Hinton Roberson has driven the same stretch of Colfax Avenue, back and forth, all day, five days a week, for 16 years.
He knows the bumps in the pavement just as well as he knows the faces he sees as he pilots the No. 15L RTD bus from Aurora Town Center to Market Street Station in Denver and back again.
“I am a people person. Sometimes I bring joy to their hearts when I’m out here,” Roberson said. “I respect them, and I get the respect back. That’s why I’m still on Colfax.”
Roberson said he’s proud that he has become a fixture on the route he adores.
“I have seen a lot of changes on Colfax,” he said. “I have seen some good people and some bad people, but that’s not just Colfax; that’s any route.”
A Baltimore police officer before moving to Denver with his family, Roberson said he had seen neighborhoods and events far more frightening than anything on Colfax.
“I was like, ‘Is this it? Really?’ ” Roberson said. “People think I am crazy for wanting this route and say I can have it, which suits me just fine.”
Being a husband, father and grandfather, Roberson said family is everything to him, which is why he wears a picture of his children around his neck. “I work for them, but my love of what I do is for me.”
Along with his morning duties of getting the bus ready for the day, Roberson has a few rituals of his own to prepare for a safe journey.
“I do a little prayer before I go out,” he said. “It is just my own little thing and helps get me excited for the day.”
Passengers say Roberson is unlike any other driver they’ve had in Denver. He greets every passenger with a “hello” and thanks them all for riding before they exit.
“He is so nice, so polite and so personable,” said James VanHesteren, who has ridden the No. 15L to and from work every day for more than a year. “It is like a friend is giving you a ride, not a bus driver. He makes the trip very comfortable, very enjoyable. You don’t even mind you’re going to work.”
Roberson said being someone’s favorite bus driver is not something he had to work toward. He said he just enjoys being a likable person and believes anyone can be likable if they are treated well.
“If people get up here cussing, they have to go. If they get up here and want to fight, they have to go,” Roberson said. “It’s simple. I make that very clear to them.”
Tianna Wells had never ridden a bus before she climbed aboard the 15L. She said the jovial Roberson is what she hoped bus drivers would be like.
“He is very nice — nicer than I expected — so I don’t mind riding,” she said.
After Wells departed and was wished well by Roberson, he said she was new, that he didn’t recognize her. That hardly ever happens, he said.
“I know the faces,” he said. “I know the faces.”
More than just giving a ride to people, Roberson said he truly believes he can make a difference in their lives.
“There was an older woman who used to ride, who was in a wheelchair, who told me even though she didn’t know me, she felt like she always had — like I was someone very dear to her from another time,” Roberson said. “I like to think about that.”
Ryan Parker: 303-954-2409 or rparker@denverpost.com
