the box on how we perceive the mall. We think it can be a world-class destination.”

RTD agreed to the program on selected Sundays but turned thumbs-down on extending it to Saturdays or to Sundays when the Colorado Rockies are playing at home, when shuttle use is higher.

Partnership officials said they’ve been pleased with the turnout on the program’s first two Sundays this year, although attendance figures haven’t been disclosed. When the event was held on two Sundays last summer, pedestrian counts on the two busiest blocks — Glenarm to Welton and Champa to Curtis — increased by as much as 50 percent.

Merchants reported mixed results from the first two shuttle-free Sundays this year.

Michael Rosenbaum, an artist and owner of Sketchy Faces Caricature Co., said he logged record sales on June 28. But his sales were lower than average during the July 5 event.

He said a noticeable benefit of the program on both days was the reduction in noise with no shuttles running on the mall.

“We definitely like the vibe with the buses not on the mall,” he said.

Appaloosa Grill general manager Johnny Qualley said sales soared 68 percent on June 28 compared with the Sunday a year earlier. But sales showed little change July 5.

Appaloosa, at the corner of 16th and Welton streets, capitalized on the Sunday promotion by setting up a beer garden and live music stage on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. Pedestrians who normally would use the sidewalk were able to walk in bus lanes.

“When the buses aren’t running, (the mall) turns into a different organism, for sure,” Qualley said. “I think it’s a great experiment. Maybe the days of buses running up and down the mall are done.”

Partnership CEO Tami Door said last week that the group has commissioned consulting and financial services firm KPMG for a plan “to more efficiently address security issues on the mall and enhance consumer confidence in the space.”

Last year, the partnership and downtown business interests raised $175,000 in private funding to pay for three off-duty police officers to patrol sections of the mall 12 hours a day, in addition to regular police presence. This year, the extra officers are covered in the city budget.

Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948, sraabe@denverpost.com or twitter.com/steveraabedp

Analyzing denver‘s mall

Stout-Champa is one of the busiest blocks on the 16th Street Mall, with 28,000 pedestrians passing through from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. during analysis. One percent of people were estimated to spend time in that block, calculated during a peak hour that saw a total of 2,200 people pass through.

In comparison with other major cities:

Broadway, New York City: post intervention

45,000 average total weekly pedestrians

52,000 average total weekend pedestrians

23% spending time

Stroget, Copenhagen: post multi-year intervention

72,000 average total weekly pedestrians

81,000 average total weekend pedestrians

35% spending time

Covent Garden, London: no intervention, also not a 1-block radius

40,000 average total weekly pedestrians

70,000 average total weekend pedestrians

27% spending time