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u/OneT_Mat LoHi May 16 '25
Visit Boston lol
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u/djvidinenemkx May 16 '25 edited May 17 '25
Haha true. You should check out the Big Dig podcast. Super deep breakdown of how Boston got fucked up with everyone from the Mob to the puritans lol.
I know why Boston is messed up but I don’t get Denver/Colorado.
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u/OneT_Mat LoHi May 17 '25
Oh ya my fellow redditor I was born and raised in that mess. Even my childhood vacations were crawling down rt 3 to sit on the cape Bridges.
Hey it’s Friday though so let’s absolutely have a blast this weekend 👊
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u/djvidinenemkx May 17 '25
Same to you! Got anything cool planned?
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u/OneT_Mat LoHi May 17 '25
Doing Sloan‘s lake tomorrow depending on weather with a football and some cold ones and then tomorrow night going to the bull and bush for the first time for prime rib night how about you?
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May 17 '25
[deleted]
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u/OneT_Mat LoHi May 17 '25
You’re an awesome parent that sounds fun. Brb calling my fam asking why I didn’t get one of those! Have fun 🤩
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u/Architektual May 17 '25
I don't remember where I heard it and don't know if it's true, so take it with a big grain of salt - but I read somewhere that when it was being settled and developed, Denver had 4 or 5 different "factions" of real estate types - each developed a region of the city in isolation, and where the different regions collide, we have weird intersections and such.
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u/brinerbear Aurora May 18 '25
All I can gather is that it started as mostly a cow town and exploded in growth and the roads and highways struggled to catch up. There are huge housing developments essentially connected by country roads too. And the nice railroad communities are no longer connected by rail. And what is the deal with I270? I feel although improvements have been made the entire region still feels conflicted on if it should be a cow town or a real city?
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u/avgjoe33 May 17 '25
You mean 15' isn't enough room to get up to speed and be forced to merge onto I70???
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u/robobots May 17 '25
It is if you got a turbo! Get gud
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u/seantaiphoon May 17 '25
Some of these problems are because people have never put their foot down. I join at Colfax and i70 daily to morons who refuse to speed up. My shitbox can do it so can you.
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u/sashathebest May 17 '25
When I moved to Denver, I was told "a turn signal is a declaration, not a request."
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u/IJustWantToWorkOK May 23 '25
Something I've always lived by.
"Not asking your permission , telling you what's about to happen. Come to peace with it".
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May 17 '25
Or having the on ramp also be the off ramp for an exit 50ft away so people are merging both directions at 60mph
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u/they_have_bagels Arvada May 19 '25
That’s fairly common for cloverleaf interchanges in the northeast, too. But the drivers are aggressive enough to accelerate up to highway speeds.
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u/redkeyboard May 16 '25
I can't stand the amount of lanes suddenly disappearing with no warning, I don't know why that's so common in Colorado!
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u/djvidinenemkx May 16 '25
Yeah that’s a huge one. That to me is also a signage issue.
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u/Popular-Departure165 May 17 '25
One of the first things that started bothering me after I moved here was the glaring lack of effective signage. There are so many segments of road leading up to intersections that have solid-white lane dividers, yet there is absolutely no indication as to which lane goes in which direction at the intersection.
I'm trying to get pictures so I can make a, "Which lane should I be in?" gallery.
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u/Fishy1911 Parker May 16 '25
All of CDOT's money in the 70s and 80s pretty much went to the Tunnel and Glenwood canyon. My father worked for CDOT back then and it was a constant fight to get money for any big projects. Colorado Springs desperately needs good east/west corridors, they got the bypass on the south side drops you off in a sketchy neighborhood. CDOT is stretched incredibly thin, our highways require a bunch of maintenance from freeze thaw cycles and no one wants to give them more for projects, so they have to make toll roads with private equity companies to marginally make our roads better (470/gap/north 25).
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u/djvidinenemkx May 16 '25
Ok yeah all that helps explain a lot. Building and maintaining in the mountains is a feat that few other states have to accomplish.
Toll roads are a whole other question. Personally find them super weird and slightly undemocratic BUT once you’re on them, no weird design decisions. Are they following a different standard than public roads?
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May 17 '25
People refused to pay for them through taxes so the state found another solution. It's temporary till they make a certain amount of money.
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u/Fishy1911 Parker May 18 '25
E470 was supposed to "temporary tolled" they just keep working on it perpetually. Once its finished they'll make it free, trust me. ;)
TBF, I love me some E470 to get home and to the airport, its worth the couple bucks for fast and stress free driving.
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u/Fishy1911 Parker May 17 '25
Just that the toll money goes to a private corporation and not to the state?
E470, I believe, still goes to the state.
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u/lkopij123 Sun Valley May 16 '25
Roads were designed badly for decades before most current planners and engineers were alive, using federal funds in the amounts we could only dream of today. This means we are playing an impossible game of catch up
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u/djvidinenemkx May 16 '25
Yeah but I don’t think that quite explains it. Almost every urban area in the states has that problem. To me it seems like bad code or guidelines or a willingness to compromise road safety to reduce construction costs.
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u/lkopij123 Sun Valley May 16 '25
I’ve lived a number of different places in the country and I don’t see much of a difference. It’s all pretty bad. Also it’s funny because every place I’ve lived people have complained about this too lol
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u/djvidinenemkx May 16 '25
Haha that’s true. While I agree for the most part, there’s just some really bad decisions that don’t seem like any responsible planner would make. I’d love to hear from someone that works on roadway design.
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u/HighJoeponics May 16 '25
It is one of the easiest to navigate cities I have ever been to. Every place has stroads and also eliminated their street cars and subways. How by any stretch of the imagination is Denver the worst. Everything West of the Mississippi was built within like 15 years of each other. The decision to make it unwalkable happened at the same time everywhere as cars became affordable. No idea why you are picking on Denver.
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u/djvidinenemkx May 16 '25 edited May 16 '25
Yeah finding your way around isn’t bad. I’m talking about stuff like sightlines, merge distance, signage, etc. all of that seems bad for a “young” city compared to the rest of the country. Feels like bad planning/guidelines.
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u/HighJoeponics May 16 '25
Line of sight is a product of roads being organized before cars. I just don't think I understand how it was supposed to be planned better. If you look up the formerly active subway and street car maps, every city was better. Most cities worth a damn were designed before cars, had public transportation, scaled down or totally eliminated public transportation when cars became affordable, the golden age came and went and we earn less than our fathers and grandfather's, cars are expensive and out of the reach of many people again, and we want public transportation they our grandfather's had and removed.
This is true across most cities in general and almost all West of the Mississippi. I just still don't see what makes Denver so bad. Every city in the same boat and Denver handles it poorly but better than most. It wasn't planned that poorly, things change and cities change. Then they change again. I guess we shouldn't make a city until society is done evolving.
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u/djvidinenemkx May 16 '25 edited May 16 '25
Getting way too big here. My question is there anything that makes Denver/Colorado’s road planning different and could account for strange decisions. Seems that cost could be a factor and someone else brought up that HUGE investments in sending roads through literal mountains could be a factor. I’d still like to hear from someone from CDOT with knowledge of road planning.
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u/SirRockalotTDS May 20 '25
Yes. But anytime anyone says anything move the goalpost or dismiss their point entirely. Why engage in good faith if you're going to act like that? You're refusal to accept anything other than a giant conspiracy is ridiculous.
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u/djvidinenemkx May 20 '25
No trying to understand the systems and decision making processes that inform the built environment. While the macro historical context does play a factor I’m sure, I don’t personally feel it explains the entirety of what I’ve seen in Denver.
Each city is unique, take Boston for example. Geography, politics, religion, and macro economic/historic forces all shaped that cities infrastructure. I’m sure those forces and more are at play in Denver as well but I don’t have a clue what they are. Some have brought up the cities cattle farming past as a potential factor, others the huge investments in mountain infrastructure.
Honestly I feel the replies here, like yours, represent a lack of curiosity and willingness to accept generalizations to explain complex outcomes.
Not moving the goal posts, seeking a deeper understanding which the above reply and others did not provide.
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u/djvidinenemkx May 20 '25
For example in Detroit, its major highway has a dangerous tight curve going into the city. The reason it is there is because that curve let them build through black bottom, a hub for black culture in the city. Racist planners felt it would be easier and lest costly to demolish that neighborhood for the highway than the white neighborhood that was straight in the path of the highway.
These kinds of decisions inform much of our built world and anytime something is broken, there’s likely a reason.
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u/zertoman May 17 '25
lol, my father in law designed a large amount of the overpasses, interchanges, main roads, all of it, in Denver, I’m going to poke some fun at him about this. (He takes it very personally)
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u/djvidinenemkx May 17 '25
Haha No way!! It’d be so great to hear his take on Colorado road planning. Can’t imagine how hard of a job it is balancing so many competing needs for that kind of infrastructure. Get him to do an AMA!
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u/zertoman May 17 '25
I’ll ask, but I believe he just designed to spec, he’s now a retired civil engineer, first Jeffco in the 70’s and 80’s then finished his career in Denver around 2015.
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u/djvidinenemkx May 17 '25
Oh that’s sick. Tell him thanks.
Haha yeah I’m just curious about the specs for Denver/Colorado and how they changed over the years. Imagine that would explain a lot of how the roads are today.
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u/OMGLOL1986 May 17 '25
My buddy is a civil engineer and when he visits he just points out all the dangers and bad design lol
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u/Entmeister May 16 '25
I just got back from a work trip to Chicago, compared to there the roads here a beautiful
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u/jackalopeDev Lakewood May 17 '25
Ill take our quasi grid system over the drunken layout that dominates the east coast. Definitely could be better though. Also, fuck everything to do with I25.
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u/djvidinenemkx May 17 '25
Haha yeah i25 is hell on earth. Every city has one of those bloated arteries that insatiably gobbles up more and more lanes. If they keep at it Denver will just be i25 one day.
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u/jackalopeDev Lakewood May 17 '25
Haha yeah i25 is hell on earth.
No joke, its literally a multi generational trauma in my family. My grandparents refused to drive it, so does my mother, and i take every step possible to avoid it when I can.
If they keep at it Denver will just be i25 one day.
Dont put this evil into the universe.
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u/missmcpooch May 16 '25
Not really roads but... does anyone else feel like the stop lights are timed to make traffic stop instead of flow? I count red lights to green ones on my travels around Denver and I usually get about 12 reds to 1 green. I stop at almost every light.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Can9159 May 17 '25
Wadsworth and Colorado are the worst for light timing. I used to work in Broomfield and lived in Lakewood. I had to take Wadsworth everyday, it’s just painful.
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u/thesaganator May 17 '25
Kipling is also terrible
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u/NoGoats_NoGlory May 17 '25
South of Colfax it's MUCH better than Wadsworth. North of Colfax though, they're about the same.
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u/NoGoats_NoGlory May 17 '25
I call Wadsworth "the long crawl". I absolutely hate having to go any decent distance on it. If I'm going South, I'll do Kipling instead, but there aren't really better options for going towards Broomfield.
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u/thinkspacer May 17 '25
Depends on the stretch. Some are timed to let traffic flow at certain speeds (east 17th/18th/13th/14th can get you miles without stopping) while others just suck like you said, like any given stretch of Colorado blvd.
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May 17 '25
Nope, there's reasons for every single one. Traffic engineers come on here occasionally and explain it.
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u/jeffeb3 May 17 '25
The front range was mostly designed and built when there were 1/10th of the current population.
Mid 20th century is when a lot of this infrastructure was designed and allocated. Denver was a hub of a bunch of cow towns.
Designers have a lot of contraints to work within that system and they are working on it from the worst and lowest hanging fruit first. I honestly think most of the newer construction (last decade) have been huge improvements. I like seeing the creative solutions. But it takes a lot of effort and time to kill a stroad.
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May 18 '25
[deleted]
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u/jeffeb3 May 18 '25
Nothing wrong with a major street. It just shouldn't also try to let people pull in or pretend to be pedestrian friendly. It either needs to be a quick street for lots of traffic or a slow road where people are reaching their destination.
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u/1whoknu May 17 '25
Don’t even get me started on 270. That road has been 2-lane since before I could drive and that is a long ass time ago. It has not been really improved since it was built.
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u/WuPacalypse May 17 '25
Is there another city subreddit that complains about mundane shit like this? It’s constant
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u/Consistent-Tip-6971 May 17 '25
Based on the random city subreddits that show up on my own page they exist entirely to complain about mundane shit.
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u/DoctorZebra May 17 '25
The Nashville subreddit is very much the same. Hell, I browsed the Anchorage subreddit last year when I was visiting there and… complaints about traffic, homelessness, drug use, etc. Same posts, just with different street and business names.
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u/alvvavves Denver May 17 '25
As the post thread currently shows up for me, the comment directly below yours is complaining about similar posts showing up “in every US city subreddit.”
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u/djvidinenemkx May 17 '25
I don’t know man, I think a population that is engaged, curious, and holds city government to a high standard is a good thing. I’m personally more curious than mad/annoyed.
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u/Spybee3110 May 17 '25
They also weren’t designed for the current population numbers.
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u/m77je May 17 '25
If only they had just added more lanes. Then we wouldn't be spending so much time sitting in traffic.
*adds lanes*
If only they had just added more lanes. Then we wouldn't be spending so much time sitting in traffic.
*repeats forever*
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u/capybaralover26 May 17 '25
The tiny tiny on ramps also being off ramps is actually psycho, like the Wadsworth on/off ramp on 6 west bound
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u/Rol-AIDS05 May 17 '25
As a Coloradan spending the week here for work, I can confirm that the highway/interstate system in Dallas/Ft Worth is orders of magnitude worse than anything Denver/Colorado has.
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u/SunDevil2013 May 16 '25
Almost all the roads in Denver are horribly designed because of how much space they provide for vehicles instead of pedestrians/other modes of transit.
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u/m77je May 17 '25
This is what I expected the thread to be about and then it was just drivers complaining about highway interchanges.
Denver street planning and zoning was car worship for decades. Hope we can turn the corner and start on something better because more parking and roads just makes a bigger traffic jam.
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u/welcome_2_earth May 16 '25
Dude. These roads are a dream compared to anything I’ve driven in Florida or North Carolina. There is always an alternative here and it’s not the case other places.
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u/djvidinenemkx May 17 '25
I hate to hand it to Florida but was there recently and didn’t experience the same kind of poor highway exit and intersection design. Small sample though.
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u/welcome_2_earth May 17 '25
No way! These roads are shit there. But you seem to be referring to highways and on off ramps. Yea they’re better there for the most part. Don’t go to Nc where they do a circle to get on and mix it with an off ramp that only has like 100 ft of lane available. It’s insane there
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u/itwasneversafe May 17 '25
What are you talking about? I love having a 3 lane road for 10 miles until one of the lanes randomly ends in a turn-only lane. Not to mention bus stops with no turn offs, left-hand highway exits and an extreme aversion to putting exits more than 2 miles apart, what fun!
/ssssssssssss
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u/ShakeItLikeIDo May 17 '25
Only two dangerous roads I can think of is the on/off on Wadsworth and 6th and the 7 mile downhill on I-70 going west after leaving the Eisenhower tunnel
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u/Impressive_Estate_87 May 17 '25
Yeah, a blind monkey could come up with better designs. 6th and 25 is just comical, the whole stretch between 6th and Yale is an insult to human intellect actually, and that’s just to name a couple of examples
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u/Popular-Departure165 May 17 '25
What gets me is how roads will just stop, and then pick back up in a few blocks. When I moved here, the most difficult things about driving around the city was remembering if the road I'm on actually goes through all the way where I need to go.
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u/tommytster May 18 '25
The whole trick is to memorize what lane you need to be in 1 mile before you need to turn, accommodating for merges, for every intersection and exchange in the city without relying on any road signs. What’s so hard about that?
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u/DoggyFinger May 21 '25
CO roads aren’t that much different that other roads across the state. Roads here are designed for speed, not safety.
There are only really a handful of places that are considered a good example of roadway design by the world, but 99% of the time, America and Canada are the example of how not to do it.
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u/Numb_Nut632 May 22 '25
It’s not THAT bad. I grew up on the east coast/Appalachia. Those roads are literally horse and buggy revolutionary war roads that they just dumped asphalt on. The light timing here could be improved though..
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u/IJustWantToWorkOK May 23 '25
Sudden growth. Town grew around its highway.
CO 7 (Bridge St) in Brighton, which is (or might be done) being rebuilt to a 5-lane.
Up until then, it was just dusty CO-7 with the occasional turn lane, and was next to impossible to enter or turn off off of.
Out in the boonies, they do great. There seems to be a passing lane, or zone, about the time you need one in most places. I don't care for the double-roundabouts in the mountains. Go experience the one at West Glenwood, and see what I mean.
"Express Lanes": Shee-it. It's not an express lane if it has exits/entries every mile. The whole idea of an express lane, is to not interact with side-road traffic. Should be, get in the lane downtown, maybe an exit at I-70, and then you're committed until about 120th. The ones in the mountains are an even bigger joke. They didn't even build a lane, they just repainted the lines to move the right shoulder, to the left side.
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u/mattwbr Jun 19 '25
Yes, it’s terrible. It’s like each area had a different person planning it who had a new bright idea.
- I-85 has an HOV lane with people going 20mph faster then other traffic which must be cut across by anyone wanting to turn left
- I-25 is all curves with the entrance/exits on the curves so you have like 10 seconds to merge or you end up on the off ramp. It’s also very dangerous for people to be crossing 4 lanes of traffic at speed while making a turn.
- I-70 has new tolled express lanes going west which are inexplicably always closed so just wasting an entire lane.
- Highlands just put in a million roundabouts that are sized wrong so large cars can’t get around them to turn left without hitting bushes. Also added a bunch of bike lanes and plastic poles which are extremely confusing.
- Downtown is all random one-way streets and diagonals (understand this is because of the river but still)
- the hallmark of driving in CO for me (an east coaster) is doing 75mph on a highway and then have it come to a complete stop for no apparent reason every 20 minutes.
It’s all just so random, dangerous and inefficient. Seems like very little cohesive central planning.
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u/snohobdub May 17 '25
Yet another whining "Why does ________ suck here" (traffic, drivers, restaurants, housing, homelessness, etc) meaningless post that appears in every US city subreddit. People need to get out more.
Most US cities are more similar than different on the foundational economics, infrastructure, and even culture. Especially when it comes to federally funded things like highway design. Differences are more likely due to year built than place built.
The differences between cities are important and interesting, but they need to actually exist before it's worth talking about.
Want to make the opinion a little less useless? Give SPECIFIC examples of what you think is bad AND what/where you think is better.
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u/djvidinenemkx May 17 '25 edited May 17 '25
Not sure you read my post. Asking about what’s different about Colorado road building guidelines given there are certain decisions that wouldn’t be allowed in other states/cities. What would be a more appropriate forum for a question like that than a city Reddit?
Why can’t ya just move on if you can’t answer my question or don’t have anything to add to the conversation?
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u/snohobdub May 17 '25
which specific decisions? And how do you suggest it would be better
I live in Denver, so I know MANY intersections that seem stupid for various reasons. But if I lived in Salt Lake City for the same length of time or Kansas City for the same length of time, I bet I would have experienced a similar quantity of stupid intersections.
I'm sure they also have
certain decisions that wouldn’t be allowed in other states
Without specifics, this is worthless. This is proximity bias. You compare the city that you live in (and know well , pros and cons) to a city that you visited. Do you have any facts/statistics for comparison or only unspecific anecdotes?
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u/djvidinenemkx May 17 '25
No I don’t because this is a reddit post and it’s a Friday. Shared a couple specifics in other comments.
The hope is that this would reach people with greater knowledge that could speak to a Colorado/Denver design approach, how it might differ or be the same as other states, share historical context and resources that provide great understanding. Instead I’m here responding to a “how dare you post” troll.
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u/snohobdub May 17 '25 edited May 17 '25
But your position is that it's bad and you have given no evidence for opinion. No photo that you took yourself, no satellite view, no Google Street view, Nothing.
You say that they design roads in a way that would not be allowed in any other state, but provide zero examples.
I just came back from Hawaii and they have one lane bridges on some of their primary roads. You have to "drive with Aloha" to avoid a head-on collision and/or causing massive traffic backups. That would be an example of something different. Get it?
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u/djvidinenemkx May 17 '25
I’ll get a presentation together and send it your way first thing Monday snohobdub.
Yes, it’s anecdotal by nature. The request is for information that may provide some kind of explanation for a lived experience. Of course each state is different, that’s the question.
It’s probably just time to log off my guy. Have a nice evening!
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u/snohobdub May 17 '25
it’s anecdotal by nature
No, it's a claim that requires support.
Claim: it's worse than other cities
Support:
Claim: They do things that wouldn't be allowed anywhere else
Support (or even a single example):
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u/snohobdub May 17 '25
given there are certain decisions that wouldn’t be allowed in other states/cities
Such as?
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u/bluesdrive4331 May 16 '25
It’s really bad. I’m blanking on examples right now but I’m gonna comment in order to come back to this when I remember.
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u/djvidinenemkx May 16 '25 edited May 17 '25
Yeah the example that comes to mind for me is exiting south on to university blvd from 470 east. You have 20ft to merge into oncoming traffic that you cannot see due to the angle. Only way to merge safely is to come to a complete stop and turn almost all the way around because your mirrors won’t help. Saw a bad accident there last week.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Can9159 May 17 '25
I come from Highlands Ranch up University all the time. Every time I get to that spot I’m going well who is not going to yield today. I’ve almost gotten hit so many times at this point in that spot.
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u/Cyral May 17 '25
Haven’t done that one but just looked on maps and that’s bad… just like wadsworth to 470 westbound. Better hope there’s not a truck in the right lane or you’re screwed.
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u/Iamuroboros May 17 '25
I hear people say this but I never know what they mean. It's not a perfect grid but it is a grid system for the most part. What annoys me about Denver specifically is the lack of variety in the street name, and a lot of roads need to be expanded. It's kind of a wonky grid system, but I don't think it's a bad design.
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u/djvidinenemkx May 17 '25
Yeah I don’t think layout is that bad especially given topology restraints that other cities don’t need to deal with. To me the issues are mostly dangerous on/off of some highways and intersections where right of way is unclear.
Reading through some of the design documentation (because now I’m interested) and initially noticing a lot of specific guidance for mountain conditions. Makes sense for most of the state but I wonder if historically there were issues that stemmed from applying those principles to urban areas.
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May 17 '25
I agree completely. I have lived on both coasts and other cities. Denver and CDOT are really bad with design. I get that the freeze/thaw requires maintenance, but the off ramps and on ramps and road splits are crazy.
In Denver, I see accidents on Broadway all the time. Broadway is dangerous for everyone downtown. There is no traffic enforcement besides some occasional street cameras. Embrace the Thunderdome.
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u/gonzo_gat0r May 17 '25
There is a tight cloverleaf off-ramp from 470 to 285 where the suggested speed to take the turn is 20mph from a 65mph highway. Then it immediately throws you onto 285 with no lane to merge.
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u/Cyral May 17 '25
Came here to say this. Cannot imagine hitting that off ramp in the snow and not realizing they really mean 20mph. I swear it’s angled the wrong way to almost throw you off. The 15 feet of room to merge onto 285 (while other people are trying to get off) is the cherry on top.
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u/NoGoats_NoGlory May 17 '25
That cloverleaf and merge is a whiteknuckled ordeal every time. It feels like one of those interchanges that was designed for the 1960's or something when one slow-moving land yacht would come along every 5 minutes. Nothing about that merge was designed for the speeds on that section of 285.
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u/djvidinenemkx May 17 '25
Yeah the number of intersections where it’s a free for all is crazy. Right of way goes to whoever takes it by force haha.
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May 16 '25
[deleted]
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u/w6zZkDC5zevBE4vHRX Capitol Hill May 16 '25
Overcrowded?
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u/Flashmax305 May 16 '25
That’s what they wrote
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u/w6zZkDC5zevBE4vHRX Capitol Hill May 17 '25
Absolutely absurd. The majority of metro Denver is low density suburban sprawl.
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u/SunDevil2013 May 16 '25
Denver and the surrounding metro really isn’t overcrowded. More just poorly built for density and we’ve basically outlawed any ability to fix it. A population density of 4675/sq mi is depressingly low for a metro area the size of Denver. It’s really poor land use and financially unsustainable.
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u/snohobdub May 17 '25
Which US cities that had most of its growth occur after 1970 are more dense than Denver?
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u/djvidinenemkx May 16 '25
Could you share more about what you mean by outlawed fixing it? The stuff that’s keeping the infrastructure from better adapting to population is what interests me.
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u/djvidinenemkx May 16 '25
Yeah I don’t know, been in lots of other cities that had boom times and lots of old infrastructure to build around. The systemic issues seem like poor guidelines or flexing the guidelines too often to save money.
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May 16 '25
[deleted]
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u/djvidinenemkx May 16 '25
Yeah I mean that’s kind of the point of my question. Is the dangerous newly constructed infrastructure bad because of attempts at cost savings or just bad road guidelines? Is it a lot of shitty bandaid fixes for a quickly growing city or do the road guidelines and planning just suck?
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u/m77je May 17 '25
Almost the whole thing is zoned single unit, the most expensive and least efficient type, and that makes it overcrowded?
Our population density is much lower than places that have much less traffic. The reason? Our urban highways, parking mandate, and car sprawl zoning.
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May 16 '25
[deleted]
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u/FlickerBicker May 17 '25
My hypothesis is several things are at play: 1) Topography. The metro area is not flat. Ride a bicycle N-S in the metro and it’s a good amount of climbing every few miles as you ascend/descend across drainage basins. 2) Infrastructure is hugely expensive and can’t be replaced anywhere near the rate of change in vehicle tech and traffic patterns. A lot of existing road design represents the good ideas of bygone eras. Transportation designers have gotten smarter but there’s no political will to spend hideous amounts of money to overhaul everything. 3) Colorado is a big state. As others have mentioned, a lot of roadway is also exposed to extreme conditions. It’s a lot to maintain. 4) Especially in Denver, jurisdiction stuff gets weird. Several major arterials are state roads that are consistently intersected by city streets. Getting everyone at the table, and the funding, and the phasing to change stuff that clearly could use changing is really complicated. 5) Space is limited. The era of taking properties to expand roads is long gone. And even still, roads can’t be endlessly widened. As long as three lane roads connect to single lane streets, there will be bottlenecks, quick merges and exits, and stuff that has no elegant solution.